Volume One, 1973
The Yerusholaymer Almanakh was founded by the noted Yiddish poet and literary editor Yoysef 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 “Jerusalem group” 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).
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 for some of the best new oeuvre 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.
Volume 27, 2003
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. It is also interested in publishing important historical, cultural, and literary documents and will not shy away from more complex or even more “academic” studies.
While its financial basis still remains unsecure it is hoped that the renewed “Almanakh” will be able to continue to offer a free literary venue for contemporary Yiddish creativity, research, and scholarship and to reach out to old and new readers and writers throughout the world.