YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

The Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut (YIVO) was founded in 1925 by a group of Jewish scholars and intellectuals from Berlin, Vilnius and New York. Their goal was to create a research institution dedicated to the study and preservation of Jewish culture in Eastern Europe, Germany and Russia. Its headquarters were established in Vilnius (then known as Vilna/Wilno), at the time a Polish city and a center of Yiddish culture. The YIVO rapidly became known for its original and high-quality scholarship. Ordinary Jews too embraced the institute, seeing it as a symbol of Jewish national pride. Its commitment to the use and study of Yiddish has been one of the pillars of the YIVO since its inception. The YIVO developed standards for Yiddish spelling and transliteration, as well as many instruments such as Uriel Weinreich’s College Yiddish (1949). The collectors (zamler) of the YIVO gathered archives, books, manuscripts, photographs and other materials from all over Poland, Europe and the Americas. In Belgium too, a satellite of the YIVO (YWO Belgique) existed, represented by zamler such as David Trocki and Azario Dobruszkes. In 1941, the YIVO in Vilnius was closed by the German occupier and its rich collections partially destroyed, partially looted by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg. Idealistic staff and the Jewish ‘Paper Brigade’ of the ERR tried to save as much as possible, and parts of the collections resurfaced after the war. Director Max Weinreich reestablished the YIVO in New York – at first temporarily but soon permanently, given the scope of the Shoah and the devastation of the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe. From its headquarters in the United States, the YIVO continued to promote research, create exhibitions, publish books and journals (such as Yidishe Sprakh), organise yearly conferences and Yiddish language programs, … In 1999 the institute relocated to the Center for Jewish History. Recent developments include the ongoing efforts to digitise the archival collections and library catalog, the launch of online tools such as the Guide to the YIVO Archives (2013), the publication of The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe (2008), …