If a Winnipegger is cleaning out a relative’s home and comes across old, dusty books written in Yiddish, Justin Jaron Lewis has a message: don’t throw them out.
Lewis, who teaches Judaism at the University of Manitoba, is a zamler, a Yiddish word that means “collector” or “gatherer” for the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass.
Lewis found his calling to rescue old Yiddish books shortly after moving to Winnipeg in 2008.
RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS Justin Jaron Lewis, who teaches Judaism at the University of Manitoba, is a Zamler, a Yiddish word meaning “collector” or “gatherer” for the Yiddish Book Centre in Amherst, Mass.
“Winnipeg is home to a very old Jewish community,” he said, noting that Jews began arriving here from eastern Europe in the 19th century.
Many of them were fleeing persecution and other hardships; they took only the necessities for the journey, including their books.
“The fact they brought books shows what mattered to them,” Lewis said, adding they were highly literate.
Most of the books were printed in Yiddish, which was at one time the international language of Jews from central and eastern Europe and their descendants. About three-quarters of its vocabulary comes from German and it includes words from Hebrew.
For a long time, Yiddish was commonly used by Jews in Winnipeg in homes and businesses and other places. Lewis, a convert to Judaism who speaks Yiddish himself, once heard that an NDP meeting in the city’s North End in the 1950s was conducted entirely in that language.
Today, however, few Jews in Winnipeg still speak or read Yiddish. “It’s pretty much limited to seniors,” Lewis said, noting its use faded over time as Jews became assimilated into the wider Winnipeg community.
Those old books in Yiddish are valuable since “they are a connection to the past, to the culture and history of the Winnipeg Jewish community and beyond,” Lewis said. “Anyone who wants to get a picture of Jewish life in the 19th and early 20th centuries in Winnipeg and in eastern Europe can find it in those books.”
That’s why he encourages people not to throw out the books or bury them — a Jewish tradition for written material that uses Hebrew letters that may contain the name of God.
Instead, Lewis invites people to call him if they come across old Yiddish books they don’t know what to do with. “I’ll drive over to take a look and pick them up,” he said.
The books Lewis collects are sent to the centre in the U.S., where they are then made available to scholars, libraries, schools and others interested in Yiddish language books. Some may be digitized and made available online.
Lewis will speak about his work as a zamler at the Chevra Mishnayes synagogue, 700 Jefferson Ave. on Sunday at 11 a.m. The event, which includes lunch, costs $10 for synagogue members and $15 for non-members. To register, send an e-mail to [email protected] Payment can be made at the door.
In addition to speaking about his passion for saving old Yiddish books, Lewis will also share about the Chevra Mishnayes’ collection of 750 old religious books in Hebrew, Aramaic and Yiddish.
The books reflect an era when the synagogue, one of the last in the North End, was a centre of Jewish study. “There are prayer books, Bibles, Talmud, Zohar and volumes of the Mishnah, the teachings of the ancient rabbis who shaped Judaism as we know it,” Lewis said.
Most of the books were published in Poland, Ukraine or Lithuania more than 100 years ago; a few are over 200 years old, while others were written in the 1920s to 1940s by rabbi-scholars in Winnipeg — “luminaries of our community in bygone generations,” he said.
Many of those books “travelled far and through terrible times to be in Winnipeg,” he said, adding some have artistically decorated title pages. Others contain handwritten names and notes from previous owners.
“I want to draw attention to this treasure in Winnipeg, which most people don’t know about,” said Lewis of his presentation. “I want to celebrate this part of our heritage.”
People who have old Yiddish books they would like to donate can contact Lewis at 204-474-8696.
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John Longhurst
Faith reporter
John Longhurst has been writing for Winnipeg’s faith pages since 2003. He also writes for Religion News Service in the U.S., and blogs about the media, marketing and communications at Making the News.
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