This project began by identifying, gathering, and digitising almost the entire collection of Stencl’s Yiddish literary journals, including his earlier hetflekh (pamphlets) which were published between 1940 and 1946. The earliest pamphlets particularly those published from 1940 to 1942 were small publications of just a few pages, mainly featuring Stencl’s war poems. They were printed by Narod Press in Whitechapel who continued printing all subsequent issues for the next forty years for free being great supporters of the Yiddish poet and his Yiddish activities.

After 1943, these hetflekh developed and expanded into larger volumes, featuring contributions from other Yiddish writers and poets. However, Stencl remained the primary contributor, editor, and main distributor. From issue 72, published in January 1946, the magazine officially became known as the literary journal Loshn un lebn (Language & Life). It ran almost continuously every month until 1981. Around 325 issues were produced during this period, although the exact number is uncertain. The early pamphlets were inconsistently numbered, and some were not numbered at all. With the help of numerous institutions and individuals, the project team has tracked down, digitised, and shared here 311 issues, which were scattered across national and international archives and private collections. Combined this digital collection represents the largest freely accessible digitised collection of Stencl’s Yiddish magazines available anywhere.

Because these copies come from many different sources, there are variations in quality and format, for example a few of the very rare early issues of his hetflekh only survive as photocopies. Each journal is presented exactly as scanned, unaltered in condition, colour, or appearance. Some editions, particularly those from private collections, include Stencl’s own handwritten annotations and notes adding to their distinctiveness. This is a unique digital archive of a treasured collection of Yiddish magazines that document all aspects of Yiddish language, life and culture spanning a forty year period. 

To explore the contents of each edition in English, please use the LL Content Pages menu.