Guide to the Papers of Khaykl Lunski (ca. 1881-ca. 1942) 1885-1941 bulk 1900-1935 RG 58

Processed by Ezekiel Lipschutz. Edited by Rivka Schiller with the assistance of a grant from the Gruss Lipper Family Foundation. Described and encoded by Rachel Harrison as part of the CJH Holocaust Resource Initiative, made possible by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
Email: archives@yivo.cjh.org
URL: http://www.yivo.org

©2011 YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. All rights reserved.

Electronic finding aid was encoded in EAD 2002 by Rachel S. Harrison in December 2011. Description is in English.

Collection Overview

Title: Guide to the Papers of Khaykl Lunski (ca. 1881-ca. 1942) 1885-1941 bulk 1900-1935 RG 58

Predominant Dates:bulk 1900-1935

ID: RG 58 FA

Extent: 1.25 Linear Feet

Arrangement:

Ezekiel Lipschutz compiled and wrote a Yiddish finding aid for RG 3, Collection of Yiddish Literature and Language, ca. 1950. This finding aid was translated from Yiddish by Chava Lapin and edited by Rivka Schiller, 2007-2008 with the assistance of a grant from the Gruss Lipper Family Foundation. The Papers of Khaykl Lunski were extracted from RG 3 to form their own record group, RG 58.

The collection was formerly part of Record Group 3, from which it was extracted to form a separate record group, RG 58. The folder arrangement was maintained. RG 3 is a segment of a larger block of the Vilna YIVO records within which all folders are numbered consecutively. Record Group 3 begins at folder 1701 and continues through folder 3402, within which the folders of RG 58 are numbered from 2311 to 2350B. The Lunski materials are arranged in one series.

Languages: Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian, Lithuanian, Polish, German, English, French

Abstract

The Papers of Khaykl Lunski are comprised of Lunski’s manuscripts and correspondence and documents from the administrative files of the Strashun Library and the S. Ansky Historical Ethnographic Society in Vilna. These materials were part of the YIVO Archives in Vilna before 1941, which were recovered by YIVO in New York in 1947. The papers were reassembled in the YIVO Archives in New York circa 1950.

Scope and Contents of the Materials

The materials in this collection are composed of Khaykl Lunski’s written works, as well as materials he collected for the Strashun Library. These include biographical profiles of rabbinic figures such as the Vilna Gaon, articles on the history of the Jewish community of Slonim, materials pertaining to various religious, social welfare, and educational institutions, administrative notes, minutes, bulletins, salary records, and bibliographic notes of the Strashun Library, correspondence with writers, rabbinical figures, educators, historians, religious institutions in Palestine, personal and family correspondence, and newspaper articles regarding Lunski.

The collection is 1.3 linear feet and dates from 1885-1941, the bulk of which are from 1900-1935. The majority of the materials are in Yiddish and Hebrew, although there are some materials in Russian, Lithuanian, Polish, German, English, and French.

Khaykl Lunski’s papers were presumably mixed with other looted collections from the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg unit. In 1945, these and other Jewish materials from Eastern Europe were placed by the U.S. Army in the Offenbach archival depot, from which they were subsequently redistributed among archives and libraries. The Lunski papers, together with volumes from the Strashun Library, were recovered after the war and brought to YIVO in New York in 1947. They were originally part of the collection arranged as RG 3, Collection of Yiddish Literature and Language, by Ezekiel Lifschutz, ca. 1950, who also created a finding aid in Yiddish. RG 3 is arranged as a reference collection in which documents from various individual collections that refer to Yiddish writers are assembled in folders according to the writer’s name. In 2007-2008 the finding aid for RG 3 was translated into English by Chava Lapin and edited by Rivka Schiller.

Historical Note

Biographical Note Khaykl Lunski was born on June 29, 1881(?) in Slonim, Russia (now Belarus). His father was a melamed (religious schoolteacher) and was descended from a rabbinical family from Koenigsberg (Krolewiec). From a young age, Lunski received a traditional Jewish education, attending kheyder and then the yeshivas of Slonim and Lida. In 1892 he came to Vilna, where he spent two years as a shammes (beadle) in a small synagogue. In 1895 Lunski began working for the Strashun Library, the Jewish library run by the Vilna kehilla (community), for which he collected books, rare manuscripts and historical documents. He remained there as a librarian until the liquidation of the library by the Nazis in 1941. In 1918, he assisted S. Ansky in establishing the Jewish Historical Ethnographic Society in Vilna and collected thousands of documents, books, pictures, pinkasim (record books of Jewish communities), and folklore materials for the Society and for its publications. He became secretary of the Jewish Historical Ethnographic Society in 1919 and was also an active member of the Bibliographic Center of the YIVO in Vilna. Lunski’s literary career began with some Zionist poetry, which he published in Luah Eretz-Yisrael (Calendar of Israel) in 1905. He began his Yiddish literary activities in 1917, publishing an essay in the Vilner Zamlbukh (Vilna Collection). In later years he published essays, articles, books on the history of Vilna Jews during World War I, biographies of rabbis and religious scholars, including the rabbi of Slonim and the Vilna Gaon, a memoir of S. Ansky, a catalogue of the Strashun Library, and several other works. He also collected thousands of books for the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Just prior to the Second World War, Lunski was in the process of writing a history of the Jewish community of Slonim. In all probability, this work was lost during the war. During the Nazi occupation of Vilna, the Strashun Library and YIVO Library and Archives were liquidated. Lunski and other members of Vilna’s Jewish intelligentsia were forced, along with other Jews from the Vilna Ghetto, to work for the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, a Nazi unit involved in looting Jewish cultural property in the occupied countries. Lunski was made to sort, pack, and ship thousands of Jewish books and archival materials from the Strashun Library, mainly to the NSDAP Institut zur Erfoschung die Judenfrage in Frankfurt a/Main. He continued writing while in the Vilna Ghetto, writing about the gravestones in the old Jewish cemetery in Vilna and about Jewish publishing in Vilna. He also kept a ghetto diary. These works also appear to have been lost. The information concerning Lunski’s death is contradictory. Shmerke Kaczerginski claimed that Lunski was deported to Treblinka together with his daughter Khana, while other accounts say that he was beaten to death in September 1942. References Abramowicz, Hirsz. Profiles of a Lost World: Memoirs of East European Jewish Life before World War II . Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 1999. Jeshurin, Efim, ed. Vilne: A zamelbukh gevidmet der shtot Vilne . (Vilna: A Collection Dedicated to the City of Vilna). New York: Vilner 367 Brentsh, Arbayter Ring, 1935. Kruk, Herman. The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939-1944 . New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2002. Congress for Jewish Culture, ed. Leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur . (Lexicon of the New Jewish Literature). New York: 1963.   Khaykl Lunski was born on June 29, 1881(?) in Slonim, Russia (now Belarus). His father was a melamed (religious schoolteacher) and was descended from a rabbinical family from Koenigsberg (Krolewiec). From a young age, Lunski received a traditional Jewish education, attending kheyder and then the yeshivas of Slonim and Lida. In 1892 he came to Vilna, where he spent two years as a shammes (beadle) in a small synagogue.

In 1895 Lunski began working for the Strashun Library, the Jewish library run by the Vilna kehilla (community), for which he collected books, rare manuscripts and historical documents. He remained there as a librarian until the liquidation of the library by the Nazis in 1941. In 1918, he assisted S. Ansky in establishing the Jewish Historical Ethnographic Society in Vilna and collected thousands of documents, books, pictures, pinkasim (record books of Jewish communities), and folklore materials for the Society and for its publications. He became secretary of the Jewish Historical Ethnographic Society in 1919 and was also an active member of the Bibliographic Center of the YIVO in Vilna.

Lunski’s literary career began with some Zionist poetry, which he published in Luah Eretz-Yisrael (Calendar of Israel) in 1905. He began his Yiddish literary activities in 1917, publishing an essay in the Vilner Zamlbukh (Vilna Collection). In later years he published essays, articles, books on the history of Vilna Jews during World War I, biographies of rabbis and religious scholars, including the rabbi of Slonim and the Vilna Gaon, a memoir of S. Ansky, a catalogue of the Strashun Library, and several other works. He also collected thousands of books for the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Just prior to the Second World War, Lunski was in the process of writing a history of the Jewish community of Slonim. In all probability, this work was lost during the war.

During the Nazi occupation of Vilna, the Strashun Library and YIVO Library and Archives were liquidated. Lunski and other members of Vilna’s Jewish intelligentsia were forced, along with other Jews from the Vilna Ghetto, to work for the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, a Nazi unit involved in looting Jewish cultural property in the occupied countries. Lunski was made to sort, pack, and ship thousands of Jewish books and archival materials from the Strashun Library, mainly to the NSDAP Institut zur Erfoschung die Judenfrage in Frankfurt a/Main. He continued writing while in the Vilna Ghetto, writing about the gravestones in the old Jewish cemetery in Vilna and about Jewish publishing in Vilna. He also kept a ghetto diary. These works also appear to have been lost.

The information concerning Lunski’s death is contradictory. Shmerke Kaczerginski claimed that Lunski was deported to Treblinka together with his daughter Khana, while other accounts say that he was beaten to death in September 1942.

References

Abramowicz, Hirsz. Profiles of a Lost World: Memoirs of East European Jewish Life before World War II . Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 1999.

Jeshurin, Efim, ed. Vilne: A zamelbukh gevidmet der shtot Vilne . (Vilna: A Collection Dedicated to the City of Vilna). New York: Vilner 367 Brentsh, Arbayter Ring, 1935.

Kruk, Herman. The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939-1944 . New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2002.

Congress for Jewish Culture, ed. Leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur . (Lexicon of the New Jewish Literature). New York: 1963.

Subject/Index Terms

Clippings - Newspaper clippings, Documents - Correspondence, Documents - Financial records, Documents - Manuscripts, Documents - Minutes, Documents - Notes, Documents - Official documents, Elijah ben Solomon, 1720-1797, Jewish history, life, and culture, Lithuania, Lunski, Khaykl, Poland, Rabbis, Shatzky, Jacob, Strashun, Mathias, d. 1885, Strashun Library, Vilnius (Lithuania), YIVO Archives

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions: Permission to use the collection must be obtained from the YIVO Archivist.

Use Restrictions:

Permission to publish part or parts of the collection must be obtained from the YIVO Archives. For more information, contact:

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011

email: archives@yivo.cjh.org

Acquisition Method: Recovered by the YIVO Archives in New York in 1947.

Separated Materials: There is no information about materials that are associated by provenance to the described materials that have been physically separated or removed.

Related Materials: The Papers of Khaykl Lunski were originally part of RG 3, Yiddish Literature and Language Collection, with which they share a provenance. RG 55, Yiddish Writers and Journalists Union, was also originally part of RG 3, as was RG 57, Papers of Nahum Shtif. The YIVO Archives also has other archival and library materials from the Strashun Library, of which Lunski was the long-time librarian, as well as several books by Lunski.

Preferred Citation: Published citations should take the following form: Identification of item, date (if known); Papers of Khaykl Lunski; RG 58; folder number; YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.


Box and Folder Listing


Series 1: Papers of Khaykl Lunski
1885-1941
Folders: 43
Folder 2311: Biography of Lunski's grandfather Rabbi Mordechai Weitzel
1916
Chief of Bet-Din of Slonim, written by Lunski
Folder 2312: Yidishe gedoylim fun noentn over (Great Jewish Personalities in the Recent Past)
undated
manuscript, by Lunski
Folder 2313: History of Slonim; Jews in Slonim
undated
manuscripts, by Lunski
Folder 2314: Materials about institutions
1901-1920

documents about the Magid

by-laws of the Shomrei Torah Society

resolutions at the meetings of the Valk-kloyz of Ha'azinu

materials about: Agudas Akhim

YEKOPO

HIAS

Agudas Marbitsey Toyre

Jewish Teachers' Seminary

Old Peoples’ Home

Burial Society “Bring Salvation”

about needy persons who have asked for help

Folder 2315: Rebbes and Rabbis
undated

the Minsk "Godl"

the first anniversary of the great Gaon, R. Raphael Gordon

Folder 2316: Magid of Kelm and the Gaon of Vilna and his followers
1912, undated
miscellaneous sheets and notes, by Lunski
Folder 2317: The Gaon of Vilna, R. Eli, son of Shloyme Zalman
undated
proofsheets, by Lunski
Folder 2318: Outcry against the Russian Law of 1855 calling for the creation of Jewish schools
undated
copy of the edict
Folder 2319: Strashun Library
1899-1941

bibliographical notes

proposed rules for the administration of the library

minutes of an administrative session

copy of a bulletin: To American Jewry, to American writers and Vilna Landslayt

letters to the library administration and to M. Strashun

notes on the history of the library

notes on books received

salary records

description of the library, 3/18/1941

Folder 2320: Correspondence
1898-1939

copies of letters to:

Antokolski

Shimon Hakohen, 1898

Yosef Opatoshu, 1939

letters from:

Rabbi Yitshok Blaser to Yekusiel Mankevitch, 1905

A. M. Bernstein, 1925-1930

Folder 2321: Correspondence
1903-1912

letters from: Khaya, Lifshe and Abraham Yankev Brock (Bruk)

to: Khaya Brock (Lunski's future wife)

Refoel Nathan Kuliszewski

Fanny Abramowitz

Folder 2322: Correspondence
1902-1940

letters from:

Benjamin Lunianski, 1910

Chaim Liberman, 1936-1940 (also copy of a reply by Lunski)

Hayim Libovits, 1911

Yom Tov Lewinski

J. A. Daynovski, 1936-1937

from Mordkhe Note Wigodski, 1902

Rabbi Nisn Waksman

Mordkhe Vaytsl, 1910

Yitshok Broydes, 1933

Rabbi Shmuel Yehoshua Vaytsl

K. Likhtenshteyn, 1933

Yankev ben Yankev

Folder 2323: Correspondence
1894-1938

letters from:

L. Etinger to S. Dubnow, 1894

Gershon Pludermacher

Rabbi S. Fried

Hillel Zeitlin, 1923, 1936

Pinkhas Kon, 1926-1927

Rabbi Shimon Kaniak, 1934-1936

Yosef Kaplan, 1914

Pesakh Kaplan, 1928-1935

Yitskhok Rivkind, 1938

Sara Reisin

letters by Lunski and copies of letters to:

Pupko, 1937

Z. Reisen

Khana Shapiro, 1926 (a few words at the Shloyshim)

Folder 2324: Correspondence
1887-1938

letters from:

Pinye Abramowitz

A. Z. Baron

Mendl Buski

Eliezer Bukstein

Shloyme Berman

Sheyne and M. Garfinkl

Itke Dworetzki

Hirsh Harbowski

Rivke Heilpern

Roza Hirsh

Rabbi M. Halinski

Nathaniel Woliwelieki

A. Volfson

Yitskhok Volfson

David Hakoen Triviush

Hayim Libovits

Shamay Lisvitski

F. Margolin

Salutski

Yitskhok Stotland

Tsvi Moyshe Skidl

Yosef Poretski

J. Palatnik

Friedman

J. Frenkel

David Yidl Kafion

Sholem Mordkhe Katzenellenbogen

Hayim Klein

Rabbi Eliezer Lipa Klepfish

Mordkhe Raduminski

Kh. Shapiro

Tsvi Sharubin (?)

Yitskhok Yankev Shvartzberg

Berl Schumache

Yitskhok Shtatlikh

Strashun

A. L. Sheynhoyz

Folder 2325: Correspondence
1885-1933
letters to Lunski, sender unknown
Folder 2326: Family correspondence
1905-1913
from Rabbi A. J. Bruk, Lunski's father-in-law and his sisters-in-law, Lifshe and Sore
Folder 2327: Family correspondence
1900-1926
from brothers Abraham and Aaron, mother Dina, sisters Zlate and Eydl, wife Khaya, father Shmuel Osher Haleyvi
Folder 2328: Family correspondence
1928-1935
from his daughter Khana
Folder 2329: Family correspondence
1901-1906
letters from Mordkhe Note and Yisroel Simkhe Haleyvi Lunski
Folder 2330: Family correspondence
1911-1934
from his son Moyshe
Folder 2331: Family correspondence
1899-1913
from his brothers Shloyme and Shmuel Osher
Folder 2332: Family correspondence
1904-1934
from family members
Folder 2333: Family correspondence
1900-1934
from close relatives without signatures
Folder 2334: Family correspondence
1900-1912
to his wife Khaya
Folder 2335: Family correspondence
1898-1936
copies of letters to his mother, mother-in-law, sisters, brothers and children
Folder 2336: Correspondence
1902-1939

copies of letters to:

Reb Aaron

A. Aysenshtat

Yosef Berger

H. Berman

Yitshok Broydes

S. Ginzburg

Nathan Gensh

Rabbi Khayim Oyzer Grodzienski

Shmuel Hurwitz

Israel Heilprin

Rabbi Shmuel Yehoshua Vaytsl

Moyshe Zabalski

Yankev ben Yankev

A. Litwin

Hayim Libovits

Nakhmen Mayzel

A. Morewski

S. Niger

Eliyohu Soyfer

Dr. Eliasohn

S. Poznanski

J. Pupko

Shoshana Persits

Hillel Zeitlin

Franz Kabler

Yefim Jeshurun

H. Kameniecki

Rabbi Shimen Kaniak

H. Rubinow

Dr. Yitskhok Rivkind

Yitskhok Rubinstein

Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum

Ringelbaum

Hirsh Sharubski

Dr. Yankev Schatzki

Rivke Schenkman

M. Strashun

Folder 2337: Correspondence
1919-1926

letters to:

the Writers Union, 1919-1926

Library of the Hebrew University (copy)

to the trustees of the Vilna Burial Society

some of the letters to his landlord

Folder 2338: Private documents
1916-1924

medical records

official reports and certificates

Folder 2339: Bibliographical notes
1903-1935

about books in the Strashun Library

about Lunski's own books

notes about the students of the Gaon of Vilna, personalities of Slonim and notes about authors

copies of letters to: Refoel Rabinowicz

Hayim Jeshurun

greetings in honor of Prof. Moshe Schorr's 60th birthday

Folder 2340: Khumesh (Pentateuch) dictionary
1900-1935

dictionary, 1900-1909

accounts

synagogue

care of sick

debts, 1926

address book

Folder 2341A: Bibliographical notes on Jewish books
1911-1915
Folder 2341B: Documents about various communal matters
undated
Folder 2342: Notes on books
1929
Lunski's letters about his difficulties in the Strashun Library
Folder 2343: Transcription of musar (secular) books
undated
Folder 2344: Letters and announcements from various social institutions
1905-1936

Jewish National and University Library

Jewish Historical Ethnographic Society

Hevrah Mefitsei Haskalah (Society for the Promotion of Culture)

Friends of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem

Folder 2345: Minutes and correspondence of the S. Ansky Society
1918-1936
Folder 2346: Correspondence from Palestine institutions
1903-1914

copy of a letter by Lunski to Koylel Khabad in Jerusalem about his late father

other correspondence

Folder 2347: Private documents
1919-1930

draft of a will

epitaph for Lunski's mother's gravestone

protest against Soviet requisition of flour in Vilna, 1919

Folder 2348: Correspondence
1903-1923

letters from Jacob Waisbord at Hotel Amdurski to Mankiewicz, 1903

from Zvi Kriviski to his father

from the Teachers' Seminary, Vilna, 1923

Folder 2349: Notes by Enokh Weinstein
1930-1931
about the Kovl Khalutz
Folder 2350: Notes by Lunski
1917-1919

memoirs concerning Ratner

Pesakh 1919 (about A. Veiter)

memoirs of the year 1917

Folder 2350A: Newspaper journal articles by and pertaining to Lunski
1914-1939
Folder 2350B: Miscellaneous fragments
1905-1934
notes, copies, parts of letters, a list of the yeshiva students and teachers in Vilna, 1915-1917
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