Congress for Jewish Culture

The Congress for Jewish Culture (also known as the World Congress for Jewish Culture or, in Yiddish, der Alveltlekher Yidisher Kultur-kongres) is a secular organization founded in 1948[1] to promote Yiddish culture throughout the world. Individuals active in the founding of the organization included Yiddish writers and intellectuals such as Shmuel Niger, Chaim Grade, Avrom Reyzen, Shmerke Kaczerginski, and Pinkhos Schwartz.[2] At its founding, the society had offices in New York City, Buenos Aires and Paris. Today, only the New York office remains active.

Since 1953 the Congress has published Die Zukunft (The Future, founded in 1892), the world's oldest Yiddish journal still in publication. It has also been an important publisher of Yiddish reference works and monographs, including the 8-volume "Biographical Dictionary of Modern Yiddish Literature" (co-edited by Shmuel Niger and Jacob Shatzky[3]) and a supplemental work, the "Biographical Dictionary of Yiddish Writers in the Soviet Union".

The Congress also conducts yearly memorials in New York City in memory of the Warsaw ghetto uprising of April 19, 1943 [4][5] and in memory of the Soviet Yiddish writers murdered on August 12, 1952 (also known as the Night of the Murdered Poets).

References

  1. ^ "Guide to the YIVO Archives". YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
  2. ^ "Pinkhos Schwartz Is Dead at 61". The New York Times. December 16, 1963. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
  3. ^ "Jacob Shatzky, Historian, Was 61 – Author of Monumental Work on Jews of Warsaw Dies –Editor and Librarian" (PDF). The New York Times. June 14, 1956. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
  4. ^ Spiegel, Irving (April 13, 1961). "Jews Remember Warsaw Revolt – 18th Anniversary of Ghetto Uprising Against Nazis is Widely Observed". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
  5. ^ Leon, Masha (April 22, 2014). "Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Honored in Word and Song". The Jewish Daily Forward. Retrieved 14 May 2014.


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