Why do Americans want to go abroad before they have explored their own beautiful and varied country? There is so much to see during the different seasons. One of the nicest places to visit in the fall or as the British call it autumn, is the far north east better known as New England, stretching from Connecticut to Maine. More than anywhere else I have been to, the foliage at that time presents an ever changing kaleidoscope of yellows, orange and reds, resembling the art of the French impressionists or the palettes of such greats as van Gogh.
But there are also other reasons to visit the area at any time of the year. Drive 25 miles north from Connecticut into Massachusetts, or 80 miles west of Boston and you reach the small town of Amherst, known for its three academic institutions, Amherst College, Hampshire College and the University of Massachusetts.
But there is a fourth, a Jewish jewel and an architectural treasure. It is the Yiddish Book Center.
Armed with little more than a carton of discarded books and a dream, Aaron Lansky was a 23-year-old graduate student when he took a two year leave of absence to set about reclaiming the Jewish Atlantis, the remnants of the rich Yiddish literature which was in danger of being totally lost.
Sixty years later Lansky is still on leave and his center has collected more than 1.5 million books covering a substantial number of the 45,000 Yiddish works that were published between 1864 and 1939 and a smaller number of titles in the decades since.
When I visited the Yiddish Book Center it was housed in an inviting new wood and glass complex that sits by an apple orchard on the campus of Hampshire College which Lansky attended as an undergraduate.
He related these stories about the early beginning and I quote verbatim:
“Although there were once 11 million Yiddish speakers, half of whom perished in the Holocaust or were slaughtered by Stalin, Yiddish was never a world language that made it into the libraries. When I started, we got a lot of books from the homes of older people. We went there and there would be food laid out on the table. They presented us with books and told us the story about each one. Now it is in suburban garages where the old books are stored in cardboard boxes by grandchildren who don’t have a clue what they are. Many others came from synagogues, abandoned buildings and old warehouses. One night a frantic call alerted the ‘Zammlers,’ the volunteer collectors to recue 8,000 books from a rubbish bin in Manhattan.”
”These are people’s books, they come from people’s homes,” said one of the archivists. We are always coming across photographs and pressed flowers, postcards and wedding invitations. Once I found a letter from Einstein thanking someone for a gift of a book.” Many of these items are displayed in the Museum.
The center also relates the history of Yiddish, which was born 1,000 years ago in Germany’s Rhineland as a variant of the old German spoken at that time. Some 15% of its words were drawn from Hebrew and Aramaic.
Most Yiddish literature is printed on acid paper, which is extremely brittle and disintegrates over time.
That is why the center started a project of digitization. Lansky intended to make Yiddish the first language to have its entire literature archived electronically. “That’s about as good a safeguard as one can get for Yiddish literature,” he said.
The digital library was to bear the name of Steven Spielberg, whose Righteous Persons Foundation donated a significant sum toward the estimated cost of 2.5 million dollars.
The Yiddish Book Center is still going strong and to hear how it has developed and about his future plans, I spoke with Aaron Lansky once again at great length via Zoom. Here are excerpts from the interview:
When we last met, you told me that your dream was to make Yiddish the first language to have its entire literature electronically recorded. Did you manage to achieve that?
Well, each title in our own collection is, but it is still a work in progress. We are astonished at the number of downloads which has exceeded four million. Who could have imagined that the demand would be that strong? But we are not done yet. We joined up with the National Library in Israel, the New York public library and the Yivo Institute for Jewish Research. When the work is complete there will be digital access to all these four major collections and Yiddish will be by far the most accessible literature in human history.
How many books do you have now and are there still titles being published now?
Difficult to say, but somewhere in the region of a million and a half. We doubled the size of our building and have an industrially organized warehouse, storing with the use of forklifts. But the number of duplicate books we store is irrelevant, because most people around the world are now reading books digitally.
Does one have to be a member to gain access to the digital library?
Like everything here, it is free. We have the latest technology, just go to www.Yiddishbookcenter.org type in a name, a place, a concept, anything you are looking for and in seconds the system will scan 5 million pages of Jewish literature and bring up what you are interested in.
Is there any Yiddish literature other than books available at your center?
Oh indeed, a great deal of other treasures. At the Jewish public library in Montreal Canada, we found old sound recordings of books read aloud by Jewish actors. We remastered them and they too are available free. We also have old reel to reel recordings of Yiddish lectures given at McGill University by the most famous Yiddish writers of their time, from as far back as the 1950’s, also all available free on line and lots more including 1,200 interviews with Jews from all over the world with technology to get to a precise place and hear it spoken. Today it is used by scholars.
Do you also have activities and stage events?
Before we had to close our doors because of Covid, we had many educational events. However, we adapted to the new situation and now sponsor lectures every week on aspects of Jewish culture with a Zoom attendance of between one and two thousand; once again, all free” said Lansky.
THE YIDDISH Book Center is well worth a visit once Covid restrictions are lifted, even if you are not familiar with Yiddish.
A mere 30 miles south of Boston, the most English of American Cities lays historic Plymouth where it all began for the USA, when 102 English Pilgrims stepped ashore from the ship Mayflower in 1620.
Another 55 miles and you reach Newport, Rhode Island which was the leading early trading post and the birthplace of the US Navy. Today it hosts water sport events and tourists, but still retains much of its fishing village character.
Just a couple of blocks from the main street in the historic area one finds the famous Touro Synagogue, the oldest in North America and the only one from its colonial period still functioning. Its English architect Peter Harrison counts Christ Church Cambridge UK among his other notable achievements.
The Synagogue building is constructed of brick imported from England and was completed in 1763. The plain exterior gives no hint of the richness to be found inside.
Some 24 columns support the interior and each one is carved from one oak tree trunk. A more than 200-year-old clock in the gallery kept perfect time until recently. Above the Holy Arc, which contains several Torah scrolls from the 16th century hangs an interesting painting of the 10 Commandments in Hebrew.
Few visitors notice that the last four are incorrectly spelled. Successive boards have always decided against a correction.
Another extraordinary feature is the trap door on the bima, the elevated area from which the Torah is read, that leads to an underground passage. Some records say that it was a symbol to contrast the freedom of America with the persecution in Europe and was never used. Other versions state that the abolitionist congregation used it to hide runaway slaves, while they rested on their way to freedom in Canada.
During George Washington’s visit to Newport in 1790, the congregation presented the president with a letter of greeting. In his reply he wrote: “The government of the United States which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens…. May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of the other inhabitants.”
A copy of this letter is mounted on one wall of the synagogue.
The writer, at 97, holds the Guinness World Record as the oldest active journalist and radio show host. He presents Walter’s World on Israel National Radio (Arutz 7) and The Walter Bingham File on Israel Newstalk Radio. Both are in English.