Leyzer Ran collection on the Jewish communities of Vilna and Kovno
Scope and Contents
The collection consists of over two hundred hand-written, printed, or mimeographed documents from the Jewish community of Vilna (Vilnius), as well as about twenty documents from Kovno (Kaunas) and a few sent to Vilna from other places. The Vilna collection includes letters, announcements, poems, essays, invitations to cultural events, circulars, newsletters, by-laws, and reports of various communal organizations. Among the papers are rare publications, such as a mimeographed text-booklet dated 1940 for students in the vocational program in metals technology at the ORT school of Vilna, or issues of the newsletter of the Yiddishist youth group Bin (Bee). The documents from Kovno include memoranda of the community council, a survey of schools in the area, notices, and forms. According to the vendor, the papers were originally in the collection of the bibliographer, Leyzer Ran. Facsimiles of some of these documents appeared in Ran's 1974 book, Jerusalem of Lithuania: illustrated and documented, but most are unpublished. Many of the documents are marked with Leyzer Ran's distinctive stamp.
Dates
- 1886 - 1941
- Majority of material found within 1919 - 1932
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
The materials are open for research. Researchers should contact the Yale University Library Judaica Collection at http://web.library.yale.edu/international/judaica-collection for reference requests.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright status for collection materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Transferred from the Judaica Collection Curator, 2015. The materials were originally purchased from Rosenfeld and Vinograd on the Rosalyn and Joseph Newman Collection Fund, 2010, 2012, and 2014.
Arrangement
The papers contain three sets of documents purchased from the same vendor over a four-year period. For the most part papers are arranged in the order received from the vendor. This list covers the papers acquired in 2010, the largest portion of the collection. These papers have been placed in folders numbered 1-189, according to the vendor’s item numbers. Additional documents acquired in 2014 were placed in subsequent folders, the items from Vilna numbered 190-203 and from Kovno 204-205. The last folder (206) contains a group of documents from Kovno bound loosely together with thread that was acquired in 2012.
Extent
.83 Linear Feet (2 boxes)
Language of Materials
Multiple languages
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Abstract
The collection consists of over two hundred hand-written, printed, or mimeographed documents from the Jewish community of Vilna (Vilnius), as well as about twenty documents from Kovno (Kaunas) and a few sent to Vilna from other places. Material types include letters, announcements, poems, essays, invitations to cultural events, circulars, newsletters, by-laws, and reports of various communal organizations.
Biographical / Historical
Leyzer Ran (1912-1995), was born and grew up in the vibrant Jewish community of Vilna, an intellectual, religious, and cultural center considered "the Jerusalem of Lithuania." After the Holocaust he settled in New York and set about collecting documentary evidence of the lost Yiddish civilization, establishing a reputation as Vilna's foremost bibliographer and ephemerist.
- Title
- Guide to the Leyzer Ran Collection on the Jewish Communities of Vilna and Kovno
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- compiled by Julie Cohen
- Date
- April 2016
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Manuscripts and Archives Repository
Yale University Library
P.O. Box 208240
New Haven CT 06520-8240 US
(203) 432-1735
(203) 432-7441 (Fax)
beinecke.library@yale.edu
Location
Sterling Memorial Library
Room 147
120 High Street
New Haven, CT 06511