JANUARY 2024
der zamler
JPL’S NEWSLETTER FOR ALL THINGS
ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Our last big hoorah of 2023 was the inaugural Yiddish translate-a-thon, where we invited community members to help us translate the box titles and labels from a selection of our amazing Yiddish collections. It was a great success! Over one morning our volunteers were able to translate folder titles of 22 containers from five different fonds. We will keep you posted when they become searchable on JPLArchives.org.
We had some technical issues in distributing December’s issue of der zamler as we worked on our transition to a new marketing platform, so we’ve included all its content here again for anyone who may not have received it. If you’d like to read the original, it can be found with all our back issues from the past year on JPL Curates.
We are so looking forward to all the activities on the horizon for 2024!
UPCOMING EVENT
PROVENANCE & THE ORPHANS OF OFFENBACH
A Rare Books Presentation with the texts and contexts of Judaica collections at McGill and the Jewish Public Library
For Jewish texts, the genealogy of ownership has been subject to both the careful chronicling of ownership and vagaries like the theft of millions of books by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
To commemorate McGill University’s Holocaust Remembrance Week, the McGill Library and the Jewish Public Library welcome all to come and interact with selections from both collections, including a large map showing both points of origin and of no return.
Tuesday, January 23, 2024, 12PM EST
McLennan Library Building, 4th floor, 3459 rue McTavish, Montreal, QC
Hybrid: In person with prepared presentations streamed
Open to all | Registration required
CURRENT IN-HOUSE EXHIBITION
CENSORSHIP IN SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
November 24, 2023 - March 10, 2024
Censorship of books is as old as books themselves. This exhibition highlights a handful of instances of censorship that appear in the rare books of our Special Collections. On view in the lobby of the Jewish Public Library through March 2024, and more information about each volume found on JPL Curates.
CURRENT IN-HOUSE EXHIBITION
THE LILLY TOTH COLLECTION
An exhibition highlighting our largest, smallest collection, on view in the lobby of the Jewish Public Library. More information available about the collector and her amazing collection on JPL Curates.
NEW ONLINE EXHIBITION
A GIFT FOR THE CHILDREN
PART II : THE POSTWAR YEARS
As in Part I: The interwar years, Part II of A Gift for the Children discusses the space that Yiddish children's literature provided for many great artists and writers of the 20th century to experiment, hone their craft, and find their voice, and this chapter dives even further into how they actively introduced Jewish art and storytelling to the proverbial table of world cultures.
NEW RECORDING AVAILABLE
CENSORED, BANNED, & BOWDLERIZED: THE INDEX OF PROHIBITED BOOKS
If you missed our November 2023 rare books workshop with Dr. Robin Vose (or you want to watch it again!) it is now available on our YouTube channel.
FOR THE RECORD:
A BLOG ABOUT THE WHO, WHAT, WHY, WHERE, AND HOW (OF ARCHIVING)
A HOW-TO GUIDE FOR DIGITAL DETECTIVE WORK
Our digital archivist takes us through the detective work necessary to add much needed details to our records when very few clues are present in their descriptions.
want more?
Do you want to know more about what is going on with the JPL’s Archives and Special Collections? Check out our highlights on JPL Curates.
Der zamler is a Yiddish term meaning “the collector” and is related to the verb zamlen, which means “to gather.” In using this name, we join a long history of people dedicated to gathering and preserving Jewish culture around the world. A heartfelt thank-you goes to Sam Bick for the initial idea and to Anna Fishman Gonshor for providing the cultural context.
All non-archival photography, unless otherwise credited, by staff of the JPL Archives.
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Jewish Public Library
5151 Chemin de la Cote-Sainte-Catherine
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Canada