Fanny Goldstein

Goldstein, Fanny (1888-26 Dec. 1961), librarian and bibliographer, was born in Kamanetsk-Padolsk, Russia, the daughter of Philip Goldstein and Bella Spillberg. Soon after she was born, her family emigrated to the United States, settling in the North End in Boston, Massachusetts, by 1900. Because her father died at an early age, leaving her mother with five children, Goldstein's education was limited. There are no records of her attendance at school after the ninth grade. Later, as a young librarian, she took a few courses as a special student at Simmons College, Boston College, and Harvard University, but she never completed a degree.

In 1909 Goldstein obtained her first library position as assistant to Edith Guerrier at the North End Branch of the Boston Public Library. Guerrier was founder of the Saturday Evening Girls Club, which sponsored educational and cultural activities for immigrant girls. Goldstein edited its newsletter, the S.E.G. News, from 1912 to 1917. She remained active in the organization, acting as mentor to the younger girls, until it disbanded in 1917, and she maintained ties to some of the women as an adult. In 1917 she became a reference assistant at the central library. Two years later she transferred to the Tyler Street Branch, and in 1922 she became librarian at the West End Branch, where she remained for the rest of her career.

As the head of a branch library, Goldstein had some freedom to shape the collection and determine its direction. Influenced by her own experiences as an immigrant as well as her contacts with Guerrier, she tried to make the library more responsive to the immigrant communities of the West End by building up collections in Yiddish, Polish, and Italian. Soon, however, she began to focus her efforts on the American Jewish community. From 1931 to 1940 she published two bibliographies under the title "Judaica," with supplements called "Recent Judaica," as part of the Boston Public Library's Brief Reading List series. These bibliographies, listing books owned by the library, consituted one of the first attempts to publish an American Judaica bibliography for the general reader.

In 1925 Goldstein began a tradition that would become her legacy to Jewish library history. In December she put up a display of Jewish books, most in English, under a large menorah and posted a banner to encourage the giving of books as Hanukkah gifts. The exhibit was well received, and she repeated it the next year. In 1927 Rabbi S. Felix Mendelssohn of Chicago, Illinois, called for the observance of a Jewish book week, to be held during Lag b'Omer, the Scholars' Festival. Thus, Jewish Book Week, inspired by Goldstein's exhibit, became an annual celebration marked by exhibits, lectures, and readings in public libraries, synagogues, and Jewish community centers across the United States and Canada. Beginning in 1940, because of the strong association with gift giving, Jewish Book Week was celebrated during Hanukkah each year.

The observance of Jewish Book Week was coordinated in Boston by the Boston Jewish Book Week Committee, founded in 1930 and headed by Goldstein. The National Committee for Jewish Book Week was organized in 1940, with Goldstein serving as chair for the first year and after that as honorary chair along with Mendelssohn. The committee published the first Jewish Book Annual in 1942; offering articles and bibliographies in English, Hebrew, and Yiddish, it has remained an important guide to Jewish publishing in the United States. In 1943 the Jewish Book Council took over the duties of the national committee, and Jewish Book Week was extended to become Jewish Book Month. Goldstein was honorary president of the council from 1944 until her death.

In addition to her activities promoting Jewish books, Goldstein took a keen interest in interfaith efforts in Boston. She was a member of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and with her encouragement the conference established a Religious Book Week and published a list of the fifty best books on Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism. Goldstein was well known in Boston for her Christmas-Hanukkah parties, invitation-only affairs intended to bring together influential members of the Jewish and Christian communities.

One of the roles Goldstein enjoyed most was mentor to aspiring American Jewish writers. She corresponded with writers such as Mary Antin, Charles Angoff, and Rachel Baker, inviting them to speak at Jewish Book Week events and arranging interviews to publicize their work. She often wrote enthusiastic reviews of their works for local newspapers and took personal pride in their success.

Until she retired in 1957, Goldstein remained active in Jewish Book Month. She also built up the collection of Judaica at the West End Branch. In 1954 this collection was moved to the central library and named the Fanny Goldstein Collection of Judaica; Goldstein was named curator. After she retired, she worked on the collection as curator emeritus.

Goldstein died in Boston. She had never married. Although she never attained a library degree, her activist vision of librarianship enabled her to make the West End Branch a vital neighborhood center. Her bibliographies and tireless promotion of Jewish Book Month helped to increase the audience for Jewish books.

Bibliography

Goldstein's correspondence is in the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati, Ohio. Other papers form an unprocessed collection at the Boston Public Library. The S.E.G. News is in the American Jewish Historical Society in Waltham, Mass. Goldstein's published writings include the "Judaica" bibliographies, Brief Reading List No. 44 (1931 and 1934). Supplements were published in 1936 and 1937. In addition, she published several bibliographies of Jewish children's books in the Jewish Book Annual, among them "The Jewish Child in Bookland," 5 (1946-1947): 84-100. "Jewish Fiction in English" was published in the American Jewish Yearbook, vol. 43 (1941-1942). Suggestive Material for the Observance of Jewish Book Week was published for 1938 and 1939. She also compiled "Bibliographic Material on the Jewish Woman," in The Jewish Library, ed. Leo Jung (1934). Goldstein wrote many articles, the most widely read of which was "Reading for Democracy," Wilson Library Bulletin, Feb. 1944, pp. 452-53. Another is "The Story of a Book Contest," Wilson Bulletin for Librarians 7, no. 2 (Oct. 1932): 118-20. Goldstein also wrote an autobiography and a history of the West End Branch. To her frustration, these were never published, and no copies of either survive.

Joy Kingsolver

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Russian rule (1793–1915)

After the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, the city belonged to the Russian Empire, where it was the capital of the Podolia Governorate.