Activity of Bernard Goldman Circle of the Association of Folk School in LVIV (1905 - 1914)

Abstract

At the turn of 19th and 20th century, Lviv was one of the largest concentrations of Jewish population in Central-East Europe. The city boasted the milieu of enlightened Jews, the supporters of so-called Haskalah. In 1905, Jews assimilating to Polish culture established in Lviv a branch of the Association of Folk School. This Association was set up in the year 1891 in order to develop education amongst Jewish population in Eastern Galicia. The task of the circle in Lviv was conducting educational-cultural activity among Jews. Free-of-charge reading rooms and libraries for adults and young people were run. The activity was not restricted to the capital city of Galicia; its reading rooms were open in 22 towns and cities of Eastern Galicia, including those, among others, in Lviv, Brody, Przemyśl, Sokal, Stryj and Żół- kiew. In the reading rooms, courses for the illiterate were organized, popular-scientific lectures delivered, and also theatrical and musical performances presented; sightseeing trips, the celebrations of national holidays and the anniversaries connected with people of merit for Polish cultures: writers, musicians and national heroes were organized as well. Jews and Poles collaborated within the structures of the circle.