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The past is our heritage. The present is our opportunity. The future is our hope.
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Dear Friend,
In a cabinet in my dining room sits the blue and white Seder plate, an heirloom used every year to hold the lamb shank, kharoyses, parsley, hard-boiled egg and horseradish (my family favored the red). When I run my fingers over the smooth ceramic surface I can almost smell the wonderful food my mother served when the family gathered to celebrate Peysekh.

The past is our heritage: As Chairman of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research I know the strength of linkages through time and geography. Why am I involved with YIVO? Let me tell you about this unique and vibrant organization, our mission, activities and recent milestones.

nullYIVO is the preeminent resource center on East European Jewish life and culture. We have just completed our great legacy project: The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, published in two volumes in cooperation with Yale University Press (March 2008). Under the leadership of Editor in Chief Gershon Hundert (Leonor Segal Chair in Jewish Studies, McGill University), 450 scholars from 16 countries contributed 1,800 original articles accompanied by 1,100 illustrations and maps.

As Jonathan Brent, Editorial Director of Yale University Press, has written, “What an amazing, immensely important, and beautifully produced book! I want to congratulate you and your staff ...It is an exceedingly important historical work and will last 100 years.”

To create such innovative projects, and to continue collecting our history and heritage, we need your partnership. Please take the time now to make your most generous gift to YIVO in the enclosed envelope or at www.yivo.org if you prefer. Each dollar is crucial and much appreciated.

The present is our opportunity: The YIVO archives is working to save the communal records and case files of service organizations like the New York Association for New Americans (NYANA). These trace the post-war waves of Jewish immigration to America, and their deliverance from destruction.

YIVO, formed in 1925 in Vilna, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania), also had to permanently relocate to New York City in 1940, where we have renewed our work. I want to ask you to become part of our YIVO family! At YIVO we honor memory, how it links today and tomorrow with what has gone before.

I invite you to visit the YIVO Library, which holds 385,000 books (among them 16,000 unique volumes), and our extensive Archives. Our staff will gladly help you with all of your research queries. You can also view exhibitions and collections online, and find event updates, at www.yivo.org.

As we plan for the future we do not forget our roots. Please look at the enclosed reprint of the April 19, 1943 ghetto diary entry of Herman Kruk, translated by Benjamin Harshav. In it Kruk describes how Jews in the Vilna ghetto determined to carry on Passover tradition - against all odds (The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania, Yale University Press & YIVO, 2002). Their quiet strength and determination speak directly to me and help drive me to continue YIVO’s mission of preservation, remembrance and learning.

nullPlease join YIVO now and make a special Passover gift - whether $54, $72, $180 or another amount. Your support will show your commitment to Jewish history, culture, and continuity. It will help ensure that YIVO will be here for your children and grandchildren.

Among the 24 million pieces in the YIVO Archives we have many unusual artifacts, photographs and documents from the earliest days of Zionism through the establishment of the State of Israel, including an original 1932 letter from Golda Meir to writer David Pinsky. Featuring this letter and other rare archival and library materials, YIVO is mounting a major exhibition in May 2008 to celebrate “Israel at 60.”

The future is our hope: Through the pioneering Uriel Weinreich Program in Yiddish Language, Literature and Culture (now in its 41st year), our summer immersion course, and the YIVO Fellowship program supporting 14 research fellows annually, YIVO is nurturing Jewish Studies scholars worldwide. Your dollars are critical to making this all possible!

Each aspect of Jewish life and culture is a critical piece of our story. Now is the time to embrace innovative ideas, programs and plans for the future. Please become a partner in YIVO’s work by making a Passover gift to help ensure that our history is not forgotten.

From all of us at YIVO, I want to wish you a koshern un freylekhn Peysekh!

Sincerely,

Bruce Slovin
Chair, YIVO Board of Directors

PS: Consider honoring a loved one through a YIVO fellowship, plaque or endowment. Please call us at 212-294-6128 to discuss naming opportunities.
PPS: A matching gift from your company can double or triple your contribution.
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