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YIVO

Coordinates:40°44′17″N73°59′38″W/ 40.738047°N 73.993821°W/40.738047; -73.993821
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YIVO
Front entrance of YIVO inNew York City
Map
Established1925(1925)
Location15 West 16th Street,Manhattan,New York, United States
Coordinates40°44′17″N73°59′38″W/ 40.738047°N 73.993821°W/40.738047; -73.993821
DirectorJonathan Brent
Public transit accessSubway:14th Street–Union Square
WebsiteYIVO

YIVO(Yiddish:ייִוואָ,pronounced[jɪˈvɔ]) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well asorthography,lexicography,and other studies related to Yiddish. Established in 1925 in Wilno in theSecond Polish Republic(nowVilnius,Lithuania) as theYiddish Scientific Institute(Yiddish:ייִדישער וויסנשאַפֿטלעכער אינסטיטוט,romanized:Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut,pronounced[ˈjɪdɪʃɛrˈvɪsn̩ʃaftlɛχɛrɪnstɪˈtʊt];[1]the wordyidishermeans both "Yiddish" and "Jewish" ).

Its English name becameInstitute for Jewish Researchafter its relocation to New York City, but it is still known mainly by its Yiddish acronym. YIVO is now a partner of theCenter for Jewish History,and serves as thede factorecognizedlanguage regulatorof the Yiddish language in the secular world. The YIVO system is commonly taught in universities and known asklal shprakh(Yiddish:כּלל־שפּראַך,lit. 'standard language') and sometimes "YIVO Yiddish" (Yiddish:ייִוואָ־ייִדיש).

Activities

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YIVO preserves manuscripts, rare books, and diaries, and other Yiddish sources. The YIVO Library in New York contains over 385,000 volumes[1]dating from as early as the 16th century.[1][2]Approximately 40,000 volumes are in Yiddish, making the YIVO Library the largest collection of Yiddish-language works in the world.[3]The YIVO archives hold over 23,000,000 documents, photographs, recordings, posters, films, and other artifacts.[1]Together, they comprise the world's largest collection of materials related to the history and culture of Central andEast European Jewryand theAmerican Jewishimmigrant experience.[1]The archives and library collections include works in twelve major languages,[4]includingEnglish,French,German,Hebrew,Russian,Polish,andJudaeo-Spanish.[4]

YIVO also functions as a publisher of Yiddish-language books and of periodicals includingYIVO Bleter[5](founded 1931),Yedies Fun YIVO(founded 1929), andYidishe Shprakh(founded 1941). It is also responsible for English-language publications such as theYIVO Annual of Jewish Social Studies(founded 1946).

History

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YIVO was initially proposed by Yiddishlinguistand writerNochum Shtif(1879–1933). He characterized his advocacy of Yiddish as "realistic"Zionism,contrasted to the "visionary"Hebraistsand the "self-hating"assimilationistswho adoptedRussianorPolish.Other key founders includedphilologistMax Weinreich(1894–1969) and historianElias Tcherikower(1881–1943).[6]

YIVO was founded at aBerlinconference in 1925, but headquartered in Vilnius, a city with a large Jewish population in theSecond Polish Republic.The early YIVO also had branches inBerlin,Warsawand New York City. Over the next decade, smaller groups arose in many of the other countries withAshkenazipopulations.

In YIVO's first decades, Tcherikover headed the historical research section, which also includedSimon Dubnow,Saul M. Ginsburg,Abraham Menes,andJacob Shatzky.Leibush Lehrer(1887–1964) headed a section including psychologists and educatorsAbraham Golomb,H. S. Kasdan,andAbraham Aaron Roback.Jacob Lestschinsky(1876–1966) headed a section of economists and demographersBen-Adir,Liebmann Hersch,andMoshe Shalit.Weinreich's language and literature section includedJudah Leib Cahan,Alexander Harkavy,Judah A. Joffe,Zelig Kalmanovich,Shmuel Niger,Noach Pryłucki,andZalman Reisen.[7]YIVO also collected and preserved ethnographic materials under the direction of its Ethnographic Committee.[8]In 1925, YIVO's honorary board of trustees or "Curatorium" consisted ofSimon Dubnow,Albert Einstein,Sigmund Freud,Moses Gaster,Edward SapirandChaim Zhitlowsky.

From 1934 to 1940, YIVO operated a graduate training program known as theAspirantur.Named afterZemach Shabad,YIVO's chairman, the program held classes and guided students in conducting original research in the field of Jewish studies. Many of the students' projects were sociological in nature (reflecting the involvement ofMax Weinreich) and gathered information on contemporary Jewish life in the Vilna region.[9]

TheNaziadvance into Eastern Europe caused YIVO to move its operations to New York City. A second important center, known as the Fundacion IWO, was established inBuenos Aires,Argentina.[10]All four directors of YIVO's research sections were already in the Americas when the war broke out or were able to make their way there.[11]The organization's new headquarters were established in New York City. A portion of the Vilna archives was ransacked by the Nazis and sent to Frankfurt to become the basis ofan antisemitic department of the Nazis' planned university.In 1946, the U.S. Army recovered these documents and sent them to YIVO in New York.[12]

The YIVO Library was looted by the Germans and theERR,but an organization that called itself "The Paper Brigade"were able to smuggle out many books and preserve them from destruction.[13]These materials were then saved from the Soviets by a Lithuanian librarian, Antanas Ulpis. These materials are now held in the Lithuanian Central State Archives and Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania.[12]In 2014, with the cooperation of the government of the Republic of Lithuania, Brent established the landmarkEdward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections projectat The YIVO Institute to preserve and digitize over 1.5 million documents and approximately 12,200 books representing 500 years of Jewish history in Eastern Europe and Russia.[14]

In addition to New York City and Buenos Aires, the Chicago YIVO Society is a third center active today.[15]

Publications

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YIVO has undertaken many major scholarly publication projects, the most recent beingThe YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe,published in March 2008 in cooperation with Yale University Press.[16]Under the leadership of editor-in-chiefGershon David Hundert,professor of history and of Jewish Studies atMcGill UniversityinMontreal,this unprecedented reference work systematically represents the history and culture of Eastern European Jews from their first settlement in the region to the present day. More than 1,800 Alpha betical entries encompass a vast range of topics including religion, folklore, politics, art, music, theater, language and literature, places, organizations, intellectual movements, and important figures. The two-volume set also features more than 1,000 illustrations and 55 maps. With original contributions from an international team of 450 distinguished scholars, the encyclopedia covers the region between Germany and theUral Mountains,from which more than 2.5 million Jews emigrated to the United States between 1870 and 1920.

See also

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References

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Notes

  1. ^abcde"About The OTC | YIVO Institute for Jewish Research | One Thousand Children".YIVO Institute for Jewish Research | One Thousand Children.
  2. ^"YIVO Institute for Jewish Research | Overview of Library Collections".[permanent dead link]
  3. ^"Overview of Library".YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.RetrievedFebruary 28,2019.
  4. ^ab"Overview of Library".YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
  5. ^"YIVO Institute for Jewish Research | YIVO in the United States".Archived fromthe originalon March 5, 2007.RetrievedNovember 11,2007.
  6. ^Liptzin, Sol (1972).A History of Yiddish Literature.Middle Village, NY: Jonathan David Publishers. pp.127–130, 133.ISBN0-8246-0124-6.
  7. ^Liptzin, 1972, 130, 133
  8. ^"Guide to the Records of the YIVO Ethnographic Committeeundated, 1885-1941RG 1.2".RetrievedAugust 4,2015.
  9. ^"Guide to the Records of the YIVO Aspirantur1934-1940RG 1.3".RetrievedAugust 4,2015.
  10. ^"Fundación IWO".Archived fromthe originalon August 12, 2015.RetrievedAugust 4,2015.
  11. ^Liptzin, 1972, 3, 133
  12. ^ab"YIVO Announces $1,160,000 Challenge Grant for International Project to Preserve Prewar Library and Archives".YIVO Institute for Jewish Research | The Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections.RetrievedFebruary 28,2019.
  13. ^Fishman, David E.The Book Smugglers: Partisans, Poets, and the Race to Save Jewish Treasures from the Nazis.2017.n
  14. ^"Scope of Project".YIVO Institute for Jewish Research | The Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections.RetrievedFebruary 28,2019.
  15. ^"Chicago Yivo Society".RetrievedAugust 4,2015.
  16. ^"The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe – Hundert, Gershon David; YIVO Institute for Jewish Research – Yale University Press".Yalepress.yale.edu. May 28, 2008.RetrievedAugust 10,2015.

Bibliography

Further reading

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