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Babylonia Talmud - Tractate Baba Kamma. Commissioned by Amschel Moses Rothschild and handed down in the Rothschild family for five generations. Frankfurt, 1721-22. (YIVO Archives)

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research was founded in Vilna, Poland, in 1925 and relocated to New York City in 1940. Our mission is to preserve, study and teach the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany and Russia. Our educational and public outreach programs concentrate on all aspects of this 1000-year history and its continuing influence in America. YIVO’s archival collections and library constitute the single greatest resource for such study in the world, including approximately 24 million letters, manuscripts, photographs, films, sound recordings, art works, and artifacts; as well as the largest collection of Yiddish-language materials in the world.
2013 YIVO-Bard Summer Program Registration is now open!		News & Information Letters to Afar at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews The YIVO Institute and the Museum of the History of Polish Jews commission a multimedia installation from Péter Forgács and The Klezmatics. Read more.... Read Jonathan Brent's Article The Last Books The Last Books by Jonathan Brent, published May 1, 2013, Jewish Ideas Daily Read the article here. Donate now to the Last Books Campaign. ReVilna, digital map of the Vilna Ghetto, an independent project created in collaboration with YIVO, launches. Visit http://www.revilna.org/. Floating Worlds and Future Cities Exhibition Now On View Floating Worlds and Future Cities: The Genius of Lazar Khidekel, Suprematism, and the Russian Avant-Garde. Read the press release here. Spring Public Programs at YIVO Click here to download YIVO's Spring Calendar brochure (PDF - 3.4 MB) Thursday, June 6: First Annual New Land Film Festival. More... Thursday, June 13: Rise up! Revolution or class mobility: Anglo-Yiddish Poems and Songs as Agents of Political Debate 1884-1914. More... Sunday, June 16: Sovietization in the Pale: The Bolshevik Experiment in Minsk, the Jerusalem of Belorussia. More... Join Our Chaim Grade Fundraising Campaign Pledge support now to preserve and digitize Chaim Grade's personal papers and archive. Click here. The YIVO Institute and the National Library of Israel Jointly Acquire the Estate of the Late Yiddish Writer, Chaim Grade Read the press release here. Read the New York Times ArtsBeat Blog article here. YIVO Launches New Online Guide to the YIVO Archives Visit yivoarchives.org. Read the press release here. 2013 YIVO-Bard Yiddish Summer Program Registration is now open for the Uriel Weinreich Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture. Click here to learn more. Spring 2013 Yiddish Classes & Seminars Elementary II, Intermediate II, and Advanced classes available. Click here to learn more. Click here to learn more about our Spring 2013 Yiddish-language seminars. The YIVO Institute and the Museum of the History of Polish Jews Announce Landmark Partnership Agreement Read the press release here.