YIVO Receives Grant for New Scholar-in-Residence

New York, New York - The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is pleased to announce a three-year, $75,000 grant for a new scholar-in-residence. The Vilna Collections Scholar will contextualize the archival and library materials in YIVO’s Vilna Collections for educational and individual use. The 2016 Vilna Collections Scholar is Alyssa Quint. She will primarily focus on the Esther Rokhl Kaminska Theater Museum Collection. Scholars for 2017 and 2018 will be named in the future.

Alyssa Quint received her Ph. D. from Harvard University and was a research fellow at Penn's Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Quint has taught Yiddish literature at a number of universities, most recently at Columbia University where she is now organizing a conference, co-sponsored by YIVO, on Women and the Yiddish Theater (July 2016). She has lectured and published extensively on Yiddish culture and has recently completed a manuscript on Avrom Goldfaden and the beginning of the modern Yiddish theater entitled "The Social Life of Jewish Theater."

As the Vilna Collections Scholar, Quint will complete a survey of Esther Rokhl Kaminska Theater Museum and curate online exhibitions and develop content featuring collection artifacts. She will create online courses, educational resources, and presentations based on the Esther Rokhl Kaminska Theater Museum Collection. As a scholar-in-residence, Quint will also deliver a public lecture on the program and conduct “lunchtime talk” for students of the Uriel Weinreich intensive summer Yiddish program on archival research and dissertation writing.

“We are thrilled to have Alyssa Quint as our first Vilna Collections scholar.  Her knowledge and experience will add immeasurably to the accessibility of this invaluable collection to a global public.”
—Jonathan Brent, Executive Director, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

The Vilna Collections Scholar-in-Residence was created by a generous anonymous donor. The grant will be spread over three years and will be an annual appointment.

For press inquiries, contact:

Melissa S. Cohen
Chief Development Officer
(212) 294-6156

Sarah Ponichtera
Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Collections Project Manager
(212) 294-6119

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is the leading academic center for East European and Russian Jewish Studies in the world, specializing in Yiddish language, literature, and folklore; the Holocaust; and the American Jewish experience.  YIVO preserves, studies, shares and perpetuates knowledge of the history and culture of East European Jewry to advance scholarship, to strengthen community and lay a foundation of self-knowledge and pride for future generations. www.yivo.org

The YIVO Vilna Collections Project

The YIVO Vilna Collections is a seven-year international project to preserve, digitize and virtually reunite YIVO’s pre-war archives located in New York City and Vilnius, Lithuania, through a dedicated web portal. The YIVO Vilna Collections will also digitally reconstruct the historic Strashun Library of Vilna, one of the great prewar libraries in Europe. The project partners are the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, The Central State Archives of Lithuania, and the National Library of Lithuania. A strategic plan for the project was completed in January 2014. Total project costs are estimated at $5.6 million. https://vilnacollections.yivo.org/