DECEMBER 2024
der zamler
JPL’S NEWSLETTER FOR ALL THINGS
ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
happy hannukah!
A Hannukah Play at the Workmen's Circle Abraham Reisen School. Interior group portrait of students on stage in costume and an audience in the foreground. Eight students are dressed as candles and standing behind a large menorah. Aaron Gonshor is standing on the left (stage right), dressed as a dreidl. Courtesy of the JPL Archives, Worker's Circle Fonds, 1255_PR022192.
And that's a wrap on 2024! Here's some stats from our last twelve months:
6 Yiddish translate-a-thons
9 countries represented in our readership of der zamler
54 meetings that could have been emails
125 reference requests
178 fonds have been added to our searchable catalogue jplarchives.org
3651 listens to recollections with the JPL
9684 visits to JPL Curates
The Jewish Public Library will be closed from December 20th, 2024 until January 6th, 2025. We hope to spend that time doing some big organisation in the archives and taking some much needed breaks. Wishing you all a Happy Hannukah!
events
Maria Castañeda-Delgado in her conservation studio in Montreal during a recent visit from the JPL Archives’ Outreach team.
Thanks to everyone who joined us for our November events at Eleanor London Library and Concordia University! We learned a lot from local professional conservator Maria Castañeda-Delgado. Did you know that a flood in Florence in 1966 led to the birth of modern conservation practices?
We also loved sharing in the excitement of bringing our Kabbalistic Scroll to the community at Eleanor London Library. This rotulus stretches out a whopping 17 feet!
Stay tuned in the new year for announcements of our 2025 events.
Attendees of our recent event at the Eleanor London Library checking out our Rosenberg Rotulus. Photo by Maria Ressina.
news from the stacks
Cemetery plot map for the Worker’s Circle section at the Baron de Hirsch Cemetery, 1973. New acquisition in the Worker's Circle Fonds, 1255.
This past month we acquired new material from Montreal's chapter of the Worker's Circle. This organisation conducted itself as an irretrievable part of the radical labour movement. An advocate for change, the Worker’s Circle also provided education, enlightenment, health benefits, open forums, a library, clubs and cemetery plots for its members. To learn more, check out the Worker’s Circle Fonds on our Online Catalogue!
We have also been making great process demystifying one of the larger collections in our archives, the Allan Raymond Fonds. Allan Raymond was born in Lithuania and came to Montreal in 1928. He was a researcher and lecturer of Canadian Jewish history, and an avid collector of Canadian Judaica. Raymond also considered himself a romantic poet. He had a successful career as an insurance broker in Montreal, and during World War II served overseas with the Royal Canadian Air Force. The Allan Raymond Collection was certified Canadian Cultural Property in 1994, and we look forward to making more of it available online soon.
In order to give the materials in our collection the care they deserve we have decided to implement a collection freeze until next April. This freeze will allow us to focus on bringing to light important collections that have been waiting to be seen!
FOR THE RECORD:
A BLOG ABOUT THE WHO, WHAT, WHY, WHERE, AND HOW (OF ARCHIVING)
A TOP SECRET file found at Library and Archives Canada.
Why are some archival materials restricted?
When performing archival research, you might assume that all materials in the collection are fair game; after all, why else would they be in the archive? However, the world of restrictions is often murkier than you would think.
current on-site exhibition
Close-up of materials in current exhibition featuring rare books from our Special Collections.
Adopted languages: The Orphans of Offenbach
November 2024 - January, 2025
Jewish Public Library, across from circulation desk
In conjunction with our By the Book conservation event this month, we've put together an exhibition that highlights some of our rare books that cover a breadth of languages, time periods, and printing locations. They are also in various states of conservation, and the details of their provenance is not totally known to us aside from arriving through the Offenbach Archival Depot.
recollections with the jpl podcast
Cover art for recollections with the JPL.
Der zamler is a Yiddish term meaning “the collector” and is related to the verb zamlen, which means “to gather.” In using this name, we join a long history of people dedicated to gathering and preserving Jewish culture around the world. A heartfelt thank-you goes to Sam Bick for the initial idea and to Anna Fishman Gonshor for providing the cultural context.
All non-archival photography, unless otherwise credited, by staff of the JPL Archives.
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