Shalom,

What can I say? A great deal has recently taken place within our Yizkor Book project and it’s time to let you know a little of what has transpired over the last month.

To begin with, once again, we have successfully completed two additional translation projects of which we are very proud. The projects were:

1. Dubno, Ukraine  (Dubno; a Memorial to the Jewish community of Dubno, Wolyn) This project which has been dedicatedly led by Anna Jacobsson, whose success in obtaining financial support for this endeavor enabled the translation of this book to reach the “finish line”. Kudos to Anna!
2. Zinkiv, Ukraine (Zinkov Memorial Book). Led by Shawn Dilles, whose untiring energy and commitment brought about the completion of this translation in a relatively short period of time.
   Shawn, is not resting on his laurels and is now in full momentum coordinating the translation of the Hrubieszow, Poland Yizkor book and we are very grateful to him for taking on and leading these projects.

Other good news coming out from last month is the addition to the YB Project of Yizkor Book Guidelines for Translation/Transliteration which was expertly prepared by former YB Project Manager, Joyce Field, and very active Yizkor book translator, Jerrold Landau. We do appreciate the time and effort they have invested in preparing this document and for sharing their acquired knowledge with us.

These guidelines will, I’m sure, be of great assistance to translators as the document clearly lays out and explains the various aspects involved in accurately preparing English translations of the Yizkor books. The guidelines also incorporate a previous document by Sonia Kovitz, Ph.D. called  Guidelines for Translators of Yiddish which is also a “must:” for Yizkor book translators .

And on the subject of translations. Whilst most of the translations that we have are English, we are privileged to have other translations in other languages enabling us to reach a very wide audience and share the unique material that makes up these Yizkor books.

As such, we are very fortunate to have received over time, a large number of translations into Hebrew of Yiddish sections of Yizkor books, including one for the Rava-Ruska,Ukraine book received this past month. They have all been kindly prepared and provided by Esther Weinschelbaum and we are grateful for this very welcome initiative of hers which allows Hebrew readers access to those sections of the Yizkor books that were previously unavailable to them. 

  
Before outlining the other achievements in October, I would like to share with you a small hint which will help you find of there is a Yizkor book for the community you are interested in and also provide you with all other sources that relate to the community within the JewishGen site and also includes information on  external sources.

All you need to do is to go to the JewishGen Gazetteer page and put in the name of the community you are looking for. Even if you don’t know the exact spelling, the Gazetteer is ‘smart enough’ to find communities with names similar to the one you are looking for and, from my own experience, it  will help guide you in the right direction to find what you’re looking for.

Now for the October updates:

New entries

The following are the new entries that have been placed online during October 2020.

• Klodawa, Poland (from “Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities in Poland, Volume I”)
• Rava-Ruska, Ukraine Rawa Ruska Memorial Book [Hebrew]

Yizkor Book updates

This month, 29 existing projects were updated and they were:

·  Bedzin, Poland (A Memorial to the Jewish Community of Bendin) 

·  Biala Podlaska, Poland (Book of Biala Podlaska)

·  Biłgoraj, Poland (Destruction of Bilgoraj)

·  Bilhorod-Dnistrovs'kyy, Ukraine (Akkerman and the Towns of its District; Memorial Book) 

·  Braslaw, Belarus (Darkness and desolation)

·  Chelm, Poland (Commemoration Book Chelm)

·  Ciechanowiec, Poland (Ciechanoviec-Bialystok District; Memorial and Records)

·  Dubno, Ukraine (Dubno; a Memorial to the Jewish community of Dubno, Wolyn)

·  Dzyatlava, Belarus (A memorial to the Jewish community of Zhetel)

·  Hrubieszow, Poland (Memorial Book of Hrubieshov)

·  Jaroslaw, Poland (Jaroslaw Book: a Memorial to Our Town)

·  Kamyanyets, Belarus (Memorial Book of Kamenets Litovsk, Zastavye, and Colonies)

·  Kolki, Ukraine (Summoned from the Ashes)

·  Kurów, Poland (Yiskor book in memoriam of our hometown Kurow)

·  Kutno, Poland (Kutno and Surroundings Book)

·  Miedzyrzec Podlaski, Poland (Mezritsh book, in memory of the martyrs of our city)

·  Nyasvizh, Belarus (The Nesvizh Yizkor Book)

·  Ozerna, Ukraine (Memorial book of Jezierna) [Hebrew]

·  Satu Mare, Romania (Remember Satmar; the memorial book of the Jews of Satmar)

·  Siedlce, Poland (Memorial book of the community of Siedlce)

·  Slutsk, Belarus (Slutsk and Vicinity Memorial Book)

·  Stowbtsy, Belarus (Memorial volume of Steibtz-Swerznie and the neighboring villages Rubezhevitz, Derevna, Nalibok)

·  Tarnogrod, Poland (Book of Tarnogrod; in memory of the destroyed Jewish community)

·  Tykocin, Poland (Memorial book of Tiktin)

·  Ustilug, Ukraine (The growth and destruction of the community of Uscilug)

·  Volozhin, Belarus (Wolozin; the book of the city and of the Etz Hayyim Yeshiva)

·  Warszawa, Poland (Jewish Warsaw that was; a Yiddish literary anthology)

·  Zawiercie, Poland   (Yizkor Book of the Holy Community of Zawiercie and Environs)

·  Zinkiv, Ukraine  (Zinkov Memorial Book)

New Translation Fund

The translation of a Yizkor Book generally involves a considerable monetary outlay and we set up these Translation Funds so that all those people interested in seeing a particular book translated, can contribute as much as they are comfortable with in a combined effort to see the book translated. Note that for US citizens, donations to these funds are tax deductible.

This past month, one such fund was set up:

• Jaroslaw, Poland If you have interest in this community, your financial support to this project would be very welcome. To carry out donations to this or any of other of our Translation Fund projects, please go to the Yizkor Book Translation Funds page.
  
  

Volunteers

We are continually looking for volunteers to join the YB Project to assist us in maintaining and expanding the YB Project. In particular, if you are able to translate from either Hebrew or Yiddish to English, we would love to hear from you.

Before ending this report, here are some important links to note:

• Yizkor Book Translations Index  A listing of all the community books we have online.
• Yizkor Books in Print Project To learn all about this project and see what published books are available for purchase.
• Yizkor Book Translation Funds Where your financial support will assist in seeing more translations go online.

All the best,

Lance Ackerfeld

Director of Special Projects - Yizkor Books

JewishGen.org

lackerfeld@...