The YIVO Library in New York: Personal Reflections on Its History and Collections
In the mid-1930s a group of New York Yiddishist intellectuals established the Central Jewish Library and Press Archive, whose collections became the nucleus of the YIVO Library when the Institute relocated from Vilna to New York in 1940. Over the succeeding decades, the Library grew by leaps and bounds, thanks to the dedication of its librarians and supporters. It emerged as a “collection of collections,” absorbing the extensive personal libraries of prominent Yiddish writers, scholars, and book collectors. Crucially, after 1945 the Library also recovered large portions of the Vilna YIVO’s prewar holdings along with thousands of rabbinic works from Vilna’s Strashun Library. Throughout its history, the YIVO Library has been a beehive of scholarship and bibliography, which has been fostered by such outstanding figures as Mendl Elkin and Dina Abramowicz.
In this presentation, Zachary M. Baker will offer some personal reflections on the legacy that the YIVO Library’s founders and builders have left behind.
About the Speaker
Zachary M. Baker is the Reinhard Family Curator Emeritus of Judaica and Hebraica Collections in the Stanford University Libraries, where he also served as Assistant University Librarian for Collection Development. Previously, he was Head Librarian of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. He has published extensively in the fields of Yiddish Studies and Judaica bibliography and is a member of the core team of the Digital Yiddish Theatre Project.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
