YIVO Press Releases

Two legends come together at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research’s 13th Annual Heritage Gala: Theodore Bikel and Sholem Aleichem. Theodore Bikel – world-renowned actor, singer, author, and activist – was honored with YIVO’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his commitment to popularizing Yiddish culture. YIVO also announced the creation of the Sholem Aleichem Family Legacy Collection donated in memory of Bel Kaufman, Sholem Aleichem’s granddaughter, by her children, Thea and Jon Goldstine. The collection includes rare family treasures.

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research receives a generous anonymous challenge grant of $1,160,000. The challenge grant, the single largest gift in YIVO’s 90 year history, will provide funds over the next 5 years to support the creation of The YIVO Vilna Collections project. The anonymous donor will match all contributions, 1:2, up to $1,160,000.

The Lithuanian Government-designated joint commission, bringing together various governmental officials and Jewish representatives from the Lithuanian Jewish Community and international Jewish organizations, held its first meeting in Vilnius. Topics addressed were the protection and preservation of Jewish cemeteries and mass graves of Holocaust victims, the restoration of synagogues and other Jewish heritage sites, the education of Lithuanian children about the history of Lithuanian Jewry, and the gaps in Lithuanian law on private property restitution and its subsequent implementation.

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research mounts new exhibit, Yiddish Fight Club, based on a linguistic study of Yiddish fighting terms that appeared in YIVO's first publication in 1926. It combines the now-forgotten slang of a violent Yiddish underworld with images of Jewish brawlers from the past. This  exhibit reveals the little-known history of the unique Yiddish fighting slang used by Jewish gangsters, boxers and professional wrestlers, among other tough Jews.

Dr. David E. Fishman, professor of Jewish History at The Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS), serving as the Jacob Kronhill Visiting Scholar in East European Jewish History for the Spring 2015 semester at YIVO.

(NEW YORK, January 5, 2015) – The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Rakhmiel Peltz as the inaugural Atran Visiting Professor of Yiddish Language and Linguistics. Dr. Peltz, a specialist in the social history of Yiddish language and culture, is the Founding Director of ...

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research announces The YIVO Vilna Collections project, a seven-year international project to preserve, digitize and virtually reunite YIVO’s prewar archives located in New York City and Vilnius, Lithuania, through a dedicated web portal. The project will also digitally reconstruct the historic Strashun Library of Vilna, one of the great prewar libraries in Europe. Project partners are The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, The Central State Archives of Lithuania and the National Library of Lithuania.

(NEW YORK, July 8, 2014) – The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Gennady Estraikh as the first Albert B. Ratner Visiting Scholar in East European Jewish Literature. Dr. Estraikh will be in residence for the fall semester 2014. The Albert B. Ratner ...

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and the Museum of the City of New York announce the U.S. premiere of Letters to Afar, a groundbreaking video art exhibition by award-winning artists Péter Forgács and The Klezmatics. The exhibition will be on view at the Museum of the City of New York from October 22, 2014 through March 22, 2015.

(NEW YORK, June 1, 2013)– The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is delighted to announce the launch of the YIVO Digital Archive on Jewish Life in Poland, at polishjews.yivoarchives.org. The website provides access to thousands of digitized documents, manuscripts, photographs, artworks, films, and audio recordings relating to the rich and ...