YIVO

YIVO, founded in 1925 as the Yiddisher Visnshaftlikher Institut (Yiddish Scientific Institute), later renamed as the Institute for Jewish Research, but almost always known by its initials, is the most authoritative source for orthography, lexicography, etc. for the Yiddish language.

YIVO preserves manuscripts, rare books, diaries, etc. Its New York headquaters holds over a million books and more than two million other archival items. It also functions as a publisher of Yiddish-language books and of periodicals including YIVO Bleter (founded 1931), Yedies Fun YIVO (founded 1929), and Yiddishe Sprakh" (founded 1941). They are also responsible for such English-language publications as the YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Studies (founded 1946).

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). [Liptzin, 1972, 127-130, 133]

Founded at a conference in Berlin, but headquartered in Vilna, 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 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 Leshchinsky (1876–1966) headed a section of economists and demographers Ben-Adir , Liebman Hersh , and Moshe Shalit ; Weinreich's language and literature section included J.L. Cahan , Alexander Harkavy , Judah A. Joffe , Selig Kalmanovitch , Shmuel Niger , Noah Prilutzky , and Zalman Reisen . [Liptzin, 1972, 130, 133]

The Nazi advance into Eastern Europe resulted in the moving of operations to New York, with second important center in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As it happened, the Nazis, for their own reasons, carried the bulk of YIVO's archives to Berlin, where the papers survived the war intact, and eventually ended up in New York. Also, as fortune had it, all four directors of YIVO's research sections either were in the Americas when the European war broke out, or were able to make their way there. [Liptzin, 1972, 3, 133]

A series of volumes of YIVO's Groiser Verterbukh Fun Der Yiddisher Shprakh (Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language) appeared over the years—volume 1, 1961; volume 2, 1966; volume 3, 1971; volume 4, 1980. The project, founded in New York, was officially moved to Jerusalem, but seems to have petered out. [Prager, 1997]

External links

• Official site

References

• Liptzin, Sol, A History of Yiddish Literature, Jonathan David Publishers, Middle Village, NY, 1972, ISBN 0-8246-0124-6.
• Prager, Leonard, "Yiddish Studies in Israel III", Mendele, Vol. 6.277, April 4, 1997