Censorship! Persmuseum IISG

1800-1900: Struggling against Censorship
Prayer full of devotion...
Tefiloh zokhoh leyoim ulekhol yemoys hashonoh,
1905
[Prayer full of devotion for the High Feast Days and for every day. Contains anti-religious propaganda in Yiddish]
Yiddish prayer booklets, 1888-1905
These booklets originate from the early Jewish socialist and anarchist movement in Europe. The very small pamphlets in pocket format were printed as prayer booklets by Jewish anarchists and students of the Talmud. Their size was small so as to enable large numbers of them to be smuggled over the Russian border simultaneously, often in the wide trousers and coats of Talmud students who were checked less rigorously because of their religious dress. The title and the cover served to camouflage the text, in which the Jewish feast of Passover, dedicated to the memory of the exodus from Egypt, was used to illustrate that Jewish workers were now slaves of Capitalism. The anarchists even went a step further by using the prayers to show that no God exists. According to them, all religions (including the Jewish one) were invented to oppress the poor and keep them meek.
More information on the Yiddish collection of the IISH.
Call number: IISG
Bro 3211/11
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