manhattan new york us coordinates 40 44 17 n 73 59 38 w 40.738047 n 73.993821 w 40.738047 ; 73.993821 coordinates 40 44 17 n 73 59 38 w 40.738047 n 73.993821 w 40.738047 ; 73.993821 director jonathan brent public transit access subway 14th street union square website yivo yivo yiddish established in 1925 in wilno poland now vilnius lithuania as the yidisher visnshaftlekher institut yiddish yiddish scientific institute 1 is an organization that preserves studies and teaches the cultural history of jewish life throughout eastern europe germany and russia as well as orthography lexicography and other studies related to the yiddish language . the word yidisher means both yiddish and jewish . the english name of the organization was changed to the institute for jewish research subsequent to its relocation to new york city although it is still primarily known by its yiddish acronym . yivo is now a member of the center for jewish history . contents 1 activities 2 history 3 publications 4 see also 5 references 6 further reading 7 external links activities edit yivo preserves manuscripts rare books and diaries and other yiddish sources . the yivo library in new york contains over 385 000 volumes 1 dating from as early as the 16th century . 2 3 the yivo archives holds over 24 000 000 documents photographs recordings posters films and other artifacts . 1 together they comprise the world s largest collection of materials related to the history and culture of central and east european jewry and the american jewish immigrant experience . 1 the archives and library collections also hold many works in twelve major languages 4 including english french german hebrew russian polish and ladino . 4 yivo also functions as a publisher of yiddish language books and of periodicals including yivo bleter 5 founded 1931 yedies fun yivo founded 1929 and yidishe shprakh founded 1941 . it is also responsible for such english language publications as the yivo annual of jewish social studies founded 1946 . history edit yivo was initially proposed by yiddish linguist and writer nochum shtif 1879 1933 . he characterized his advocacy of yiddish as realistic jewish nationalism contrasted to the visionary hebraists and the self hating assimilationists who adopted russian or polish . other key founders included philologist and theater director max weinreich 1894 1969 and historian elias tcherikover 1881 1943 . 6 founded at a berlin conference in 1925 but headquartered in wilno a city then in eastern poland with a large jewish population the early yivo also had branches in berlin warsaw and new york city . over the next decade smaller groups arose in many of the other countries with ashkenazic jewish populations . in yivo s first decades tcherikover headed the historical research section which also included shimon dubnow 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 a. a. roback ; jacob lestschinsky 1876 1966 headed a section of economists and demographers ben adir liebman hersh and moshe shalit . weinreich s language and literature section included judah leib j.l. cahan alexander harkavy judah a. joffe selig kalmanovitch shmuel niger noah prilutzky and zalman reisen . 7 yivo also collected and preserved ethnographic materials under the direction of its ethnographic committee . 8 in 1925 yivo s honorary board of trustees or curatorium consisted of simon dubnow albert einstein sigmund freud moses gaster edward sapir and chaim zhitlowsky . from 1934 1940 yivo operated a graduate training program known as the aspirantur . named after zemach shabad 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 and gathered information on contemporary jewish life in the vilna region . 9 the nazi advance into eastern europe caused yivo to move its operations to new york . a second important center established as the fundacion iwo in buenos aires argentina . 10 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 . 11 for their own reasons the nazis carried the bulk of yivo s archives to berlin where the papers survived the war intact and eventually were moved to yivo in new york the chicago yivo society is a third active center today . 12 publications edit yivo has undertaken many major scholarly publication projects the most recent being the yivo encyclopedia of jews in eastern europe published in march 2008 in cooperation with yale university press . 13 under the leadership of editor in chief gershon david hundert professor of history and of jewish studies at mcgill university in montreal 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 from which more than 2.5 million jews emigrated to the united states between 1870 and 1920 . the first complete english language edition of max weinreich s classic book history of the yiddish language 14 edited by dr. paul hershl glasser was published in two volumes in 2008 . see also edit academy of the hebrew language for hebrew autoridad nasionala del ladino for ladino dina abramowicz long time yivo librarian references edit notes a b c d yivo yivo institute for jewish research brief introduction yivo institute for jewish research overview of library collections a b yivo institute for jewish research overview yivo institute for jewish research yivo in the united states liptzin sol 1972 . a history of yiddish literature . middle village ny jonathan david publishers . pp. 127 130 133 . isbn 0 8246 0124 6 . liptzin 1972 130 133 guide to the records of the yivo ethnographic committeeundated 1885 1941rg 1.2 . retrieved 4 august 2015 . guide to the records of the yivo aspirantur1934 1940rg 1.3 . retrieved 4 august 2015 . fundaci n iwo . retrieved 4 august 2015 . liptzin 1972 3 133 chicago yivo society . chicago yivo society . retrieved 4 august 2015 . the yivo encyclopedia of jews in eastern europe hundert gershon david ; yivo institute for jewish research yale university press . yalepress.yale.edu . 2008 05 28 . retrieved 2015 08 10 . yale university press 2008 bibliography prager leonard yiddish studies in israel iii mendele vol . 6.277 april 4 1997 liptzin sol a history of yiddish literature jonathan david publishers middle village ny 1972 isbn 0 8246 0124 6 . further reading edit dawidowicz lucy s. from that place and time a memoir 1938 1947 . new york norton 1989 . isbn 0 393 02674 4 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 external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to center for jewish history . yivo institute for jewish research the yivo encyclopedia of jews in eastern europe yivo yidisher visnshaftlekher institut the yiddish scientific institute in the online exhibition the jerusalem of lithuania the story of the jewish community of vilna by yad vashem guide to the records of the yivo aspirantur 1934 1940 yivo digital archive on jewish life in poland authority control worldcat identities viaf 106278447 lccn n79122376 isni 0000 0001 1080 4115 gnd 16139356 1 sudoc 030792614 bnf cb12213665z data retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title yivo & oldid 737128136 categories jews and judaism in manhattanjewish studies research institutespublishing companies established in 1925bundismbook publishing companies of the united stateslanguage regulatorsmagazine publishing companies of the united statesyiddish culture in new york cityjewish organizationsarchives in the united statesyiddish languagehistory of yivo1925 establishments in polandhidden categories coordinates not on wikidatapages using infobox museum with unsupported parametersarticles containing yiddish language textcommons category with local link same as on wikidatawikipedia articles with viaf identifierswikipedia articles with lccn identifierswikipedia articles with isni identifierswikipedia articles with gnd identifierswikipedia articles with bnf identifiers navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages boarischdeutschfran ais ladino polski svenska edit links this page was last modified on 31 august 2016 at 22 52 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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