Featured Artifact: Elias Tcherikower (1881-1943)

by YAKOV SKLAR

Elias Tcherikower was a founding member of YIVO in Vilna, a member of its Executive Committee, and Chairman of YIVO’s Historical Section from 1925-1940. In addition to this, Tcherikower was a historian and political activist. During the course of his career, Tcherikower was involved in a project to collect and publish documents on pogroms in the Ukraine; took an active role in the 1926-1927 defense of Shalom Schwarzbard; was involved in the 1934-1935 trial in Berne, Switzerland, regarding the Protocols of the Elders of Zion; and contributed to and edited many Russian and Yiddish periodicals, anthologies, and encyclopedias.

Found in Tcherikower’s collection, which is being digitized as part of the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections Project, is his personal writing set. These mahogany, European-made writing tools likely traveled with him from Berlin (1929-1933) to Paris (1933-1940) to New York (1940-1943). The set contains seven items including an inkwell, pen stand, pen rest, and letter opener.

Yakov Sklar is an Archival Processing Manager at YIVO, working on the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections Project.