Yidishe Folks-Lider. [Jewish Folk Songs.]

Item Details

Kiev, Melukhe-Farlag far di Natsyonale Minderhayṭn in U. S. S. R, 1938, Cloth

First edition, Good

Original cloth. Spine detached but present. Collection of Jewish folk songs. In Yiddish. In the heading we have used the transliteratiton of the Yiddish Book Center. The editors were Moyshe Beregovski and Itzik Feffer, also known as Itzhak Pfeffer. The two editors suffered similar fates, albeit a more disastrous one for Feffer. Beregovski almost made it through the Stalin years, but was sent to a prison camp in 1950; he was released in 1955. The story of Feffer is better known. He was a member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee formed in 1942 and in existence until 1946.  As designated leaders of the Jewish community, they were disposed of. In a now infamous episode, Paul Robeson asked naively to meet Pfeffer while visiting the Soviet Union. Pfeffer was brought out of confinement for the sham meeting, and later executed. This copy is distingished by being a gift from Leonard Berfnstein's father celebrating the birth of his first child, Jamie; for the occasion a large decorative plate to that effect was fixed onto the  front pastedown. Text of the plate is in Hebrew. In it Bernstein's Hebrew name, Eleazer, is used along with his English name. The child's name is given as Yehudit. Aside from this unique provenance the book itself is very scarce.