Safeguard the cultural traditions and collective memory of our people.

Dear Friend,

S. Ansky’s play The Dybbuk (1914-20), one of the great works of Yiddish modernism, has become part of world literature in almost every medium—stage, film, poetry, fiction, opera, and oratorio. Translated from Yiddish into Hebrew, Polish, Ukrainian, German, English, French, Danish, Swedish, Bulgarian, and Russian, among other languages, its power and fascination draw from the wellspring of Jewish folklore of Eastern Europe, which Ansky studied and collected during the famous “Ethnographic Expedition” of 1912-1914 into what was then the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire, the home of some 5 million Jews—then approximately 40% of the world Jewish population.

Folklore, Ansky believed, was the authentic foundation for a contemporary Jewish culture. The YIVO Institute, founded in 1925, five years after his death, carried on his work and amassed a vast folklore collection, including materials from the original Expedition (songs, plays, riddles, rhymes, jokes, children’s games, anecdotes, sayings, proverbs) as well as pages of the original handwritten manuscript of Ansky’s famous play. This past July, YIVO’s Yiddish Folk group was featured as part of the Smithsonian Institute’s Folklife Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., performing folk music from and inspired by the YIVO Archives.

What is often forgotten is that Ansky’s work could not have been possible without the generous financial support of the Kiev banker Vladimir Günzburg, son of the great Jewish philanthropist Baron Horace Günzburg. Such philanthropy has been and is today essential for the survival of Jewish culture. Without Günzburg’s foresight, vision, and dedication, the great folklore traditions of the Jews of Eastern Europe and Russia would have been lost and, with it, a vital part of our collective memory of who we are as a people. The great work of the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections, which over seven years digitized the YIVO Ansky materials along with 1.5 million documents both in New York City and in Vilnius, Lithuania, carried on this tradition of giving and preserving.

Much remains to be done in collection, preservation, digitization, and education. YIVO’s collection of 24 million documents covering some 600-plus years from every continent continues to grow. In partnership with the kind of enlightened philanthropy Baron Günzburg and his son epitomized, YIVO has helped spur a new renaissance of Jewish learning and culture throughout the world.

We invite you to become a member today. Your contribution will be matched 1:1, amplifying your impact and joining a global community committed to safeguarding the cultural traditions and collective memory of our people that will inspire future generations.

Thank you for your consideration.

!לשנה טובֿה
Happy New Year!

Best regards,

Jonathan Brent, Executive Director & CEO	Melissa Cohen, Chief Development Officer

Donate now