Translation of
“Memorial Book for Gwozdziec and Vicinity”

Project Synopsis

The Gwołdziec Yizkor Book has yet to be translated into English. Consisting of 351 pages, it was translated from the original Yiddish into Hebrew in 1974 by Mendel Zilber in Ramat Gan. Patiently photographed page-by-page, by Ruby Landau-Pincus, Reference & Outreach Archivist at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York, it has recently been made available to the Yizkor Project at JewishGen for this translation project. The book is a rich collection of material from a variety of authors, many giving first-person accounts of their lives before, during, and after the Holocaust, including a list of the Gwołdziec Martyrs, along with stories and legends of its “old synagogue”.

Many academicians, historians, architects, photographers, artists, authors and poets have already been inspired by the beauty of Gwołdziec's “resplendent” wooden synagogue (destroyed in 1941). Pages 92 -131 show low-resolution copies of black and white photographs (from the earlier 1900s) of the incredible artwork that covered its interior Prayer Hall and ceiling. We will include images (photos, maps, etc.) as permissions allow. Through generous support, we will replace the low-resolution images with as many high resolution archival photos as possible from the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, which holds the copyright to a cache of archival photographs and illustrations taken in 1924 by Alois Breyer.

Key Audiences

The many descendants or residents from Gwołdziec and nearby areas in Poland that now reside in English speaking countries, and others who may not have access to the original work, constitute the primary audience for this book. However, those interested in original source material on the history of Jewish people in this region would find many compelling stories. Since the opening of the POLIN Museum of the History of the Polish Jews in 2014, which features as its core exhibition the Handshouse Studio reconstruction of the Gwołdziec wooden synagogue timber-frame and decorated prayer-hall ceiling, interest in the history, architecture, and artwork of the “Lost Wooden Synagogues” has been reignited, and have capture the attention of Jews, non-Jews, and converts to Judaism.

This book is a vibrant collection of many voices. As such, the original authors had a number of reasons to write their stories, and those reasons are still significant today. The portions that have already been translated provide history of the Jewish settlement in Gwołdziec. It deserves translation so that the witness of the authors can be preserved and made available to English speakers.

Permissions

Permissions are being investigated and will be determined before any original material is posted online or published.

Estimated Cost

$6,000

You may donate to this translation project here: JewishGen-erosity — Yizkor Book Translations

Timeline:

Initiated September 2024, revealing the Table of Contents (https://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/Gwozdziec/Gwozdziec.html) which gives us a glimpse of what was preserved in Hebrew in 1974. It has been patiently waiting for fifty years to be translated into English.

Availability:

This material will be available to all visitors to the JewishGen website. Once completely translated, the book will also be made available in a print-on-demand edition from JewishGen.

You may donate to this translation project here: JewishGen-erosity — Yizkor Book Translations