YIVO Celebrates 100 Years!
A Century of Cultural Stewardship – The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research Celebrates 100 years
March 24, 2025, marks the 100th anniversary of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
“For 100 years, YIVO has preserved the legacy of one thousand years of Ashkenazi Jewish life. Today it is the worldwide home of East European Jewish history and culture. YIVO’s collections, programming and educational initiatives tell the story of what we have cherished, what we have endured, and how we have persisted. It is the story from which the future of the Jewish people will be built,” said Jonathan Brent, YIVO Executive Director and CEO.
On this day in 1925, YIVO was established in Vilna, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania) by Jewish intellectuals and scholars. This groundbreaking institution was the first comprehensive center for higher Jewish learning in Eastern Europe, serving as a national library, university, and academy. YIVO quickly became the preeminent authority on Yiddish culture and Jewish scholarship, with a particular focus on documenting and studying Jewish life in all its aspects: language, history, religion, folkways, and material culture. YIVO also played a crucial role in standardizing the Yiddish language, becoming the definitive source for linguistic matters.
YIVO documented Jewish culture and history as well as the “stuff of everyday life”; it became a mass movement with branches in Berlin, Warsaw, Paris, London, St. Petersburg, New York, Chicago, and Buenos Aires.
Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud were on the first Honorary Board, but YIVO was also dedicated to the common people and daily life. Zamlers (amateur collectors), a network of devoted YIVO volunteers, gathered materials of everyday life from Jews throughout Europe and around the world. These materials form the heart and soul of the YIVO Archives today, which possesses some 24 million items including:
- sound, music, theater, and art collections
- photographs, films, and audio recordings
- manuscripts, diaries, memoirs, and personal correspondence
- rare and unique religious and literary manuscripts
- the largest collection of primary source Holocaust materials in the world outside of Israel
YIVO’s Library has
- over 400,000 volumes in all European languages, including 2,000 rare and unique volumes going back to the 16th century
- the largest collection of Yiddish-language books, pamphlets, and newspapers in the world
YIVO continues to digitize its materials, ensuring global accessibility to these invaluable resources. YIVO’s impact continues to expand through its diverse initiatives.
- Approximately 5 million pages from YIVO’s collections are now available online.
- In the past year alone, these materials have been visited over 750,000 times worldwide.
- 1,000 individuals attend YIVO’s educational courses online and in person.
- 80 public programs are held annually which are viewed by tens of thousands of individuals around the world on Zoom.
- Schools across the U.S. and globally use the YIVO Bruce and Francesca Cernia Slovin Online Museum to teach Jewish history of Eastern Europe and the Holocaust.
- YIVO’s Learning and Media Center allows students and the general public to experience history through professionally curated primary source materials.
- The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe is the world’s most comprehensive resource on Eastern European Jewish history and culture.
YIVO’s 100th anniversary will be marked with events, exhibitions, publications, and public programs in New York City, Warsaw, and Vilnius, Lithuania. For the most up-to-date information on YIVO’s Centennial activities, visit yivo.org/Centennial.
Quotes | YIVO Today | Schedule of Events | Photos
For any media inquiries please contact:
Shelly Freeman
Chief of Staff
YIVO
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, now in its Centennial year, is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide. For a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression. Our public programs and exhibitions, as well as online and on-site courses, extend our outreach to a global community. The YIVO Archives contains 24 million unique items and YIVO’s Library has over 400,000 volumes—the single largest resource for the study of East European Jewish life in the world. yivo.org / yivo.org/the-whole-story