Gotha Manuscript Talks: From Jaffa to Alexandria to Paris: The Extraordinary Journey of Betsalel Frenkel’s Yiddish Book Collection

This talk will explore the remarkable story of the Yiddish book collection assembled by Betsalel Frenkel (1871–1939), a multifaceted figure who worked as a bookseller, librarian, furniture maker, and animation filmmaker. Born in Rechytsa (today Belarus), Frenkel emigrated to Palestine (Jaffa) in 1905, where he lived until 1914. Then he moved to Alexandria, where he and his sons became pioneers of Arabic cartoons and creators of the famous Mish Mish Efendi films. While the Frenkel Brothers are known today primarily for their cinematic work, this presentation focuses on Betsalel’s precious Yiddish library/bookstore collection, which offers a unique window into the transfer of Ashkenazi literary and intellectual culture from Eastern Europe to Palestine and Egypt in the first half of the 20th century. The collection, which was sealed in a French cellar in the 1950s and rediscovered only in the 1990s alongside the film reels of Mish Mish Efendi, includes books obtained through documented relationships with Eastern European bookstores, volumes printed in Egypt itself, and unique artifacts binding Arabic and Yiddish materials together. Now housed in the Medem Library in Paris, this largely unstudied collection illuminates the complex geographical and cultural trajectories of Yiddish print culture in the Middle East and North Africa.

Tal Hever-Chybowski is a scholar, educator, and cultural activist specializing in Yiddish and Jewish history. From 2014 to 2025, he directed the Paris Yiddish Center – Medem Library. Since 2025, he serves as a research associate at the Seminar for Jewish Studies at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. He has taught Yiddish language and literature at all levels at institutions including YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the Yiddish Book Center, the Free University of Berlin, the University of Basel, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, the University of Mannheim, The Yiddish Summer Seminar in Warsaw, and others internationally.