Search Results: yiddish & hebraica from Michael Fagan Fine Art & Rare Books

Quarto 19.8x16 cm. Original illustrated wrappers, with title page and 8 illustrations by Lissitzky. Mild toning, rubber stamp to front wrapper and p. 5. 10, [2] p. Unknown edition size.
"After 1923, Lissitzky ceased illustrating Yiddish books and concentrated his great talents on Constructivism, photomontage and architectural design, making significant contributions in all of them... His illustrated Yiddish books remain unsurpassed to this day." (Tradition and Revolution, p. 66) Although this side of his work was little known until fairly recently, Lissitzky produced several extraordinary Yiddish children's books while living and working in Kiev soon after the Revolution. As a member of IZO Narkompros (People's Commissariat of Enlightenment), he helped set up the Kultur-Lige there. In 1919, he and the writer Ben Zion Raskin signed a contract with Yidisher Folks Farlag Kooperativ for 11 children's books in the "Kinder Gorten" series. Only two titles other than this one were ever published: "The Miller,… Read More

Folio 35.5x26.5 cm., wrappers, (2) pp. Cover design by Lissitzky for a music score by J. Engel. Yoel Engel (1868-1927) is known as "the founding father of the renaissance of Jewish music." As a composer, teacher, and organizer, Engel inspired a generation of Jewish classical musicians to rediscover their ethnic roots and create a new style of nationalist Jewish music modelled after the national music movements of Russia, Hungary, Romania, and other countries. With such composers as Alexander Krein, Lazar Saminsky, Mikhail Gnessin, and others, this was an important influence on 20th-century composers, along with the native ethnic music of Eastern Europe and Israel. Lissitzky needs no introduction, recognized as one of the great design masters of the modern era. Here the design is the same that appeared on Engel's score for "As ich volt Gehot ot Dos Vos Ikh Mayn!" also published in 1919 by the same house (Futur-anterieur 82). Very good+

Numbers 1-3. Each is quarto 26x17 cm., wrappers, 80, 80, 83 pp. No. 1 released in 3000 copies, No. 3 notes 2000. Cover design by Mark Chagall, who also provided a statement in No. 1. A literary-artistic journal, Shtrom was an organ of the Kultur-Lige which moved from Kyiv to Moscow in 1921. While not an official state publication, it is the first Yiddish serial to appear in the USSR. Poetry and prose by Peretz Markish, der Nister (Pinchas Kahanowitz), David Hofshtein, Naum Auslander (Nokhem Oyslender), David Bergelson, Itsik Kipnis, N. Daniel, and Shmuel Nisn-Gordiner, inter alia. Shtrom aspired to be international in scope, drawing on Yiddish writers worldwide, but over time it published writers of the Soviet Union. The last 3 numbers came under Party control, and it failed to maintain sufficient financial support to continue. OCLC traces only a holding in microfiche (Harvard), but MOMA has 1-4. Refs: Shneer: Yiddish and the Creation of Soviet Jewish Culture, 2004; Tradition and Revolution, p. 151; MOMA 372)

Quarto 23x16 cm., original wrappers, (4) pp., here including cover. Cover design by Issachar Ber Ryback, musical composition by A. Dzimitrovski, lyrics by Leib Kvitko. This work is for women's choir with soprano or violin, as noted on rear cover. The notations and lyrics are hand-written. Leib Kvitko (1890-1952) and Issachar ber Ryback (1897-1935) are both renowned in Yiddish modernism and avant-garde for their respective accomplishments as poet and painter. First (and only?) edition. Refs: MahJ Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaisme, inv. 2000.16.403. No institutional holdings found by OCLC. In very good condition with a small stain on all pages.

Large quarto 34.5x27 cm., wrappers, 30(2) pp. Joseph Chaikov (1888-1979) is one of the most important artists of the Yiddish avant-garde. He worked extensively as a graphic artist during the heyday of Yiddish experimental modernism; he is noted for his sculpture in his later years. Here he has rendered a superb color zincograph cover here for a score of children's songs written by Itzhak Peretz (Yitzkhok Leybush Peretz) and set to music by Moses (Moshe) Mil'ner. Milner (1886-1953) is noted for composing the first Yiddish opera in Russia, "Die Himlen Brenen.". It was denounced as reactionary after two performances and suppressed. He wrote theater music that was performed throughout the Soviet Union and was director of the Jewish Voice Ensemble (Evokans) in Leningrad. Refs: Futur-anterieur 196, but which notes a smaller version; Tradition & Revolution 60; Shmeruk 1084. Rare, with no worldcat listings found (but a copy held at the Jewish National & University Library). A near fine copy.