Books for children, published by a publishing house Slinktys together with the Lithuanian Jewish (Litvak) community, were presented at the Children’s Literature Museum in Kaunas on December 14. These are Leib Kvitko’s “In the Forest” (illustrations by Issachar Ryback) and Bentsiyen Raskin’s “The Chicken Who Wanted the Comb” (illustrations by El Lissitzky). Juozas Žitkauskas, the leader of Slinktys and this project, took part in the event, and the head of the museum, Daiva Šarkanauskaitė, gave a playful presentation. The latter museum is a division of the Maironis Museum of Lithuanian Literature.
These are the last publications of the project Translation and Publishing of the Yiddish Children’s Books this year. A total of 5 books on this project have been published. In addition to the above mentioned, Perec Markiš’s “Rooster the Read Head” (illustrations by Y. Tchaikovsky), Mani Leib’s ” Tongue the Great” (illustrations by El Lissitzky), and Leib Kvitko’s “Kitten” (illustrations by Josif Daic) have previously been published. All the books are sound recorded by actor Eimantas Bareikis. The music tracks for them were created by Simon Gimelstein. You can listen by scanning the QR code, which is printed on the book flaps.
The books were translated from Yiddish by Roza Bieliauskienė and Dominykas Norkūnas, and edited by Aistis Žekevičius and Rasa Milerytė.
All five books are the beginning of the YIVO library. The first editions of books in Yiddish appeared about 100 years ago. The originals are archived in the e-library of the YIVO Institute, and the Institute itself is a partner in this project. Original illustrations are published in the books.
The project was partially financed by the Good Will Foundation.
You can buy the books on GWF e-shop: https://gvf.lt/en/e-shop/
Photos © Rokas Bagočiūnas
