Glinyany, Ukraine Yizkor Book

Proposal
Glinyany, Ukraine Yizkor Book

Project Name Translation Ba-golah uva-moledet, (In the Diaspora and in the Homeland)

Project Coordinator

JewishGen Yizkor Book Project Manager: Lance Ackerfeld

Project Synopsis

The Yizkor book “In the Diaspora and in the Homeland” was written in Hebrew and published in Jerusalem by the author Asher Korech (Buchbinder). Its original title was Bagolah uva-moledet. It relates his experience in the Galician town of Glinyany from his childhood, his bar mitzvah there, his time in the Austrian army on the Italian from during World War I, and the period between World Wars. He departs for Palestine just before the Holocaust and the concluding chapter is about his time there. Several chapters are about esteemed individuals and couples resident in the town. Their photos appear in the book..

Key Audiences

Jewish genealogists seeking to trace their roots in this town constitute the primary audience for the material. The relatives of families discussed in the book will probably find new genealogical information regarding their ancestors. The material has the potential to be of broader interest to scholars researching the service of Jewish soldiers in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I and Jewish history and society in this region.

Project Importance

Yizkor books are unique sources of information on once vibrant towns, primarily in Central and Eastern Europe, whose Jewish populations were destroyed in the Holocaust. Written during or after World War II by émigrés and Holocaust survivors, yizkor books contain narratives of the history of the town, details of daily life, religious and political figures and movements, religious and secular education, and gripping stories of the major intellectual and Zionist movements of the 20^th century. The necrologies and lists of residents are of tremendous genealogical value, as often the names of individuals who were taken to extermination camps or shot in the forest and cemeteries are not recorded elsewhere. Usually written in Hebrew or Yiddish, these important books are not accessible to most users, who are not fluent in these languages. Thus, the translation of these books into English unlocks this information to many more researchers all over the world. The JewishGen Yizkor Book Project received the award in 2002 for outstanding contribution to Jewish genealogy by the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies.

Glinyany (Yiddish Gline, also spelled Gliniany). For centuries Jews lived alongside Ukrainians and Poles in Glinyany, a small town (presently in the Zolochiv county) in the Lviv region. The first Jewish settlers made their home here as early as in the-mid 16^th century, but most came between the years of 1761-1772 when Glinyany was the county seat, and a particularly great number settled in the town during the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. From the documents of the so called Joseph registry of 1788 there were 2,210 town residents, of which 416 were Jews. Most Jews were involved in business. They bought and sold grain, fruit, vegetables, livestock, lumber, food products, and manufactured goods. In their stores and shops one could purchase everything “from socks to ties and hats, from nails and plough and straw-cutter parts” as the saying went.

According to the official registry of the Lviv Greek Catholic Metropolitan Eparchy in 1911 the population of the town was 4,806 of which 1,142 were Jews and at the onset of World War II their number increased to more than 1,500. They lived in a separate Jewish community governed by an elected community board - Kahal, which was comprised of the most distinguished and authoritative individuals from the Jewish population of the town.

Project Description

The book consists of 213 pages of text. It was published in Jerusalem in 1941. One chapter and the table of contents have already been translated and can be found at the following website: http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Glinyany3/glinyany3.html Important citizens who photographs appear in the book are identified with English captions. JewishGen will be responsible for paying the translator, and donations to the fund will be tax-deductible for U.S. citizens.

Estimated Cost

The estimated cost of this project would be in the range of $8,000 to $10,000.