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[Cooperatives] : GEZETSN VEGN KOOPERATIVN

Vilna: Farlag Yidishe Kooperative Folksbibliotek, 1925

1st edition. Original printed paper wrappers, 12mo, [104] pages. In Yiddish. Title translates as, “Laws About Cooperatives.” 1 of 1000 copies printed. “Serie II No. 1. Handbikher.” By 1906, “across the Pale of Settlement….there were already 58 savings and loan funds (Yid., lay kase or shpar kase), and in the following two years, 280 additional funds were created. By 1915, there were 699 funds across the Russian Empire, with 450,000 members, more than 90 percent of whom were Jewish. Since to be eligible for membership one had to be the head of a household, it is estimated that about half of Russian Jews were members of a savings and loan fund…. World War I destroyed or at least silenced the cooperative organizations that extended petty credit. Between 1919 and 1920, attempts were made, especially in the Vilna region, to rehabilitate the lay kase and shpar kase, as well as the cooperative banks. In 1921, the Zwiazek Zydowskich Towarzystw Spóldzielczych w Polsce (Union of Jewish Cooperative Societies) was founded in Warsaw. This organization enjoyed the full support of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the ICA. Partisan organizations, professionals, and groups of people with political aims or interests also established credit cooperatives, which were sometimes called 'communal banks' or 'popular banks.' All of these cooperatives extended loans to their members to be repaid in the short to medium term. The credit societies that extended small to moderate loans proved exceedingly resilient and succeeded in withstanding the Polish fiscal crisis of 1923. However, the Great Depression led to a decline (see Table 1). During the 1930s, cooperative organizations suffered hardships because of the significant impoverishment of those classes in Jewish society (mainly artisans and petty merchants) to which they would provide credit on easy terms. Numbers of members, independent capital, and the sum total of the deposits diminished considerably….Jewish mutual loan societies in Lithuania were called ‘popular banks.’ A well-developed and well-organized system, they recorded their best year in 1931 when the consortium of banks claimed a membership of 23,000 Jews. In 1937 this number declined to 15,728.” (Marcos Silber in YIVO Encyclopedia). OCLC: 233372546. OCLC lists only 1 copy worldwide (NLI). Institutional stamp and pencil notation on cover, Very Good Condition, a beautiful copy. Rare and Important (YID-43-31)

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