'If We Will It': A History of the Yiddish Encyclopedia

Barry Trachtenberg, University of Albany, SUNY

In 1930, a group of Eastern European Jewish scholars, writers, and activists living in Berlin, Germany began planning the first ever comprehensive Yiddish-language encyclopedia to celebrate the seventieth birthday of the historian Simon Dubnow. Unlike previous encyclopedias for Yiddish readers, Di algemeyne entsiklopedye was not to be strictly and encyclopedia of Jewish topics, but was to present knowledge of the larger world. In spite of the worsening global depression and the growing electoral strength of the National Socialists in Germany, the organizers still had reason to be optimistic and undertake what would eventually become the most collaborative, contentious, and peripatetic Yiddish-language projects of the century. Planned as a five year project, Di algemeyne entsiklopedye ultimately lasted three dozen years, was forced to relocate twice (first to Paris and then to New York), and to change its focus repeatedly on account of World War II, the Nazi Holocaust, and the rise of new Jewish centers in the United States and Israel.