Building Modern Jewish Culture: The Yiddish Kultur-Lige: 20

In the midst of the violent conflicts of 1918 ambitious plans for new cultural formations emerged on the territory of the former Russian Empire. The most important Jewish community organization was the Kultur-Lige. Founded to 'organize the Jewish masses and develop Yiddish culture', the association's first meeting took place at the Kyiv apartment of the Yiddish writer David Bergelson. 'Leagues for Yiddish culture' were simultaneously founded in such places as Vilna (Vilnius), Warsaw, Moscow, Berlin, and New York. Scores of Yiddish books came out under the imprints of the Kultur-Lige publishing houses in Kyiv and Warsaw. However, it is less well known that he activity of the Kultur-Lige covered not only literature, journalism, and linguistics, but also the visual arts, music, theatre, and education. The goal of the Kultur-Lige was nothing less than the development and stewardship of Jewish secular national culture in its entirety. Although several previous volumes of the Legenda's Studies in Yiddish series paid attention to personalities who played central roles in the Kultur-Lige, this is the first volume to focus on the history and creative output of the most significant organizational network devoted to the development of modern Yiddish culture.