YIVO (
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
: , ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as
orthography
An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.
Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...
,
lexicography
Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries.
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
* Theoretica ...
, and other studies related to
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
. (The word ''yidisher'' means both "Yiddish" and "Jewish.") Established in 1925 in Wilno in the
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...
(now
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...
,
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
) as the ''Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut'' (
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
: , , Yiddish Scientific Institute,
its English name became Institute for Jewish Research after its relocation to New York City, but it is still known mainly by its Yiddish acronym. YIVO is now a partner of the
Center for Jewish History
The Center for Jewish History is a partnership of five Jewish history, scholarship, and art organizations in New York City: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute New York, Yeshiva University Museum, ...
. Formerly, they had linguists whose main occupation was deciding on grammar rules and new words, and during this time they were seen in the secular world to serve as the recognized
language regulator
This is a list of bodies that consider themselves to be authorities on standard languages, often called language academies. Language academies are motivated by, or closely associated with, linguistic purism and Prestige (sociolinguistics), presti ...
of the Yiddish language. However, YIVO no longer serves this purpose. Nevertheless, the YIVO system is still commonly taught in universities and known as ''klal shprakh'' (spelled in Yiddish:כּלל־שפּראַך, meaning 'standard language') and sometimes "YIVO Yiddish" (spelled in Yiddish:ייִוואָ־ייִדיש).
Activities
YIVO preserves manuscripts, rare books, and diaries, and other Yiddish sources. The YIVO Library in New York contains over 385,000 volumes
dating from as early as the 16th century.
Approximately 40,000 volumes are in Yiddish, making the YIVO Library the largest collection of Yiddish-language works in the world. The YIVO archives hold over 23,000,000 documents, photographs, recordings, posters, films, and other artifacts.
Together, they comprise the world's largest collection of materials related to the history and culture of Central and
East European Jewry
The expression 'Eastern European Jewry' has two meanings. Its first meaning refers to the current political spheres of the Eastern European countries and its second meaning refers to the Jewish communities in Russia and Poland. The phrase 'Easte ...
and the
American Jewish
American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora ...
immigrant experience.
The archives and library collections include works in twelve major languages,
including
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
,
French,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
,
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
,
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
,
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
, and
Judaeo-Spanish
Judaeo-Spanish or Judeo-Spanish (autonym , Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew script: , Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: ), also known as Ladino, is a Romance languages, Romance language derived from Old Spanish language, Old Spanish. Originally spoken in Spain ...
.
YIVO also functions as a publisher of Yiddish-language books and of periodicals including ''YIVO Bleter'' (founded 1931), ''Yedies Fun YIVO'' (founded 1929), and ''Yidishe Shprakh'' (founded 1941). It is also responsible for English-language publications such as the ''YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Studies'' (founded 1946).
History
YIVO was initially proposed by Yiddish
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
and writer
Nochum Shtif
Nohum Shtif ( yi, נחום שטיף; 1879, Rovno – 1933, Kiev), was a Jewish linguist, literary historian, publisher, translator, and philologist of the Yiddish languageEstraikh, Gennady (2010, October 18).Shtif, Nokhem" ''YIVO Encycloped ...
(1879–1933). He characterized his advocacy of Yiddish as "realistic"
Zionism
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a Nationalism, nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is ...
, contrasted to the "visionary"
Hebraists
A Hebraist is a specialist in Jewish, Hebrew and Hebraic studies. Specifically, British and German scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries who were involved in the study of Hebrew language and literature were commonly known by this designation, a ...
and the "self-hating"
assimilationists
Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's majority group or assume the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group whether fully or partially.
The different types of cultural assi ...
who adopted
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
or
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
. Other key founders included
philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
Max Weinreich
Max Weinreich ( yi, מאַקס ווײַנרײַך ''Maks Vaynraych''; russian: Мейер Лазаревич Вайнрайх, ''Meyer Lazarevich Vaynraykh''; 22 April 1894, Goldingen, Russian Empire – 29 January 1969, New York City) was a Russ ...
(1894–1969) and historian
Elias Tcherikower
Elias Tcherikower (Yiddish: אליהו טשעריקאָװער; July 31, 1881 – August 8, 1943), also known as Eliahu Tcherikover, Elye Tsherikover, Eliahu Tcherikower, Elias Tscherikower, and I. M. Cherikover, was a Russian-born Jewish historia ...
(1881–1943).
YIVO was founded at a
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
conference in 1925, but headquartered in Vilna, a city with a large Jewish population in the
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...
. The early YIVO also had branches in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
and New York City. Over the next decade, smaller groups arose in many of the other countries with
Ashkenazi
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
populations.
In YIVO's first decades, Tcherikover headed the historical research section, which also included
Simon Dubnow
Simon Dubnow (alternatively spelled Dubnov, rus, Семён Ма́ркович Ду́бнов, Semyon Markovich Dubnov, sʲɪˈmʲɵn ˈmarkəvʲɪtɕ ˈdubnəf; yi, שמעון דובנאָװ, ''Shimen Dubnov''; 10 September 1860 – 8 Dece ...
,
Saul M. Ginsburg,
Abraham Menes, and
Jacob Shatzky.
Leibush Lehrer (1887–1964) headed a section including psychologists and educators
Abraham Golomb,
H. S. Kasdan, and
Abraham Aaron Roback Abraham Aaron Roback (1890–1965) was a Jewish American psychologist and promoter of Yiddish.
Life
A. A. Roback was born on 19 June 1890 in Goniondz, Russian Empire (now Poland). He was the youngest of four children of Isaac Roback and Leba Rahve ...
.
Jacob Lestschinsky Jakob Lestschinsky (also ''Jacob Lestschinsky'', ''Yankev Leshtshinski'', ''Yankev Leshchinski'', לשצ'ינסקי, יעקב; August 26, 1876 in Horodysche, Ukraine – March 22, 1966 in Jerusalem) was a Jewish statistician and sociologist who ...
(1876–1966) headed a section of economists and demographers
Ben-Adir,
Liebmann Hersch, and
Moshe Shalit
Moshe Shalit ( yi, משה שאליט; 22 December 1885, Vilnius - 19 July 1941, Vilnius) was a researcher, journalist, essayist, ethnographer, and humanist of the inter-war period.
Shalit devoted himself to the promotion of Yiddish language and ...
. Weinreich's language and literature section included
Judah Leib Cahan Judah Leib Cahan (Yiddish language, Yiddish: יהודה לייב כהן
) (1881 in Vilnius, Vilna, Lithuania – 1937 in New York City), more commonly known as Y.L. Cahan, was a Yiddish folklorist.
Biography
Born in Vilna, Cahan moved as a youth ...
,
Alexander Harkavy
Alexander Harkavy ( yi, אַלכּסנדר האַרקאַווי, russian: Александр Гаркави, ''Aleksandr Garkavi''; May 5, 1863 at Nowogrudok (), Minsk guberniya (''governorate''), Russian Empire (now Navahrudak, Hrodna Voblast ...
,
Judah A. Joffe
Judah Achilles Joffe (April 19, 1873 – September 16, 1966; yi, יאפע, יהודה) was a Yiddish philologist.
Joffe was born in Dnipro, Yekaterinoslav, Russian Empire (now Dnipro, Ukraine). He immigrated to the United States in 1891 and enrol ...
,
Zelig Kalmanovich,
Shmuel Niger
Shmuel Niger (also Samuel Niger, pen name of Samuel Charney, 1883-1955) was a Yiddish writer, literary critic and historian and was one of the leading figures of Yiddish cultural work and Yiddishism in pre-revolution Russia.
Life
Shmuel Niger was ...
,
Noach Pryłucki
Noach (Nojach) Pryłucki or Noach Prilutski (1 October 1882 in Berdichev – 12 August 1941 in Vilnius) was a Jewish Polish politician from the Folkspartei. He was also a Yiddish linguist, philologist, lawyer and scholar of considerable renown. ...
, and
Zalman Reisen
Zalman Reisen ( yi, זלמן רײזען; 6 October 1887 – 1940), sometimes spelled Zalman Reyzen, was a lexicographer and literary historian of Yiddish literature.
Early life
Reisen was born in Koydenev (now known as Dzyarzhynsk) in Minsk Go ...
. YIVO also collected and preserved ethnographic materials under the direction of its Ethnographic Committee. In 1925, YIVO's honorary board of trustees or "Curatorium" consisted of
Simon Dubnow
Simon Dubnow (alternatively spelled Dubnov, rus, Семён Ма́ркович Ду́бнов, Semyon Markovich Dubnov, sʲɪˈmʲɵn ˈmarkəvʲɪtɕ ˈdubnəf; yi, שמעון דובנאָװ, ''Shimen Dubnov''; 10 September 1860 – 8 Dece ...
,
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
,
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
,
Moses Gaster
Moses Gaster (17 September 1856 – 5 March 1939) was a Romanian, later British scholar, the ''Hakham'' of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish congregation, London, and a Hebrew and Romanian linguist. Moses Gaster was an active Zionist in Romania ...
,
Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American Jewish anthropologist-linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States.
Sa ...
and
Chaim Zhitlowsky
Chaim Zhitlowsky (Yiddish: חײם זשיטלאָװסקי; russian: Хаим Осипович Житловский) (April 19, 1865 – May 6, 1943) was a Jewish socialist, philosopher, social and political thinker, writer and literary critic born i ...
.
From 1934 to 1940, YIVO operated a graduate training program known as the
Aspirantur
Aspirant is a rank in the Royal Canadian Navy, Estonian Defence Forces, French military, Brazilian military, Portuguese military, Swiss military, Italian Air Force, Argentinian Armed Forces, Romanian Navy, Polish Policja and Państwowa Stra ...
. Named after
Zemach Shabad
Zemach Shabad ( he, צמח שאבאד, pl, Cemach Szabad, russian: Цемах Шабад, Tsemakh Shabad; 5 February 1864, Vilnius, Russian Empire (now Vilnius, Lithuania) — 20 January 1935, Vilnius) was a Jewish doctor and social and poli ...
, YIVO's chairman, the program held classes and guided students in conducting original research in the field of Jewish studies. Many of the students' projects were sociological in nature (reflecting the involvement of
Max Weinreich
Max Weinreich ( yi, מאַקס ווײַנרײַך ''Maks Vaynraych''; russian: Мейер Лазаревич Вайнрайх, ''Meyer Lazarevich Vaynraykh''; 22 April 1894, Goldingen, Russian Empire – 29 January 1969, New York City) was a Russ ...
) and gathered information on contemporary Jewish life in the Vilna region.
The
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
advance into Eastern Europe caused YIVO to move its operations to New York City. A second important center, known as the Fundacion IWO, was established in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
, Argentina. All four directors of YIVO's research sections were already in the Americas when the war broke out or were able to make their way there. The organization's new headquarters were established in New York City. A portion of the Vilna archives was ransacked by the Nazis and sent to Frankfurt to become the basis of
an anti-Semitic department of the Nazis' planned university. In 1946, the U.S. Army recovered these documents and sent them to YIVO in New York.
The YIVO Library was looted by the Germans and the
ERR, but an organization that called itself "
The Paper Brigade
''The Paper Brigade'' (also known as ''Gunther and the Paper Brigade'') is a 1996 adventure/comedy film directed by Blair Treu. The film stars Kyle Howard and Robert Englund. The story follows a group of small-town paperboys who band together to p ...
" were able to smuggle out many books and preserve them from destruction. These materials were then saved from the Soviets by a Lithuanian librarian, Antanas Ulpis. These materials are now held in the Lithuanian Central State Archives and Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania.
In 2014, with the cooperation of the government of the Republic of Lithuania, Brent established the landmar
Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections projectat The YIVO Institute to preserve and digitize over 1.5 million documents and approximately 12,200 books representing 500 years of Jewish history in Eastern Europe and Russia.
In addition to New York City and Buenos Aires, the Chicago YIVO Society is a third center active today.
Publications
YIVO has undertaken many major scholarly publication projects, the most recent being ''
The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
''The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe'' is a two-volume, English-language reference work on the history and culture of Eastern Europe Jewry in this region, prepared by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and published by Yale Uni ...
'', published in March 2008 in cooperation with Yale University Press.
Under the leadership of editor-in-chief
Gershon David Hundert
Gershon David Hundert (born 1946) is a Canadian historian of Early Modern Polish Jewry and Leanor Segal Professor at McGill University.
Biography
Born to a Jewish family in Toronto, Hundert is one of the three sons of Charles and Norma Hunder ...
, professor of history and of Jewish Studies at
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...
in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
, this unprecedented reference work systematically represents the history and culture of Eastern European Jews from their first settlement in the region to the present day. More than 1,800 alphabetical entries encompass a vast range of topics including religion, folklore, politics, art, music, theater, language and literature, places, organizations, intellectual movements, and important figures. The two-volume set also features more than 1,000 illustrations and 55 maps. With original contributions from an international team of 450 distinguished scholars, the encyclopedia covers the region between Germany and the
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...
, from which more than 2.5 million Jews emigrated to the United States between 1870 and 1920.
See also
*
Academy of the Hebrew Language
The Academy of the Hebrew Language ( he, הָאָקָדֶמְיָה לַלָּשׁוֹן הָעִבְרִית, ''ha-akademyah la-lashon ha-ivrit'') was established by the Israeli government in 1953 as the "supreme institution for scholarship on t ...
, for Hebrew
*
Autoridad Nasionala del Ladino
Autoridad Nasionala del Ladino (, "National Authority of Ladino") is a national Israeli organisation created in 1997 with the goal of preserving and safeguarding Judaeo-Spanish, commonly known as ''Ladino''.
The authority was established in the ...
, for Ladino
*
Dina Abramowicz (long-time YIVO librarian)
*
Yiddish Book Center
The Yiddish Book Center (formerly the National Yiddish Book Center), located on the campus of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States, is a cultural institution dedicated to the preservation of books in the Yiddish language, a ...
*
League for Yiddish
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
*Prager, Leonard,
Yiddish Studies in Israel III, ''Mendele'', Vol. 6.277, April 4, 1997.
*
Further reading
*
Dawidowicz, Lucy S.
Lucy Dawidowicz ( Schildkret; June 16, 1915 – December 5, 1990) was an American historian and writer. She wrote books about modern Jewish history, in particular, she wrote books about the Holocaust.
Life
Dawidowicz was born in New York City a ...
''From that Place and Time: A Memoir 1938 - 1947''. New York: Norton, 1989.
* *Fishman, David E
''Embers Plucked From The Fire: The Rescue of Jewish Cultural Treasures in Vilna''New York: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 1996. (in English and Yiddish)
* Kaiser, Menachem. "Paper brigade: The incredible story of the Vilnius archive". ''The Jewish Quarterly'', Winter 2022.
External links
*
The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern EuropeYIVO (Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut) – The Yiddish Scientific Institutein the online exhibitio
The Jerusalem of Lithuania: The Story of the Jewish Community of Vilnaby
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...
Guide to the Records of the YIVO Aspirantur, 1934-1940YIVO Digital Archive on Jewish Life in Poland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yivo
Jews and Judaism in Manhattan
Jewish studies research institutes
Publishing companies established in 1925
Bundism in North America
Book publishing companies of the United States
Language regulators
Magazine publishing companies of the United States
Yiddish culture in New York City
Jewish organizations
Archives in the United States
Yiddish
History of YIVO
1925 establishments in Poland
Organizations based in New York City
Jewish organizations based in the United States