Proposal
Ruzhany, Belarus Yizkor Book
Project Name. Translation of the Ruzhany, Belarus Yizkor Book
Project Co-Leaders
Edith Taylor
etpasadena@dslextreme.com
Brian Zakem
bzakem@comcast.net
JewishGen Yizkor Book Project Manager
Lance Ackerfeld
Fax: 1-909-259-7005
Project Synopsis
Rozana: A Memorial to the Jewish Community, Rozhinoy: sefer zikaron le-kehilat Rozhinoy ve-ha-seviva [edited by M. Sokolowsky], Tel Aviv, 1957, 232 pages, was written primarily in Hebrew, but the concluding chapter was written in Yiddish. Currently the Table of Contents and the concluding chapter are completed and are now online at http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/ruzhany/ruzhany.html One of the earliest and most famous “royall” owners of Ruzhany, Leu Sapaiha, Grand Chancellor of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, invited Jews to his market town with the economic purpose of increasing tax revenues, which simultaneously started its first known, organized, Jewish community. Although Ruzhany never grew into a major, regional economic or religious center, its location – about halfway between Warsaw and Minsk - positioned it to frequently encounter and host many important merchants, royals, religious officials, peasants, and the emerging middle class, thus nurturing a unique and very notable Jewish community.
Key Audiences
Jewish genealogists seeking to trace their roots in this town constitute the primary audience for the material. However, the material has the potential to be of broader interest to scholars specializing in 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 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 20th 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 forests are not recorded elsewhere. Usually written in Hebrew or Yiddish, these important books are not accessible to most users, who cannot read 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.
This translation will be of interest to researchers with roots in Ruzhany and also to researchers studying Jewish and Christian communities in this part of Eastern Europe. For those with a particular interest in Ruzhany during the period prior to and during the Holocaust, ending November 1942, the concluding chapter will be relevant.
Project Description
Approximately 200 more pages in Hebrew remain to be translated and posted to the Yizkor Book Translations site. The necrology has been translated is online. To complete the translation, JewishGen will hire a professional translator. The Project Coordinators will select the order in which to translate the chapters and will work closely with the translator to ensure a grammatically correct and idiomatic translation. Specific tasks the Project Coordinators will perform include proofreading, editing, and preparing the work for submission to the Yizkor Book Project.
Estimated Cost: Approximately $5,000-$7,000. Proposals are required for yizkor book projects that are expected to incur more than $5,000 in direct costs. Direct costs for yizkor book projects include fees to the professional translator. Even if the project will be phased, and the initial phase will require less than $5,000 in direct costs, a proposal is required.
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Updated 14 Mar 2009 by LA