The World in Yiddish:
Secular Yiddish primers from our collection

View a slideshow of images from Yiddish primers.

Yiddish primers represent a surprisingly large part of the Book Center’s collection, and they may be the genre most often requested by visitors to our Amherst center. They also evoke strong memories from former students of the many Yiddish language schools around the world, who are instantly reminded of their days in the classroom.

Examples of Yiddish primers from secular Jewish schools illustrate the variety and complexity of Jewish education, and several are included in the National Yiddish Book Center’s exhibit, In the beginning....was kheyder. These primers were used in schools from turn-of-the-century America to the 1980’s in the Soviet Union's Jewish Autonomous Republic of Birobidjan. What is striking is how they resemble the primers of any other modern school. Doodles of airplanes and sketches of sewing machines offer a window into the minds of Jewish children as they applied the language of kheyder instruction to their modern lives.

-- by Aaron Rubinstein