“Enchanted we whirl in the dance of youth”

Oyf vaytkeytn krayznde fal ikh by Dawid Zitman, Himlen in opgrunt by Chaim Krul and Zwischen dem Abend- und Morgenrot by Rahel Lipstein are three extraordinary books of poetry, published in 1921 in Łódź by the ephemeral Achrid publishing house. Their uniqueness is associated not only with their authors’ literary search, but even more with the technique of publication: the books were graphically designed by three young Jewish artists, Ida Brauner, Esther Karp and Dina Matus, who made linocuts of individual pages and provided the poetic text with rich graphic elements. Then, after making the prints, the pages were hand colored. The unusual typographic design of the publications resulted from the connections between the authors of these books with the Jewish avant-garde group Yung Yiddish, whose activity, although short-lived, covering the years 1918–1921, was a kind of “a period of storm and stress” in Jewish art in Łódź. 

Th publication attempts to save from oblivion and present to contemporary readers the works of the representatives of the Łódź Jewish avant-garde from the beginning of the interwar period. It commemorates the hundredth anniversary of publication by the Achrid publishing house of the extraordinary books, which today are bibliophilic rara avis.