As part of his 30-day book tour, the founder and president of the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass., made a stop in Syracuse University Tuesday as a tribute to the preservation of Yiddish literature.

Aaron Lansky spent the afternoon entertaining and educating both students and city residents in the Hall of Languages sharing his collection of personal stories and Yiddish literature given to him from people around the country. These stories, which he recorded at the time, became the basis for his book ‘Outwitting History.’

‘It’s amazing what he has done in 20 years,’ said Kenneth B. Frieden, professor of religion. ‘He has collected literally mounds and mounds of Yiddish literature.’

Lansky started his life’s work in 1979 as a graduate student at McGill University in Montreal. At the time, there were supposedly only 70,000 Yiddish books that remained after both the Holocaust and the Yiddish immigrant repression of the 1950s and 1960s, Lansky said.

To collect books, Lansky said he posted advertisements in newspapers and hung up fliers in Yiddish. Within weeks, older immigrants were calling his house at all hours of the night with shipments of hundreds to thousands of books for him.

‘An entire culture was put off to one side,’ Lansky said. ‘I was not just collecting books – I was collecting stories.’

Lansky said he took two years off from graduate school to gather those pieces of literature and, 20 years later, he has collected over a million Yiddish books.

‘It’s an incredible emotional encounter. People are crying,’ Lansky said. ‘They trusted me with not only their books, but their life stories.’

Lansky continued his presentation by reading excerpts from his book and revealed stories that positively strengthened the Yiddish culture that those immigrants once saw fading away. In addition to older generations finding their culture, Lansky also intends to show young people that they can make a difference by becoming involved in their passions.

‘The traditions are still alive and I’d like to do what I can to keep them alive,’ said Alla Poberesky, a senior English and textual studies major.

The Yiddish Book Center is one of the largest Jewish organizations in the country. It has 32,000 members of both Yiddish-speaking and non-Yiddish-speaking people. They also offer a college credit internship program at the center every summer, where 12 students spend half of their day learning Yiddish and the other half unpacking boxes of old Yiddish literature, Lansky said.

On Nov. 7, the Yiddish Book Center will be providing a day trip to the center, which is available to anyone who is interested in learning about the culture, Frieden said.

Published on October 26, 2004 at 12:00 pm