1) Dina Abramowicz (1909-2000)
Sent on: 04/04/2000 14:53:35
With the passing of Dina Abramowicz, who died in New York City on Monday, April 3rd, we have lost one of our last vital links to Eastern European Jewish civilization. In her capacity as librarian of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (where she worked for over half a century) Dina would have disapproved being described as a symbol of Eastern European Jewry, though those who came in contact with her often regarded her as such. Symbols tend to be static, and there was nothing static about Dina's probing curiosity or her desire to learn new things, to be au courant with current events or the newest books to cross her desk.
Tenacity, energy, strength, and above all dedication -- these are the main characteristics that marked Dina Abramowicz's personality. She was dedicated to her work, to the public that she served, to the legacy of Vilna, and to the memory of her father, Hirsz Abramowicz. Dina was also blessed with a phenomenal memory, which she was always able to plumb for elusive facts and helpful research strategies. In addition, she was a polyglot, with native or near-native fluency in Russian, Yiddish, and Polish, and with a superb knowledge of English (which she learned as an adult).
Dina Abramowicz was a true product of the Haskalah, raised in a Russian-speaking home, educated in a Yiddish gymnasium and a Polish university -- life experiences that could hardly be replicated elsewhere than in her native Vilna during the first few decades of the 20th century. Perhaps it was the cross-cultural and multilingual environment that was her birthright that made her so open to the world at large. Her chosen profession, that of librarian, provided the ideal outlet for the development of her intellectual interests and her desire to educate the public.
She endured the traumas of Nazi occupation, and for a time was protected from the fate suffered by tens of thousands of Vilna Jews in 1941 by serving as a staff member of the Vilna Ghetto Library (which was led by Herman Kruk). She found refuge with Jewish partisans in the forests surrounding Vilna, and that enabled her to survive until liberation by the Soviet army, in 1944.
In 1946, Dina was reunited with her father, an educator and journalist who was visiting the United States when war broke out in 1939. Her association with YIVO began in 1947, and continued until the very end. (One of her YIVO Library volunteers, Elaine Adamenko, was with her when she died.) During the decades that she worked at YIVO she oversaw the acquisition and absorption of major collections (including pre-war holdings from Vilna that were restored to YIVO shortly after World War II), participated in ambitious Holocaust documentation projects, assisted thousands of readers (in person, by phone, fax and mail), compiled bibliographies, and published numerous articles in scholarly and more general-interest journals.
Dina Abramowicz was not one to call attention to her achievements. Once, when the idea of a festschrift was broached, she strongly objected because of the implication (in her mind) that its publication might signify that she had reached the end of her productive life. The premise of her protest indicated a fierce pride in her work, combined with a strong sense of personal privacy and a determination not to permit her name to become grist for anyone's mill (including her own). In later years she began to open up a bit, and both spoke and wrote about her experiences before and during World War II, most memorably at the 1998 convention of the Association of Jewish Libraries, in Philadelphia. Her lecture about the Vilna Ghetto library, "Guardians of a Tragic Heritage: Reminiscences and Observations of an Eyewitness," was published in the Association's proceedings and also issued as a separate publication by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture.
By and large, though, in her autobiographical writing Dina elected to focus on others rather than on herself. This was reflected in her touching memoir, "The World of My Parents," published in vol. 23 of the YIVO Annual (1996), and above all in the English translation of her father's book "Portraits of a Vanished World" (originally published in Yiddish as "Farshvundene geshtaltn"), which was published in 1999 by Wayne State University Press. In her later years, all of her energies were concentrated on getting that literary monument to her father's memory published, and she was profoundly grateful when it finally did come out.
If Dina's home was YIVO, she was also involved in other activities. She was belonged to a Workmen's Circle branch, and participated in the deliberations of that unique hometown organization, Nusakh Vilne. Dina attended plays, the opera, and films, and she read The New York Times with great scrutiny. During the years when YIVO was still located on Fifth Avenue she could often be spotted walking across Central Park, on her way home or to work. In short, she had become a genuine New Yorker.
All who knew Dina Abramowicz will doubtless realize that these hastily written thoughts barely scratch the surface of this complex and amazing individual. We will all miss her.
Zachary Baker
Tenacity, energy, strength, and above all dedication -- these are the main characteristics that marked Dina Abramowicz's personality. She was dedicated to her work, to the public that she served, to the legacy of Vilna, and to the memory of her father, Hirsz Abramowicz. Dina was also blessed with a phenomenal memory, which she was always able to plumb for elusive facts and helpful research strategies. In addition, she was a polyglot, with native or near-native fluency in Russian, Yiddish, and Polish, and with a superb knowledge of English (which she learned as an adult).
Dina Abramowicz was a true product of the Haskalah, raised in a Russian-speaking home, educated in a Yiddish gymnasium and a Polish university -- life experiences that could hardly be replicated elsewhere than in her native Vilna during the first few decades of the 20th century. Perhaps it was the cross-cultural and multilingual environment that was her birthright that made her so open to the world at large. Her chosen profession, that of librarian, provided the ideal outlet for the development of her intellectual interests and her desire to educate the public.
She endured the traumas of Nazi occupation, and for a time was protected from the fate suffered by tens of thousands of Vilna Jews in 1941 by serving as a staff member of the Vilna Ghetto Library (which was led by Herman Kruk). She found refuge with Jewish partisans in the forests surrounding Vilna, and that enabled her to survive until liberation by the Soviet army, in 1944.
In 1946, Dina was reunited with her father, an educator and journalist who was visiting the United States when war broke out in 1939. Her association with YIVO began in 1947, and continued until the very end. (One of her YIVO Library volunteers, Elaine Adamenko, was with her when she died.) During the decades that she worked at YIVO she oversaw the acquisition and absorption of major collections (including pre-war holdings from Vilna that were restored to YIVO shortly after World War II), participated in ambitious Holocaust documentation projects, assisted thousands of readers (in person, by phone, fax and mail), compiled bibliographies, and published numerous articles in scholarly and more general-interest journals.
Dina Abramowicz was not one to call attention to her achievements. Once, when the idea of a festschrift was broached, she strongly objected because of the implication (in her mind) that its publication might signify that she had reached the end of her productive life. The premise of her protest indicated a fierce pride in her work, combined with a strong sense of personal privacy and a determination not to permit her name to become grist for anyone's mill (including her own). In later years she began to open up a bit, and both spoke and wrote about her experiences before and during World War II, most memorably at the 1998 convention of the Association of Jewish Libraries, in Philadelphia. Her lecture about the Vilna Ghetto library, "Guardians of a Tragic Heritage: Reminiscences and Observations of an Eyewitness," was published in the Association's proceedings and also issued as a separate publication by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture.
By and large, though, in her autobiographical writing Dina elected to focus on others rather than on herself. This was reflected in her touching memoir, "The World of My Parents," published in vol. 23 of the YIVO Annual (1996), and above all in the English translation of her father's book "Portraits of a Vanished World" (originally published in Yiddish as "Farshvundene geshtaltn"), which was published in 1999 by Wayne State University Press. In her later years, all of her energies were concentrated on getting that literary monument to her father's memory published, and she was profoundly grateful when it finally did come out.
If Dina's home was YIVO, she was also involved in other activities. She was belonged to a Workmen's Circle branch, and participated in the deliberations of that unique hometown organization, Nusakh Vilne. Dina attended plays, the opera, and films, and she read The New York Times with great scrutiny. During the years when YIVO was still located on Fifth Avenue she could often be spotted walking across Central Park, on her way home or to work. In short, she had become a genuine New Yorker.
All who knew Dina Abramowicz will doubtless realize that these hastily written thoughts barely scratch the surface of this complex and amazing individual. We will all miss her.
Zachary Baker