Strashun Library Added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Registry

On June 5, 2017, the remnants of the Strashun library collection in Vilnius were added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Registry in a ceremony at the State Cultural Reserve of Kernavė in Lithuania. Read more about the ceremony.

UNESCO’s Memory of the World Registry recognizes specific documents, manuscripts, oral traditions, audio-visual materials, library, and archival holdings as constituting part of the irreplaceable documentary heritage of the world, worthy of significant effort to protect and preserve.

The Strashun Private Library of rabbinical and other works, often referred to as the most important library of Jewish learning in prewar Europe, was bequeathed to the Jewish community of Vilna by its founder, Mattityahu Strashun (1817-1885). Read more about the Strashun Library.

During World War II, this library was systematically looted by the Nazis. Some of the books were shipped to Frankfurt am Main and after the war were recovered and sent to YIVO in New York. Others were hidden from the Nazis by courageous Jews and rediscovered decades later in Lithuania. Read more about the Nazi looting of Jewish collections.

The remnants of the Strashun Private Library in both Lithuania and New York are now being preserved and digitized for the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Collections Project, a 7-year international project that will result in a free access website.  The initiative, which also includes the digitization of archival collections in both countries, is a partnership between the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the Lithuanian Central State Archives, and the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. Read more about the project.