The Transatlantic Book Trade and Growth of the Yiddish Cultural Center in America, 1890-1939
Keywords:
Yiddish Culture in the United States, Yiddish Culture, Yiddish Books in the Russian Empire, Commercial Ties in the Yiddish Book MarketAbstract
The article reconstructs the commercial ties between the Yiddish book market in the United States and East Europe. Four main periods characterize the development of these ties from the years of mass immigration to the late 1930s. Each period reveals a different side of the cultural relationship of the two Jewish centers.
In the first period the Yiddish center in the United States displayed cultural independence and innovation.
This advantage was short-lived, as the Yiddish book market in the Russian Empire eliminated the gap both in terms of literary innovation and book selection.
The commercial ties indicate a joint cultural space shared between East European immigrants to America and their brethren in the ‘old country’. The unity of this reading community was maintained through the initiative and competition between the publishers and booksellers who distributed Yiddish works throughout the world.
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