בריװ

איך האָב געהאָפֿט אױסהענגען אַ פֿילם פֿון פּױלן פֿאַר דער מלחמה, אָבער דאָ אין לאַנד איז נישטיק דרוקרעכט נאַרישקײטן

דאָ איז דער בריװ איך האָב געשריבט


To Whom It May Concern:

I was very disappointed this afternoon to find that a YouTube video of Jewish life in Bialystok (in Yiddish, with English subtitles) was “no longer available due to a copyright claim by The Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive”. I had planed to embed the video on my Yiddish blog to illustrate the Jewish people’s great past, the widespread use of the Yiddish language, and the rich culture that surrounded it. After being notified of the film’s unavailability on YouTube, I decided to check out your organization’s website to look for the film in question. I was unable to find such a Yiddish version, as your database contained only an English version. Even if your website did have the correct version, I would not have been able to embed and disseminate it on the internet. While I am extremely proud of and ecstatic about the existence of both Mr. Spielberg’s Book Center and Film Archive, I stand firm believing that no one organization owns the history of the Jewish people, nor the “rights” to such history. By having the video removed from YouTube, our youth has been denied a beautiful film depicting Jewish life prior to the Holocaust. I am thoroughly disappointed that your organization has put its petty copyrights over the right of the Jewish people to view and disseminate its history. I pray that your organization drops its unwarranted copyright claim, and allow the history of the Jewish people to be disseminated on sites like YouTube and others. I repeat: no one organization owns the history of the Jewish people, nor the “rights” to such history! At this stage in the Jewish people’s existence, where assimilation is sweeping up the children of the Diaspora, the tools to bring them back to a Jewish identity should not be kept in a lockbox labeled “Property of The Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive”. I of beg you, allow the dissemination of your organization’s film archive, or your organization is in fact doing a disservice to the Jewish people, especially its youth.


With utmost sincerity,
Warner Palmer Bass