Dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression through public programs, exhibitions, classes, and more. The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research was founded by scholars and intellectuals in Vilna, Poland, in 1925 to document and study Jewish life in all its aspects: language, history, religion, folkways, and material culture. It grew to be a beloved communal institution with active members from Buenos Aires to Shanghai. World War II and the Holocaust forced YIVO’s relocation to New York in 1940. Its collections in Vilna were looted by the Nazis. Jews were forced to sort through YIVO's materials and many risked their lives to smuggle some of the rare treasures to hiding places in the Vilna Ghetto. With the help of the U.S. Army, YIVO was able to recover some of the materials that the Nazis seized and begin its work anew in America. After the war, some of the materials hidden in the ghetto were recovered, but needed to be rescued once again, this time from the Soviets. A courageous Lithuanian librarian, Antanas Ulpis, kept them hidden for over 40 years. Rediscovered in 1988, these materials are now held in the Lithuanian Central State Archives and Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. Today, YIVO’s collections are the primary source of the documentary history of East European Jewry and the surviving record of millions of lives of Jewish victims of the Holocaust. YIVO brings treasures from its library and archives to broad audiences via a rich array of programs, including lectures, concerts, and exhibitions; adult education and Yiddish-language programs and courses; books and scholarly publications; and fellowships for scholars. In 2015, YIVO launched The Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Collections Project, a $7 million, 7-year landmark digital initiative to reunites YIVO’s divided prewar library and archival collections and remants of the famed Strashun Library through a dedicated web portal. It is a partnership between the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the Lithuanian Central State Archives, and the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania.
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