The Letters of Time, Lives and Spirit

Rare Books and Manuscripts at the first Lithuanian exhibition to mark the 100th anniversary of YIVO

Part III. 

The Beginning and the End: A Book

Twenty years ago, a sentiment of praising a book as a subject would make anyone who would articulate it , a bit of ‘ a gaga’. Today, with a mighty technological and generational shift, a book speedily becomes a museum subject, so to say. But not in Lithuania as yet, as not in several other countries with such mighty and long reading, teaching, and book-learning traditions that they still have some safety capacity to go. 

The section of rare books and manuscripts at the opened in March 2025 special exhibition in the Vilnius Picture Gallery, part of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, celebrating, the first in the world, a 100th anniversary of legendary YIVO Institute, from 1942 based in New York, but originated in Vilnius back in 1925. In part I and part II of this reviewing essay, I was describing the concept and idea of this rich and multi-genre exhibition, and the parts dedicated to some very special artefacts and meaningful authentic archival photography documents. 

This part is dedicated to several ultra-gems of the exhibition in its part of rare books and manuscripts. 

An essential connection with human knowledge 

Lithuania is historically known for its extremely rich culture of books and manuscripts. This richness has also made a very special, and unique impact on the character of Lithuanian, Polish and Czech culture and arts, which is highly and deeply intellectualised, so to say.  This intellectual ground of art of those three Central European countries is a rather specific culturological  phenomenon. And it has made all those three highly sophisticated and intellect-dominated cultures of Lithuania, Poland and Czech Republic markedly recognisable in many of its directions, especially in  photography, cinema, theatre and literature. 

The historically accumulated  treasures of the Lithuanian libraries and archives are incredible. And it is simply great that some of them can be seen alive at this YIVO commemorating exhibition in Vilnius. 

The strong connection of the Lithuanian public with a book as a fundamental subject of culture and civility could be also seen at the current  exhibition at the Vilnius Picture Gallery. Public there was literally glued to the vitrines with rare books, manuscripts and incunabula. One could almost physically feel the magnetism between many people who were absolutely absorbed by those rare subjects of their mighty culture, and the treasures which are exhibited in Vilnius currently.  This fact and the impression it left was very worthy for me during my visit. 

The group of Lithuanian experts in culture next to the box with rare books at the YIVO commemorating exhibition. March 2025. (C) Inna Rogatchi

Among several rare books and manuscripts presented there is one incunabula, The Book of Prophets, printed by the Soncino family back in 1485, just three years from the time when this first ever publisher of the Hebrew texts in the world started its family business near Milan.

The Book of Prophets. Soncino Printing House. 1453. (C) Gintaer Grigenaite. LDNM

This rarity belonged to the famous Strashun Library, the pride of Lithuania, which was collected by the great Talmudic scholar and public and cultural visionary Mattiahu Strashun in the middle of the 19th century, and which he left to the city of Vilnius in his testament. The priceless library had the same tragic destiny as the Jews and their heritage due to the Holocaust. 

Only in 2017, it has been entered into the UNESCO World Heritage List, finally.  To see the incunabula produced in 1485, which Mattiahu Strashun, most likely, personally picked up during his library collection-establishing trip all over Europe in 1857, is amazing. 

Among the other wonders, there is a hand-written treatise on astronomy Sefer Yad haIttim, Book of the Hand of the Times,  by well-known Alsatian Rabbi Issachar Carmoly,  produced in 1751 and beautifully illustrated. This treasure is also from the Strashun Library, being most likely also bought by Mattiahu Strashun during his collecting European tour of 1857,  and now is part of the fantastic Judaica collection of the Lithuanian National Library. What is evident from this book is the agelessness of beauty. You are glued to this volume and those pages and you completely forget that it all has been done almost three centuries ago, because it still breathes beauty, craft, vivid mind and knowledge. And somebody, in this case, outstanding Rabbi Carmoly’s hand. 

Sefer Yad haIttim by the Rabbi Issachar Carmoly. 1751, France. (C). Ginater Grigenaite. LDNM.

No wonder that visitors were absolutely absorbed by a very valuable books and manuscripts selection at this exhibition, including The Brest Bible of 1563, which has been printed by the Printing House of Mikolaj Radzivill the Black, and belongs to the collection of the Birzai regional museum ‘Sela’, set in a notable beautiful Italian-built castle. The volume is stunningly beautiful, with its calf leather cover and silver decorations, and it has been preserved in a very good state for more than five centuries, just imagine that. 

But there is more: this is a magnificent volume of  the first ever full translation and print of the entire Holy Scripture into Polish from the original Hebrew and Aramaic in the part of the Old Testament and the Prophets , and from Greek in the part of the New Testament. 

Marshall of Lithuania at the time, and one of the leading personalities in Lithuanian history, Mikolaj Radziwill the Black was personally organising and financing that mile-stone project back in the mid 1550s, setting up a special team of translators , all placed in one place in a town of Pinczow  ( which is in Poland nowadays) , and then supervising the printing of the unique Bible in the city of Brest. 

The special team assembled in Pinczow not without a reason. They were the part of a very well-known Calvinist Academy there, which was established by a very well-known at the time Italian theologian of Greek origin Francesco Lismanino, who was a personal confessor of Queen Bona Sforza. 

The Brest Bible. 1563. The National Library of Lithuania. (C) Gintare Grigenaite, LDNM.

Signore Lismanino was welcomed to the place by the Polish and Lithuanian nobility and rulers of the Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth in the mid-16th century, as the part of very popular  and somewhat powerful at the time, but short-lived wave of Calvinism in that parts of the Central Europe. 

In his turn, Francesco Lismanino has invited a noted French grammar and linguist Pierre Stratorius to lead the Pinczow Academy. It is thanks to their both massive knowledge, personal supervision and close work with the team of translators, the first ever translation of the entire Holy Scripture into Polish, known as the Brest Bible, was successfully carried on. Now, almost 500 years on, we can see this volume, in a perfect state. To me, it is a wonder. And as I saw at the exhibition in Vilnius, to practically anyone who entered the halls of it. 

The Brest Bible, 1563. (C) Gintare Grigenaite. LDNM

Preserving the Essential Part of Civilisation Against All Odds

Two rare hand-written Jewish manuscripts are also embellishing the site of the exhibition: the spread of the 14th century with an elaborated Haggadah illustration, produced in Berlin-Leipzig, also from the Strashun Library, and beautiful hand-written pages from the records of the Talmudic Studies Society in Lazdijai, dated by 1836. 

These pages were believed to be lost in a whirlwind of the Holocaust, and were only found in 1994, among many other documents and books which were  saved and preserved by the certain man, Lithuanian bibliographer and the head of the Lithuanian Book Chamber during the post-war Soviet time, Mr Antanas Ulpis. Mr Ulpis led the Book Chamber in Lithuania for 34 years, just a year prior to his death. 

That man led the effort to save what had been possible, from many places in post-war Lithuania, where just 4% of its mighty Jewry survived, with the entire Jewish heritage looted or destroyed. Being hidden under the piles of the other books, and in the cellars of the St George church in Vilnius, where the Lithuanian Book Chamber was situated during the post-war Soviet time, the 173 boxes of the Jewish books, manuscripts  and documents, preserved by Antanas Ulpis, were discovered in 1994, thirteen years after his passing. It was one of the most important discoveries in the end of the 20th century related to the Holocaust and post-Holocaust history world-wide. 

Talmudic Study Society hand-written record of 1836. Lazdijai, Lithuania. (C). Inna Rogatchi

In September 2023, President of Lithuania Gitanas Nauseda and his wife were present at the special ceremony in New York of the unveiling of the special memorial plaque in the YIVO Institute in honour of Mr Antanas Ulpis. 

At the exhibition in Vilnius today, celebrating YIVO, we can see that beautiful and meaningful part of the Talmudic Studies Society record from the small Lazdijai town. The impressive hand-written entry  is dated to 1836.

A long-time director of the Lithuanian Book Chamber Mr Antanas Ulpis. Credit: YIVO Institute. With kind permission.

Lazdijai is a quiet nature-friendly place just a few kilometres from Poland. Before the Second World War, over 60% of its population was Jewish. In 1941, over 1500 of them, practically all, were murdered by the Nazis in yet another horrific episode of the total Holocaust in Lithuania, about which one hears and sees it there again and again, all over the country. 

Great Jewish composer and violinist Joseph Achron, friend and colleague of another great Litvak violinist Jasha Heifeitz and Arnold Schonberg, the author of the famous Hebrew Melody which is still performed widely today, was born in that small town of Lazdijai. 

Joseph Achron. Archival photo. Shining Souls project. The Rogatchi Foundation.

And then, there is also a beautiful and , importantly, historically sensitive edition of Encyclopaedia Judaica published in Berlin and Leipzig in 1930, just before all the nightmare had begun, with an illustration of a hand-illustrated manuscript of the Haggadah of the 14th century. The volume is a part of  the Lithuanian National Library and its stunning Judaica collection. 

Encyclopaedia Judaica. Berlin-Leipzig. 1930. National Library of Lithuania. Illustration of the Haggadah of the 14th century. (C) Inna Rogatchi

It feels really special to be able to observe closely not only some gems of civilization as such, but something that has been produced by the Jewish people just prior the horror of their annihilation would start so soon, and from the same place. They were interested in preservation of Jewish heritage and spreading the knowledge about it widely at the highest possible level of the time. Very soon, the storm of the Holocaust would annihilate almost all of them, and to keep in pain several generations of their descendants, including us. 

Keeping the product of their thought, ideas, efforts, work and aspirations alive, by preserving and exhibiting the books that they were producing, among the other meaningful messengers of culture and civility,  one hundred years on, which is four generations, is a very clearly articulated and very well presented at this exhibition thread of life. Not vanished, not destroyed, not forgotten. But living, breathing and vividly remembered. And more, still actively engaging us today, amidst our electronic domain of everything, into those beautifully illustrated, so very old pages of real books and real manuscripts. Still teaching us all, of all ages and generations, in the best possible option  – by direct transmission of knowledge in the most natural way for a human being. 

My mom, a child of the Second World War, a Jewish child of the time of the Holocaust, who became a legendary teacher of several languages and noted expert on linguistic stylistics , who loved books in a feverish way, never got enough of them and treasured any of her library which she was assembling by all possible means and ways all her life, told repeatedly that she ‘ can live in a library, the place of an absolutely happiness’ for her. I understand what she meant very well, such was vital for her and so many in their generation of young survivors of the Holocaust bond with a book. 

Decades on, I can see it yet more graphically that bond with a book that kept the people who went through unimaginable tragedy on a daily basis for years, with losses of the family and friends piling around then, and, actually, never let them go, as we know from Elie Wiesel’s and many other books, to kept them human and humanistic. 

YIVO has become a legend because of its people and their strive to educate. It survived against all odds because of their spirit and the commitment to the memory of  those who came later on, and those who are working there today, to keep our heritage preserved and alive. 

We are lucky to celebrate the 100th anniversary of YIVO this year. In Lithuania, it is done both professionally and heartfelt-like. The part of the commemorative exhibition at the Vilnius Picture Gallery dedicated to the rare books and manuscripts highlighting the Jewish heritage of Lithuania is really a high-level cultural deed. 

IR ©

Vilnius

March 2025

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