Institut far Yidisher Kultur.; Filologishe sektsye.Nokhem Shtif, editor

AFN SHPRAKHFRONT: ZSHURNAL FAR YIDISH SHPRAKHVISN. NRS 1 (JAN-FEB 1932), 2/3, 4, 5/6 (SEP-DEC 1932) [UNBROKEN RUN, COMPLETE FOR 1932, 6 NRS IN 4 ISSUES] אפנ שפראכפראנט : זשורנאל פאר יידיש שפראכוויסנ

Kiev : Institut far Yidisher kultur ba der Alukraynisher visnshaftlekher akademiye, Filologishe sektsye, 1932. Item #42140

1st edition. Original printed publisher’s color paper wrappers, 4to (large), ca 72-116 columns [ca 36-58 pages] per issue. In Yiddish. Title translates roughly as, “On the Language Front: A Journal for Yiddish Linguistics.” This bi-monthly journal succeeded the similar journal Di Yidishe Shprakh which had been “published in Kiev from 1927 to 1930. A bimonthly journal, Di yidishe shprakh (The Yiddish Language) was published by the cooperative publishing house Kultur-lige and was the main philological publication of the Kiev Yiddish academic center. Its editor was the veteran Yiddishist Nokhem Shtif, a founder of YIVO, who had returned to Kiev from Germany in 1926.….the last—twenty-fifth—issue of the journal was dated November–December 1930….Published under the imprint of the Central Publishing House, this issue also signaled the demise of the remaining vestiges of the Kiev Kultur-lige. Yoysef Liberberg’s article “Far parteyishkayt in der yidisher visnshaft-arbet” (For a Party Approach to Yiddish Linguistics) marked a full break with YIVO scholars, particularly with YIVO director Max Weinreich, whom Liberberg ridiculed for presenting Yiddish as an emanation of the Ashkenazic Jews’ soul. The Yiddish Language Conference decided to change the name of the journal. Between 1931 [sic 1932] and 1939, it appeared sporadically under the title Afn shprakhfront (On the Language Front), reflecting its new, more aggressive, and politically charged approach.” Nokhem Shtif, the editor, “became the central figure in the Kiev Institute of Jewish Proletarian Culture, as it was called in 1929 (previously known as the Chair for Jewish Culture at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, from 1926). Concurrently, a professional philological journal, Di yidishe shprakh (The Yiddish Language; from 1931 called Afn shprakhfront [On the Language Front]), edited by Shtif, was also launched. For a short time, he directed the Kiev Institute, but later headed only its philological section; Yoysef Liberberg, a Communist Party member, replaced Shtif as director” (Gennady Estraikh in YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, 2010).For more, see: Gennady Estraikh, “Soviet Yiddish: Language Planning and Linguistic Development” (Oxford, 1999); and David Shneer, “Yiddish and the Creation of Soviet Jewish Culture, 1918–1930” (Cambridge and New York, 2004).SUBJECT(S): Yiddish language -- Periodicals. OCLC: 36532974. Most holdings in OCLC appear to be fragmentary. Covers are browning and fragile as expected, but are otherwise very well preserved with very little edgewear. Internal text pages are also toning but remain relatively strong as pulp paper. Very important journal. (yid-43-6-LEX).

Price: $800.00