The Congress for Jewish Culture (also known as the World Congress for Jewish Culture or, in Yiddish, der Alveltlekher Yidisher Kultur-kongres) is a secular organization founded in 1948 to promote

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

culture throughout the world. Individuals active in the founding of the organization included Yiddish writers and intellectuals such as

Shmuel Niger Shmuel Niger (also Samuel Niger, pen name of Samuel Charney, 1883-1955) was a Yiddish writer, literary critic and historian and was one of the leading figures of Yiddish cultural work and Yiddishism in pre-revolution Russia. Life Shmuel Niger was ...

Chaim Grade Chaim Grade ( yi, חיים גראַדע) (April 4, 1910 – June 26, 1982) was one of the leading Yiddish writers of the twentieth century. Grade was born in Vilnius, Russian Empire and died in The Bronx, New York. He is buried in Riverside Cemet ...

Avrom Reyzen Avrom Reyzen (Yiddish: אַבֿרהם רייזען; April 8, 1876 – April 2, 1953), known as Abraham Reisen, was a Yiddish writer, poet and editor, and the elder brother of the Yiddishist Zalman Reisen. Reyzen was born in Koidanov (Minsk, ea ...

, Shmerke Kaczerginski, and Pinkhos Schwartz. At its founding, the society had offices in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. Today, only the New York office remains active. Since 1953 the Congress has published

Die Zukunft ''Die Zukunft'' ("''The Future''") has been the name of three newspapers. ''Die Zukunft'' was a German social-democratic weekly (1892–1923) founded and edited by Maximilian Harden. It published allegations of homosexuality of Philipp, Prince o ...

(The Future, founded in 1892), the world's oldest Yiddish journal still in publication. It has also been an important publisher of Yiddish reference works and monographs, including the 8-volume "Biographical Dictionary of Modern Yiddish Literature" (co-edited by Shmuel Niger and Jacob Shatzky) and a supplemental work, the "Biographical Dictionary of Yiddish Writers in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

". The Congress also conducts yearly memorials in New York City in memory of the

Warsaw ghetto uprising The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; pl, powstanie w getcie warszawskim; german: link=no, Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany' ...

of April 19, 1943 and in memory of the Soviet Yiddish writers murdered on August 12, 1952 (also known as the

Night of the Murdered Poets The Night of the Murdered Poets (; yi, הרוגי מלכות פֿונעם ראַטנפאַרבאַנד, translit=Harugey malkus funem Ratnfarband, lit=Soviet Union Martyrs) was the execution of thirteen Soviet Jews in the Lubyanka Prison in Mosco ...

References

External links

Congress for Jewish Culture
- official Non-profit organizations based in New York City Yiddish culture in the United States {{organization-stub