About IYP
The Index to Yiddish Periodicals (IYP), the most comprehensive bibliographical tool in the field of modern Yiddish studies, is a project in progress. Its content is presented entirely in Yiddish, according to the standard YIVO orthography (except for the titles of the publications).
The index relies on a rich corpus of primary sources and uses modern computer technology to provide users with a free online database. The database records the contents of a wide range of Yiddish periodicals (dailies, weeklies, monthlies, quarterly journals, yearbooks, anthologies) published worldwide starting in 1862.
Framework
Academic management
The project was initiated in September 1992 by Professor Avraham Novershtern, from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Professor Novershtern is responsible for the general orientation and the thematic purview of the project, the corpus of publications to be indexed, as well as the selection of the print items to be recorded.
Staff
Since the beginning of the IYP project, the actual work – recording the bibliographical details from the print materials, adapting the records, correcting and completing bibliographical information, and other tasks connected to the project – has been managed by a small group of 2-4 workers. At the moment the staff members are: Vera Solomon, head cataloguer and coordinator; Eliezer Niborski, responsible for technical and bibliographical matters; Amy Simon, cataloguer; Binyomin Hunyadi, cataloguer.
The National Library of Israel
Thanks to the close cooperation with the National Library of Israel the project has benefitted from the beginning from convenient access to its rich collection of Yiddish journals, and from the continuous technical assistance at different levels. Special mention should be given to the contribution of Professor Elchanan Adler, who didn’t spare any effort to adapt the structure of the IYP database to the requirements of the most modern library technologies in the library on the internet. In 2019 the IYP moved from the “Aleph” search engine to the new “Merhav”, shared by the National Library with various libraries and bibliographical projects. The newer search engine gives the user appropriate tools for quickly tracing and selecting the useful bibliographical information provided by the IYP.
Funding
The project was financed for many years by a special grant provided by the Abraham I. Lerner Fund at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Since 2008 Beth Shalom Aleichem (Tel Aviv) has been the institution funding the project.
Specifics of the IYP Project
Goal and users
The primary goal of the Index to Yiddish Periodicals (IYP), as a Yiddish language comprehensive bibliographical project, has been to provide scholars and students in the field of Jewish studies an appropriate access to the invaluable materials included in the Yiddish periodicals published from 1862 onwards, available only in a few libraries in the world. For some time, the data recorded by the IYP team was only accessible from the computers in use in the offices of IYP on the Givat Ram Campus in Jerusalem.
Various factors have played a role in the growing interest in the project, the most important being the progress of computer technologies in the last two decades. First, the IYP database became freely accessible on the internet. A few years later, in the wake of the digital revolution, electronic copies of collections of Yiddish periodicals in Israel and other countries become accessible, and has enabled IYP to provide direct access to the full texts of more than 50% of the indexed print materials. Today, a click on the pertinent IYP-record directs the user immediately to the desired text in the Yiddish press.
The digital reproductions of publications enable us in many cases to complete the bibliographical data of publications that were missing in the paper or microfilm copies that were used for cataloguing.
Language and orthography
The IYP bibliographical records are in Yiddish, edited according to the standard YIVO orthography, except for the titles of the publications, which are recorded in their original spelling. Search requests must be submitted in Yiddish characters only, even when using the English interface of Merhav provided in the Menu.
To benefit from the information provided by IYP, the user must have a basic knowledge of the modern Yiddish writing system and Yiddish grammar.
Our website is mostly trilingual: Descriptions and explanations are also included in Hebrew.
Scope of the Project
More than 287,000 bibliographical records in the database describe the content of nearly 1000 different publications (dailies, weeklies, monthlies, quarterlies, miscellanies, etc.), published in Eastern Europe, as well as in Central or Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Argentina, Palestine and in Israel – in a total of 61 cities in more than 18 countries.
The Corpus of indexed publications:
- All periodicals and one-time publications printed in the Russian Empire (1862-1916).
- Most periodicals and one-time publications in the field of literature, culture, theater, education and children’s literature, published in the Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and the Soviet Union (until 1948).
- The two central Yiddish dailies in Warsaw – Haynt (1908-1939) and Der moment (1910-1939).
- A vast number of periodicals (with an emphasis on literature and culture) published in Galicia (until 1914), interwar Poland, the Baltic countries, Romania, Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Argentina, Palestine, and the State of Israel.
See below the detailed geographic-historical distribution of the indexed publications.
An effort was made to trace a full set of the relevant publications, but some issues are missing. We hope eventually to complete missing information.
The Selection excludes:
- Dailies, except for those in categories 1 and 3.
However, the literary material included in Folkstsaytung (Warsaw, 1921-1939) and Vilner tog (Vilnius, 1919-1939) has been indexed. - Periodicals published by political movements and parties, as well as periodicals containing mainly material of general interest, except for those in category 1.
Exception: Der idisher kempfer (1906-1920). - Periodicals containing mainly religious material, except for those in category 1.
- The YIVO publications: They have already been catalogued in YIVO bibliography, part [1], 1925-1941, New York 1943; part 2, 1942-1950, New York 1955 [in Yiddish].
Some dailies and a range of other Yiddish periodicals that were not included in IYP are accessible online. See our additional tools.
Geographical and Chronological Segments
The list of indexed publications is presented according to geographic and chronological areas. Click on one of the following entries to see the full list of publications in the relevant category:
Direct search in the IYP
News