YIVO

YIVO (Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut, or Yiddish Scientific Institute) is an institution for scholarship in Yiddish about the history and culture of Eastern European Jewry and their emigrant communities. The collection of YIVO in Vilnius includes: documents and testimonies about Jewish pogroms in Ukraine during the Russian Civil War; materials relating to Yiddish scholars and authors (including the scholars’/authors’ correspondence); and materials concerning activities of the various departments within YIVO such as the historical committee headed by Emanuel Ringelblum (including correspondence and minutes of meetings). An important part of the collection are records referring to activities of Jewish parties (such as socialist “Bund”, Zionist-socialist “Poalei Zion” and religious Zionist “HaMizrahi”), organizations (such as “Bnei Zion”), theatres, etc. There are historical materials on Jewish charity, cultural, political, social and religious life in various countries and towns. Papers of Yiddish scholar, journalist, and political leader Noah Prilutski, which contain appeals of the Jews of Poland to the Russian military administration in 1914-1915 and a description of Prilutski’s public Jewish activities during this period, are also part of this YIVO collection. Are also found here: records relating to book trade matters, correspondence of a newspaper's editorial offices and publishing houses, newspapers’ clippings, political parties’ leaflets, programs and announcements about cultural events and lectures, photos, etc. -- Read more