JEWISH HERITAGE SOCIETY
THE "VANISHED WORLD" PROGRAM

To a certain degree the current research of the Jewish life in Eastern Europe in the 18th - 20th centuries is possible due to the unique efforts of S.An-sky's ethnographic expedition in 1909 - 1914. S. An-sky, the prominent scholar of Jewish lore and folk art and a key figure of the Russian-Jewish intelligentsia of the turn of the century, collected in course of the expedition unique books, manuscripts, photographs and artifacts. His collection had become the major contribution to the scholarly reconstruction of the disappeared world of the Pale of Jewish Settlement.

The 20th-century social upheavals caused a destruction of the Jewish cultural heritage. Vast amounts of books, manuscripts, letters, minute books, and other evidence of the rich Jewish past in Eastern Europe after decades of wars, genocide and communist oppression became unattended and heirless. A part of these remnants of the past was destroyed, another part was doomed to disappear in declining Jewish communities and in sealed storages guarded by hostile Soviet officialdom ... There are drastic changes in the patterns of Jewish urban population and relocation of whole Jewish communities in the former Soviet Union after the fall of the Soviet regime. Jewish life in the major cities is rapidly developing while many small communities are vanishing. As a rule many communal libraries, geniza materials in synagogues, family archives from vanishing communities are being neglected and stored in poor conditions, because of the absence of adequate resources in local communities and general scarcity of experts. Many valuable objects are doomed to be destroyed in the flame of local military conflicts in the areas of formerly sizable Jewish population.

That is why the goal set by An-sky in the beginning of the century nowadays is more urgent than ever before. There is a vital necessity to rescue the remnants of the Jewish heritage from oblivion.

The Jewish Heritage Society, commenced in Moscow in 1989 by a group of enthusiasts of Jewish history and culture, is pursuing the goals defined by the Russian-Jewish historians of the turn of the century. The Society seeks to collect, to preserve and to share among scholars the "remnants of the remnants" - the documentary heritage of the Jewish past in Eastern Europe. The JHS is working to rescue from disappearance the Jewish people's cultural heritage through the "Vanished World" program.

At the time of its establishment the Jewish Heritage Society launched the program of search, collection, preservation and research of the remnants of Jewish cultural heritage in the former centers of Jewish communal life in the Russian Empire and the USSR. The Society works in cooperation with Jewish communities, organizations and institutions in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Due to those joint efforts the documentary sources of Jewish history scattered over the extensive territory are becoming available for scholarly research and learning. Special attention is paid to areas where the Jewish population is rapidly decreasing due to emigration. The "Vanished World" program focuses on the regions of local military conflicts: Tajikistan - the home of many extinct Bukharan Jewish communities, and parts of the Caucasus where Mountain and Georgian Jews used to reside.

The rescued material has formed the Society's library and archive. Collected books and papers are given a special care of JHS associates - librarians, archivists and scholars. JHS experts also provide assistance to state repositories - museums, libraries and archives - all over the former USSR to catalog and preserve Jewish historical collections. Catalogs of collected books and manuscripts, archival registers and records are being prepared for publication in the "Jewish Archive" series and in a special volume "Vanished World".

During the 1990s a number of communal libraries, geniza materials in synagogues, family archives as well as collections in state and public institutions were inspected by Jewish Heritage Society in order to locate, salvage and prevent further loss of Jewish cultural heritage. Many historical materials from dozens of vanished Jewish communities have been accumulated throughout the former Soviet Union during the "Vanished World" program (including those saved from war-torn regions of Ossetia, Abkhazia, Tajikistan). Many more are being salvaged from neglect and disappearance. Experts and enthusiasts at the JHS are at work sorting, describing and preserving collected objects. There is even more work lies ahead.

 

All comments, suggestions, inquiries and orders should be sent to the Jewish Heritage Society at info@jewish-heritage.org

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