(ft) 8vo. 218 pages. Illustrated. In Yiddish. First edition. English title: Fight against gambling among Jews : a study of five centuries of Jewish poetry and cultural history. SUBJECT(S) : Yiddish poetry – history and criticism; Jews – gambling. CONTENTS: Preface; Old-Yiddish gambling songs; Games of chance in the folksong; Modern gambling songs; A letter and a lampoon on the lottery; Solomon Deukler's humoresque; Gambling terminology; Supplements; Indices. “Rivkind [1895-1968] was born in Lodz, Poland, and studied at the yeshivot of Volozhin and Ponevezh. During World War I and after he helped organize the Mizrachi movement of Poland. In 1917 he founded the Ze'irei Mizrachi in Lodz and in 1919–20 was a member of the Jewish National Council of Poland. In 1920 he was a delegate to the London Zionist Conference and from there proceeded to the U. S. To work on behalf of Mizrachi. In 1923 he began to work in the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York, eventually becoming chief of the Hebraica section. He was a co-founder of the U. S. Branch of the Yiddish Scientific Institute; on the executive of the Hebrew PEN Club of the U. S. A. ; and a fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research. During World War II and in the immediate postwar years he was the national chairman in the U. S. Of the League for Religious Labor in Palestine. Rivkind was the author of significant studies and essays in many fields, notably in Jewish bibliography, ethnography and folklore, Yiddish philology, and Zionism. He contributed to numerous periodicals and publications in Hebrew, Yiddish, and English...” (EJ, 2007) White paint splattered on spine, otherwise good condition. (RAB-26-2)