YIVO Unveils Centennial Exhibitions Exploring Jewish Life, Memory, and Cultural Resilience
Exhibitions on View Beginning June 22, 2025
(New York, NY) – In honor of its centennial, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research announces the opening of three landmark exhibitions that illuminate the extraordinary stories preserved in its world-renowned collections. Opening on Sunday, June 22, 2025, at YIVO (located in the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY), these exhibitions highlight the passion, courage, and dedication that built the world’s foremost archive of Eastern European Jewish life.
Hail to the Zamlers! YIVO’s Collections at 100
Built by the people, for the people, YIVO’s remarkable archive stands as a testament to generations of volunteers, scholars, and everyday Jews who worked to preserve the 1,000-year-old culture of Ashkenazi Jewry. This expansive exhibition honors the zamlers (Yiddish for collectors) who gathered the books, documents, art, and ephemera that now form YIVO’s extraordinary holdings. Featuring over seventy artifacts across six thematic sections, visitors will journey through the evolution of Yiddish literature, the performing and visual arts, immigration, the Jewish labor movement, and the inspiring story of YIVO itself.
The Paper Brigade: Smuggling Jewish Treasures in Nazi-Occupied Vilna
During the Holocaust, a courageous group of Jewish poets and scholars risked everything to preserve their cultural heritage. These forced laborers were conscripted by the Nazis to sort and pack rare Jewish cultural treasures for shipment to Germany. Known as the “Paper Brigade,” these men and women smuggled rare books and manuscripts from the YIVO building to the Vilna ghetto—hiding and burying them in hopes they would survive the war. This exhibition showcases the cultural treasures they saved—silent survivors of genocide—and honors the extraordinary resistance of those who chose preserving their culture over survival.
The Strashun Library: Rare Books Rescued from the Ashes of Vilna
Founded in 1892, the Strashun Library was the first Jewish public library in the world, open to scholars, students, and everyday readers. Built upon the prestigious collection of renowned scholar and bibliophile Rabbi Matisyahu Strashun, the library grew to house over 35,000 volumes and became a beacon of Jewish learning—until its looting by the Nazis during World War II. Some of the books were hidden in the Vilna ghetto, others were seized and shipped to Germany, and fortunately, a significant portion made their way to YIVO in New York.
In 2022, YIVO completed the digitization of its Strashun Library materials as part of its Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections project. Now these materials are freely available online, preserving the legacy of Jewish life in Vilna, the “Jerusalem of Lithuania.”
Visitors will be able to engage more deeply with YIVO’s history and collections through Bloomberg Connects, a free arts and culture app. By scanning QR codes throughout the exhibitions, visitors can access expanded content, archival images, and additional historical context. For those unable to visit in person, the digital experience will be accessible at yivo.org/bloombergconnects.
The exhibition openings coincide with YIVO in America, a two-day conference beginning Sunday, June 22, at 7:00pm ET and continuing Monday, June 23, at 10:00am ET. The conference, held at YIVO and livestreamed globally, will bring together leading scholars to discuss YIVO’s transformation since relocating to New York in 1940, its role in shaping Holocaust studies, and its impact on modern Jewish and Yiddish scholarship. Learn more about the conference.
In conjunction with these events, YIVO announces the forthcoming publication of 100 Objects from the Collections of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, a richly illustrated volume featuring rare and significant items from its archive and library. The book is available for pre-order at the YIVO Store and will be available for purchase during the conference.
For more information contact:
Alex Weiser
Director of Public Programs
YIVO
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, now in its Centennial year, is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide. For a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression. Our public programs and exhibitions, as well as online and on-site courses, extend our outreach to a global community. The YIVO Archives contains 24 million unique items and YIVO’s Library has over 400,000 volumes—the single largest resource for the study of East European Jewish life in the world. yivo.org / yivo.org/the-whole-story