YIVO Press Releases

YIVO’s newest exhibition, Jewface: “Yiddish” Dialect Songs of Tin Pan Alley, looks at the ways in which early 20th century entertainment mocked Jews, engaged Jews, and developed Yiddish-accented English for comic effect.

As part of the YIVO Jewish Culture Series, Dr. Jonathan Brent, Executive Director of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Dr. Steven M. Cohen, Research Professor of Jewish Social Policy, Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute for Religion, and Rabbi Thomas A. Gardner of Riverdale Temple, address widespread concerns about the state of American Jewry today.

Former Treasury Secretary and President Emeritus of Harvard University, Summers, discusses the growing concerns of anti-Semitism on college campuses amidst the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research presents the world premiere of the film No Asylum: The Untold Chapter of Anne Frank’s Story. Based on recently-discovered letters by Otto Frank in YIVO’s archives, No Asylum interviews Anne Frank’s surviving family, Buddy Elias and Eva Geiringer-Schloss, about the family’s last efforts to seek refuge in America before going into hiding in 1942. The Frank family was discovered and arrested in 1944.  

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 ...