Di Algemeyne Entsiklopedye,the Holocaust and the changing mission of Yiddish scholarship

The first attempt to publish a comprehensive encyclopedia in the Yiddish language began in Berlin in the early 1930s. The editors of Di algemeyne entsiklopedye (The General Encyclopedia) were initially concerned with bringing the latest discoveries from fields such as history, demography, biology, economics and political science to readers in need of assistance in comprehending the larger world. Almost from its inception, however, the project was forced to reconsider its agenda because of the Nazi rise to power. Dropping their original timetable, the first seven volumes were published in Paris (to where its editors first fled after Hitler’s 1933 appointment as Chancellor) and the final volumes were published in New York (to where they subsequently fled the 1940 German invasion of France). With its final volume in 1966, Di algemeyne entsiklopedye totaled twelve volumes—one more than originally planned. Only five ultimately fell within the editors’ original edifying mission, while the remaining seven volumes were dedicated to the subject “Yidn” (“Jews”). Originally planned as a supplement to the Normale volumes, the Yidn series became the primary focus of the Entsiklopedye on account of the rapidly deteriorating circumstances of the Jews in Europe. In this, the Entsiklopedye serves as a useful map of the changing representational imperatives that shaped Jewish scholarship as a consequence of the Holocaust.