Akadeemiline Juudi Ajaloo ja Kirjanduse/Академ. общество еврейской истории и лит-ры, Тартуский ун-т

The Academic Society for the Study of Jewish History and Literature in Tartu was founded in 1883-1884 by Russian-speaking Jewish students of the University of Tartu who did not find their place in the existing Russian- (non-Jewish) and German-speaking Jewish student associations. The society became a hub for Jewish-Russian cultural and social activities. Its members organized and maintained a library, held lectures and discussion meetings, organized circles for the study of Jewish literature and were engaged in a variety of other activities. In the mid-1910s Yiddish replaced Russian as the dominant language of the society. The archive of the Academic Society for the Study of Jewish History and Literature includes a large body of documents that represent the various activities of this Jewish student association and its ideological environment between 1884 and 1940. It contains materials which reflect the activities of the society's sections and commissions, lists of lectures given at the society's meetings and transcripts of some of the lectures, protocols of the debates, and accounts of the society's history. The collection also includes invitations to various events held by the society, the society's correspondence with alumni, prominent Jewish cultural and public figures (including Sh. Ya. Abramovitsh "Mendele Mokher Sfarim", Sh. Rabinovich "Shalom Aleichem", Ch. N. Bialik and Simon Dubnow), student and other organizations. Several files contain materials of the society's administrative bodies including papers of the revision commission, the society’s annual accounts, the statute of the society, the society’s court decisions regarding students’ behavior, lists of the society's members, account books, and protocols of the meetings of the governing board, commissions, and general assembly. Several photographs of the society's members along with postcards are also part of the collection -- Read more