Dear Friend,
As YIVO enters its second century, we stand at a remarkable moment of possibility. Transformative new technologies are allowing us to strengthen and expand the understanding of Jewish history in communities around the world—ensuring that the material and social history of Eastern European Jewry remains a source of meaning, connection, and insight.
For over 100 years, education has been central to YIVO’s mission. Our collections—24 million documents and 400,000 books spanning centuries and languages—tell the story of Jewish life in all its complexity and creativity. Today, nearly 1,000 students across generations enroll in YIVO courses each year, forming a vibrant, international learning community.
Through digitization and online access, more than five million archival pages are now freely available to scholars, students, and families worldwide. Our instructors draw directly from these materials, bringing Jewish history to life in classrooms that span continents. Whether you watch a video on YIVO’s YouTube channel (recently surpassing 152,000 subscribers), take a free course in our Shine Online Educational Series, or engage with us on social media, you are helping to tell and preserve this important Jewish story.
This year also marks exciting growth: the residency of renowned historian Professor Sam Kassow as Visiting Research Historian and the continued development of the YIVO-Bard MA in Yiddish Civilization, which will train future scholars, educators, archivists, and cultural leaders.
אַ פֿריילעכן פּסח
A freylekhn Peysekh!
Sincerely,
Jonathan Brent |
Ben Kaplan |