"Yerusholaimer Alamanakh"

e Yerusholaymer Almanakh was founded by the noted Yiddish poet and literary editorYoysef Kerler in 1973 as the organ of the then sizeable group of Yiddish authors living in the Israeli capital. The “Almanakh” was always lacking secure financial basis. Nevertheless in the ensuing 23 years of its existence the erstwhile “Jerusalemgroup” of Yiddish writers managed to publish 26 volumes thanks to the selfless dedication and indefatigable editorship of Yoysef Kerler (1918-2000). Over the years his associate editors were: Dovid Sfard (1973-1982), Efraim Shedletzky (1982-1992) and Dov-Ber Kerler (1993-1998). Among its authors one finds some of the best Yiddish writers, poets, cultural commentators and scholars of the last three decades of the 20th century.

In those years the publication was widely circulated and well received throughout Western Europe, the Americas, Australia and South Africa. It has been awarded a number of prizes in Israel and abroad for its publications of new original prose, poetry, and criticism, as well as many important historical and literary documents, translations from Russian and Hebrew, original essays by numerous authors and scholars from Israel and nearly all other major and smaller centers of Yiddish creaivity. In particular the Almanakh became the permanent major outlet of a number of leading Yiddish authors who immigrated to Israel from Poland in the late 1960s and from the Soviet Union in the early 1970s. However, very soon it became a major literary outlet for numerous leading Yiddish authors from Israel, North America, Southern America, Western Europe, Australia and South Africa.

In 2003 the Almanakh was renewed as “periodical collections of Yiddish literature and culture”. Now like in its past the Yerusholaymer Almanakh strives to publish both the new oeuvre of accomplished authors as well as the first or early works of younger writers, scholars and essayists. While it is not an easy task to maintain its original high editorial standards, the first volumes of the renewed Almanakh received wide critical acclaim and far and wide international circulation that far exceeds its actual "sales". It is also interested in publishing important historical, cultural, and literary documents and will not shy away from more complex, more “academic” and even quite "technical" studies.

While its financial future is not yet fully secure it is hoped that the renewed “Almanakh” will be continue to stimulate Yiddish literary creativity and scholarship offering a hospitable but critically responsible literary venue for contemporary original fiction, poetry, drama, cultural commentary, and research that will reach out and find its way to both old and new readers, writers and scholars throughout the world.