Personal archives of Pesakh Marek, Jewish public figure, folklorist and historian (Fond 9533, Opis1)

Pyotr (Pesakh) Marek (1862-1920) was born in Sheduva, Lithuania. He recived a traditional Jewish education as well as a secular one. During his studies at the law faculty of Moscow University, along with future prominent Zionist leaders such as Chlenov and Usyhskin, he took active part in the Bnei Zion Society. In 1888 Marek published his first research paper on the history of Jewish printing in Russia. In 1898, along with another prominent Jewish historian, Saul Ginsburg, Marek embarked on an expedition to collect authentic Jewish folk songs. The anthology of collected folk songs was published in 1901. This book became a cornerstone for development of the study of Jewish musical folklore. In 1909, Marek published research on the History of Education of Jews in Russia. Pesakh Marek was also the author of numerous publications on the History of Russian Jewry, published in Russian Jewish periodicals such as Voskhod, Evreyskiy Mir, Evreyskaya Starina and others.

Forms part of the Claims Conference International Holocaust Documentation Archive at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This archive consists of documentation whose reproduction and/or acquisition was made possible with funding from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

From the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF), Fond 9533, Opis 1. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the collection from the State Archive via the United States Holocaust Museum International Archives Project in June 2009.