In the Archives, an archival box holds folders with collections materials. The YIVO Learning and Media Center (YLMC)—our new project to host visiting class groups—features activities using curated archival boxes containing high quality reproductions of actual YIVO archival materials. Some documents include accompanying translations; some are left untranslated. One such box is titled “Esther.”
“Esther” was the pseudonym chosen by an 18-year-old woman when she submitted her autobiography to YIVO’s third Youth Autobiography Contest. She was from a Gerer Hasidic family, had attended Beys Yaakov and Polish schools as a child, and at 17 was tasked with leaving her family and hometown of Grójec, Poland to start a Beys Yaakov school somewhere along the Vistula River.
“Esther” was one of hundreds of anonymous autobiography writers who sent their work to YIVO in the 1930s. While many were destroyed during the war, roughly a third survived and are housed in our collection today where they are still used by scholars of interwar Eastern European Jewish life.
Four of the autobiographies were selected for the YLMC’s first archival box lesson. While we plan to expand our repertoire in the future, the writings of these Jewish youth were selected because they not only provide a rich view of the diversity of Jewish life in interwar Eastern Europe, but also because their collection in itself exemplifies the early ethos of and commitment to Jewish life and history that drove the establishment of YIVO.
Each of the four autobiographies we use has a box with curated materials that relate to what the young writers describe in their work. This material ranges from Yiddish newspapers describing antisemitic incidents in Poland to children’s schoolwork from TSYSHO to photos of Bundist and Zionist youth groups. These four are the first group in a series of planned archival box lessons that will draw from YIVO’s archives.
Frisch students visit the YLMC, May 2024.
It was wonderful to return to YIVO with my high school senior history class. The YIVO staff that guided us are such excellent educators. They brought Jewish history to life at every step of the way, with just the right amount of background and scaffolding. Our visit included an introductory presentation, exploration of archival boxes, a look at the stacks, and a tour of the YIVO exhibit on Palestinian Yiddish in the early 20th century. Toward the end, my students even made themselves at home on the CJH genealogical database to look up their family history! The visit to YIVO really brought the Jewish past to life, and my students were visibly fascinated as well as moved. On a personal note, I've spent significant time at YIVO in the past, yet I was in awe of the things we got to see and learn about on our visit. I am so grateful my students had the opportunity to experience Jewish history at YIVO, and I can't wait to return with another class!
