Yiddish Collections

“*Kof* is for ketsl [cat].” *Mayn alefbeys* (My Alphabet), Text: I. Kaminski, New York, 1945. Illustrations: N. Kozlowski. (YIVO Library)

There is no single Yiddish collection in the YIVO Library. Rather, the library's 40,000 Yiddish-language titles are scattered throughout the library's other collections. Together, they comprise the largest collection of Yiddish books in the world.

Virtually all of the major works of Yiddish literature are represented in the YIVO Library, as well as many obscure and forgotten titles. The library has copies of many early editions by Mendele Moykher Sforim, I. L. Peretz, and Sholem Aleichem.

One genre of Yiddish literature that has been singled out for special attention in recent years is children's literature. Some of the most notable Jewish artists of the 20th century contributed illustrations to Yiddish children's books. Among these were the avant-garde Soviet artists Issachar Ber Ryback, Joseph Tchaikov, and El Lissitzky. A microfiche collection, Yiddish Children's Literature from the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, containing over 1,000 titles, was co-published by YIVO and Clearwater Publishing Company in 1988.