(Jewish Telegraphic Agency Mail Service)
The question of admitting a Yiddish P. E. N. Centre into the International P. E. N. Club, a writers’ association, is to come up at the International Congress of the P. E. N. Club to be held this month in Berlin, according to a decision of the International Council of the P. E. N. Club at a meeting held here under the chairmanship of Mr. John Galsworthy to consider the application for admission made by the Association of Yiddish Writers and Journalists in Warsaw.
In addition to Mr. Galsworthy, there were present at the meeting the representatives of the P. E. N. Centres in Poland. Lithuania and America, and Mr. Leo Kenig, representing the Association of Yiddish Writers and Journalists in Warsaw.
The question was discussed whether it was possible to admit a Yiddish Centre into the International P. E. N. Club. It was pointed out that the P. E. N. Club was constituted on a territorial basis and that it was the province of the Polish P. E. N. Centre to decide whether it could admit into itself a Yiddish section.
The applicants, however, objected that they did not desire admission on a territorial basis or the admission of Yiddish writers as individuals into the P.E.N. Centre of the country in which they were resident. They were asking for the recognition of the Yiddish language and literature and for the admission of a Yiddish P. E. N. Centre, to which Yiddish writers from all countries would belong and which would be constituted on the basis of language and culture and not of territory.
The Association of Yiddish Writers and Journalists is submitting a memorandum on the question to the P.E.N. Congress, drawn up in English, Yiddish and German. It is also sending to the Congress Sholom Ash, the famous Yiddish author, to act as its delegate in the event of admission being granted. In addition, a delegation will be in Berlin to represent the association, consisting of Leo Kenig, S. Segalowitch, David Bergelson, N. Stif, Deputy Dr. Isaac Schipper, and Melech Ravitch. The Peretz Writers Club in America has been communicated with and is expected to empower Sholom Ash to act also as its representative.
TWO NEW PERIODICALS MAKE THEIR APPEARANCE
Two new periodicals made their first appearance on Friday. “The Zionist,” a publication in English, edited by Dr. Johan J. Smertenko and Vladimir Jahotinsky, is the organ of the League of Zionists Revisionists and will be devoted, it declared, to expounding the program of the League.
The other is “Our Voice,” a bi-weekly in Yiddish, the organ of the Mizrachi Zionist Organization in America.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
