Children have occupied a prominent place in Yiddish literature since early modern times, but children s literature as a genre has its beginnings in the early 20th century. Its emergence reflected the desire of Jewish intellectuals to introduce modern forms of education, and promote ideological agendas, both in Eastern Europe and in immigrant communities elsewhere. Before the Second World War, a number of publishing houses and periodicals in Europe and the Americas specialized in stories, novels and poems for various age groups. Prominent authors such as Yankev Glatshteyn, Der Nister,...

This volume borrows its title from the first international Yiddish bestseller, Sholem Asch's epic trilogy Three Cities. Whereas Asch portrayed Jewish life in St Petersburg, Warsaw and Moscow at the crucial historical moment of the collapse of the Russian Empire, this volume examines the variety of Yiddish publishing, educational, literary, academic, and theatrical activities in the former imperial metropolises from the late nineteenth through to the late twentieth century, and explores the representations of those cities in Yiddish literature.

Gennady Estraikh is Associate...