The Private Archives of Simon Dubnow
Simon Dubnow personally compiled this unique historical collection of documents relating to Jewish history from 1890 onwards. This collection can be viewed on microfiche in the library of the Dubnow Institute. The documents are in Russian, Yiddish, and Hebrew, and to a lesser extent in English, German, and Spanish, and they belong to the so-called Dubnow Collection at the YIVO Institute in New York.
A finding aid is available online.
The collection encompasses:
- historical documents on state restrictions and privileges concerning Jewish populations, such as ritual murder trials and papers of the Russian Ministry of Justice from around 1800
- documents on Hassidism and Hassidic rabbis
- private documents such as the correspondence between Dubnow’s grandfather, Rabbi Benzion Dubnow, and other family members
- correspondence between Dubnow and other notables (such as Maxim Winawer, Max Weinreich, Chaim Zhitlowsky, and Martin Buber), and
- personal notes concerning political events, historical sources, meetings, etc.