THE DIARY OF ABRAHAM RECHTMAN FROM THE AN-SKY EXPEDITION, 1913–1914

This text introduces and contextualizes the publication of an archival document – part of the field diary of Abraham Rechtman, who participated in a large-scale ethnographic expedition in Right-Bank Ukraine led by S. An-sky between 1912 and 1914. While An-sky’s expedition aimed to collect and preserve Jewish folklore and cultural artifacts, its paperwork was largely lost due to historical upheavals, making Rechtman’s previously unexamined diary an important rediscovery. Specifically, this is the single notebook donated to the Eretz Israel Museum that covers the period from September 1913 to January 1914. It details Rechtman’s solo work and the expedition’s evolving methods, thus contributing significantly to an understanding of this outstanding project. Ultimately, Rechtman’s diary provides invaluable insight into how the expedition interwove the documentation of the “vanishing world” of the Jewish Pale with an acute awareness of the present and a vision for the future.