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YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

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UPCOMING PROGRAM The Shtetl: Myth and Reality February 12, 2026 | 1:00pm ET Learn more
Learn with YIVO this spring! This spring we are offering a variety of courses, held on Zoom or in person. Join us and students from around the world! Space is limited and classes fill up quickly, so be sure to register today. Learn more
Travel with YIVO in 2026.

Join us on a fascinating journey of discovery. In 2026 YIVO is offering three exclusive European study tours: Lithuania & Poland (June 22 – July 5), Croatia & Bosnia and Herzegovina (July 12-24), and Northern Italy (October 12-25).

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EXHIBITIONS NOW ON VIEW YIVO at 100 In honor of its centennial, YIVO presents three landmark exhibitions that illuminate the extraordinary stories preserved in its world-renowned collections. Explore

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What We Do

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide. We are the home of the foremost archives and library on this history and the presenter of acclaimed exhibitions, concerts, and lectures. For a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression.

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Support YIVO’s mission to advance scholarship, research, and preserve the culture of Eastern European Jewry around the world

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News

YIVO's 2025 Roundup

We are most grateful to our members and supporters, whose generous financial support ensured that YIVO was able to continue in its mission to provide enriching content to our global audience. Here are some highlights from 2025.

Elie Siegmeister: Lady of the Lake

Neil W. Levin continues his exploration of Yiddish opera under the auspices of his position as Anne E. Leibowitz Visiting Professor-in-Residence in Music.

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research Launches Public Phase of its Centennial Campaign to Build the Jewish Future by Safeguarding its Past

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research launched the public phase of its Centennial Campaign, a transformative fundraising effort to safeguard the perpetuation of Jewish culture in an ever-changing global landscape.

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The Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections project is an international project to preserve, digitize, and virtually reunite YIVO’s prewar library and archival collections located in New York City and Vilnius, Lithuania, through a dedicated web portal. The project will also digitally reconstruct the historic, private Strashun Library of Vilna, one of the great prewar libraries of Europe.

This project is a partnership between the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the Lithuanian Central State Archives, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, and the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, and includes the cataloging, conservation, and digitization of documents and books in both New York and Vilnius.

In May 2017, some 170,000 pages of previously unknown documents, lost to history for almost 70 years, were discovered in Vilnius, significantly expanding the scope of our project.

Read the article in the New York Times Watch our press conference

Are you using Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections material for your project? If so, please feel free to share information about your project here.