About the Yizkor Book Collection
Portland State’s Middle East Studies Center (MESC) was founded in 1959 as the first federally funded undergraduate program of its kind in the country. In recognition of MESC’s national profile, College Librarian Jean Black advocated for the school’s inclusion in the federal Farmington Act’s PL-480 program to acquire library materials from abroad to augment area studies at American universities. As a result of its participation in this program, the Portland State University Library is home to a significant collection of rare publications from the Middle East, including over 136 Yizkor books. Through donor support, the Library’s Special Collections has continued to add to the collection over time, including the recent acquisition of an early Yizkor book from 1929.
- About Yizkor Books
- Online Exhibit of Yizkor Books
- Online Yizkor books from the New York Public Library’s Dorot Division
- Sokolievka-Justingrad: an example of a Yizkor book
Associated Items in the Library’s Collection
The “Survivor’s Haggadah” 1945. Hebrew and Yiddish text by Yosef Dov Sheinzon and woodcuts by Miklos Adler.
Kugelmass, Jack, and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 1998. From a Ruined Garden: the Memorial Books of Polish Jewry. 2nd ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Jones, Faith, and Gretta Siegel. 2006. Yizkor Books as Holocaust Grey Literature. Publishing Research Quarterly 22, no. 1 (Spring 2006): 52-62.