Reading Polish among Young Jewish People

In inter-war poland, Jewish writers, educators, and ideologues viewed the task of promoting quality reading in Yiddish among children and youth as a supreme goal on their cultural agenda. Among east European Yiddish writers there had been, even at the turn of the twentieth century, a heightened awareness of the genuine need to appeal to young Jews by presenting worthwhile literary materials, an awareness that also accompanied the early attempts to establish secular educational institutions whose primary language of instruction would be Yiddish. These were sporadic initiatives led by private individuals and public organizations, usually identified with the Jewish workers' movement.

Clearly, the development of a Hebrew children's literature and educational system was the model that the Yiddishists sought to emulate. The willingness of Hevrat Mefitsei Haskalah Beyisra'el (the Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia) to support Yiddish educational institutions—that is, to recognize the importance of the language—enabled both the existence and the advancement of these institutions.¹ Two early initiatives were focused on these goals: (1) the appointment of a special committee of Hevrat Mefitsei Haskalah in St Petersburg to formulate the mission statement and guidelines for a publishing house that would specialize in Yiddish children's literature; and (2) the publication of a sample bilingual catalogue for the use of public libraries with an up-to-date list of currently available children's literature in Yiddish (up to 1913).² This list included the names of ninety-three authors (of whom thirty-nine were translated authors), and 182 books (seventy translated). Many of these titles were not originally intended for young readers, but for lack of an appropriate alternative they were determined by a special committee to be suitable reading material. Already during the first decade of the twentieth century, and more intensively in the wake of the First World War, new publishers of children's and youth literature began to appear, as well as new children's series put out by existing publishing houses. The output included adaptations of well-known works, original works, and translations of world literature. The target audiences of these publications were ages 6 to 12.³ A private initiative that also apparently earned the support of the St Petersburg Hevrah was the publication of a Yiddish magazine for children. One of the entrepreneurs who actively supported the creation of this kind of literature was the writer, translator, and editor Shloyme Bastomski (1891–1941), who for many years was editor of the children's magazine Grininke beymelekh (published 1914–15, 1919–22, 1926–39), and of a magazine for 'older children' (eltere kinder), Der khaver (published 1920–2, 1929–39).⁴ Although no detailed information about the circulation of these magazines exists, it is estimated that Grininke beymelekh printed on average about 1,000 copies per issue.⁵ The constant dialogue between the editorial board and the young readers, the campaigns for recruiting new readers, and the long lifespan of both magazines all attest to a demand that, in the eyes of the editor, justified their continued existence. This achievement impresses one as proof that there was a notable young readership in Yiddish, but as Adina Bar-El's study has shown, other Yiddish children's magazines did not survive that long.⁶ Moreover, from among the list of daily newspapers that appeared in Poland in the inter-war period, only one sponsored a weekly children's magazine (beginning in 1926), at no added cost. This was the Bund's newspaper Naye folks-tsaytung, apparently modelled after the Jewish Polish daily Nasz Przegląd, which had earlier begun to publish a children's magazine, edited by Janusz Korczak.

Over the years, educators and cultural activists were troubled by credible reports about the decline of, or alternatively the lack of demand for, Yiddish reading material, and much thought was devoted to ways to mend this state of affairs; the results cannot be seen as encouraging.

Yiddish children's journalism was closely linked to the Yiddishist educational network which the educational initiatives previously mentioned had spawned. In 1921, throughout...