"Tsiltsele Shema" – Hebrew Literary Anthology – Kharkiv, 1923 / Limited Facsimile Edition of the Anthology – Tel ...

"Tsiltsele Shema" – Hebrew Literary Anthology – Kharkiv, 1923 / Limited Facsimile Edition of the Anthology – Tel Aviv, 1968
The Hebrew literary anthology "Tsiltsele Shema" (Resounding Cymbals), published in Kharkiv in 1923, and a limited facsimile edition of the anthology.
1. Tsiltsele Shema, literary anthology [edited by Yosef Matov]. Kharkiv, 1923. Cover illustration: Aris (signed Y.A.).
A literary anthology featuring works by young Hebrew writers and poets, including Yosef Matov, Gershon Hanovitch, Avraham Kariv, Gershon Fried and others. The anthology was printed in a hundred copies only and constitutes a rare example of a Hebrew publication in Soviet Russia.
After the October Revolution, the Russian government implemented a policy of suppressing the Hebrew language, which was proclaimed a "reactionary [anti-revolutionary] language". Hebrew language instruction was banned and limitations were placed on Hebrew publishing. During the early 1920s, most of the senior Hebrew writers left Russia. The void they left behind was partly filled by a group of young Jewish writers and poets called the "Leningrad Group" or the "Genesis Group". The members of the group, most of them avant-garde poets, supported the ideology of the October Revolution, which they wanted to express in Hebrew, and fought for the Hebrew language's right to exist in Russia. During the 1920s, despite difficulties and persecutions by the government, they succeeded in publishing four Hebrew literary anthologies; the first of them being "Tsiltsele Shema" (Resounding Cymbals). The group continued its activity in Leningrad until 1927, when several of its members were arrested and exiled. The editor of "Tsiltsele Shema", Yosef Matov (Sa'aroni), was sentenced to exile to Siberia; however, in 1928, his punishment was changed to exile to Palestine. In Palestine he worked as a writer and translator of Russian literature.
32 pp, approx. 17.5X12.5 cm. Good condition. Dampstains and significant foxing. Uneven edges. Blemishes and open tears to cover, professionally restored. Placed in a fine cardboard case.
Not in OCLC.
2. Tsiltsele Shema, facsimile edition. Tel Aviv: Zohar Booksellers, 1968.
Facsimile edition of the "Tsiltsele Shema" anthology. Copy no. 46 from an edition of 100 copies.
[2], 32 pp, [1] leaf. Approx. 15X11.5 cm. Red, gilt-lettered binding. Very good condition.
Literature: "The Jews of Leningrad 1917-1939" (Hebrew), by Michael Beiser (The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 2005), pp. 320-328.