N.Y. City College Announces $1,275,000 Plan for Yiddish Dictionary

An Institute for Yiddish Lexicology, which will be responsible for the compilation of a monumental dictionary of the Yiddish language, has been established at the City College of New York, according to an announcement today by Dr. Buell C. Gallagher, president of the college. The project is expected to take 17 years and cost $1,275,000.

The New York City Board of Higher Education has approved the project, Dr. Gallagher said. The work of the Institute of Yiddish Lexicology will be conducted under the general supervision and direction of a board composed of Dr. Gallagher; Gustave B. Rosenberg, president of the Board of Higher Education; and Israel Steinbaum, general secretary of the Yiddish Dictionary Committee, Inc., which has been administering a project set up for this purpose in 1953. That project was launched by a group of laymen and scholars under Nathan Stutchkoff, who had turned to Yivo, the Institute for Jewish Research, for sponsorship.

Under the leadership of this group, the first volume of the projected dictionary was published in 1961. The second volume has been completed and has been scheduled for publication in 1966. With the establishment of the Institute, it was said today, completion of the entire work will go forward with the assistance of paid, fulltime professional and clerical staff.

The dictionary is to be produced first in Yiddish, later in bilingual editions including Yiddish-English, Yiddish-Hebrew and Yiddish-Spanish. Prof. Nathan Susskind, of the City College department of Germanic and Slavic languages, will represent the college on the new Institute. The Institute will establish weekly seminars in Yiddish lexicology to stimulate interest in the language.