Exhibition Devoted to Anski

The Amsterdam Jewish Historical Museum recently held an exhibition devoted, to Anski, the now defunct Yiddish Cultural Society of Amsterdam, whose development and decline mirrors the successive waves of Jewish immigration into Holland and the assimilation of the younger generation.

Anski was the pen-name of the Yiddish poet Sjoloum Rabinowitz for whom the society was named when it was founded here in 1921 by Jewish emigres from Poland and other Eastern European countries. Many had been members of the Bund, a Socialist-oriented group that opposed both Orthodox Judaism and Zionism. They established Anski to preserve their Yiddish language and culture through lectures, theatrical performances and other activities.

Membership dwindled after a few years as a number of the founders either emigrated from Holland or became more integrated into Dutch society. But reinforcements arrived from Poland in 1929 and again after 1933. The society enjoyed its greatest growth just before the outbreak of World War 11. But when the Soviet Union invaded Poland in 1939 and divided that country with Nazi Germany, Anski split. The Communist members approved the Soviet invasion. The Bundists were opposed and founded their own cultural organization, the Peretz Society.

Anski was re-established after the war when the influx of displaced persons into Holland Increased its membership temporarily. But most of them soon left for the U.S. or Canada. Anski was carried on for a time by its original members. But as the older ones died and their children became assimilated, the exhibit was provided by some of the surviving members.