Services Price List

East European Jewry Before World War II

• The Vilna Collection of 40,000 volumes, including 25,000 rabbinical works dating from as early as the 16th century
• Original communal registers and documents from Poland, Russia, Lithuania, and Germany, from the 17th century onwards
• The Bund Archives and Library, documenting the Jewish labor movement from the late 19th century onwards
• Rabbinical manuscripts
• The world's largest collection of sound recordings, photographs, and film related to East European Jewish culture
• A prominent collection of Yiddish children's literature
• An extensive collection of Yiddish theater posters and scripts

Holocaust

• Anti-Semitic literature published in Germany between 1920 and 1945, including the Nazi Collection of some 6,000 volumes published in the Third Reich from 1933-1945
• Original documents from the Warsaw, Lodz, and Vilna Ghettos
• Thousands of handwritten eyewitness accounts by Holocaust survivors, collected from 1945 to the present
• Newspapers and periodicals created by Jewish refugees in displaced persons (DP) camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy
• Over 600 memorial books (yizker-bikher) commemorating Jewish communities in Poland and neighboring countries
• Lists of survivors and victims of the Holocaust

American Jewish History

• Records of the Educational Alliance, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), and other relief and rescue organizations
• Records of several hundred landsmanshaftn (immigrant mutual aid societies)
• Over 200 autobiographies of Jewish immigrants collected by YIVO in 1942
• The world's most extensive Yiddish music and theater collection
• The private papers of hundreds of American Jewish writers, actors, playwrights, composers, historians, and communal leaders

Sound Recordings

Sheet Music & Other Written Music

Photographs, Film, & Videotapes

Library

Yeshaye Metal
Public Service Librarian
(212) 246-6080, ext. 6113
Yeshaye Metal

To arrange to donate published materials, including books, pamphlets, and periodicals to the Library:

Inquiries can also be mailed to the above individuals at:
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 15 West 16th Street, New York, 10011-6301.

Archives & Library Hours and Research Rules

YIVO's Archives and Library share a reading room with the American Jewish Historical Society, the Leo Baeck Institute, and the American Sephardi Federation Archives at the Center for Jewish History at 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY, 10011-6301.

The Lillian Goldman Reading Room is open to researchers, Monday-Thursday, 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. (For a list of holiday closings, click here.) No appointment is necessary to consult library materials. For general archival research, however, it is strongly suggested that an appointment be arranged with an archivist by calling (212) 294-6143 or emailing. An appointment is required to consult materials in special collections such as the Music Collections, Sound Archive, Photographic Archive, and Film Archive.

Researchers are encouraged to reserve a Microfilm reader/printer in advance. Call Hermann Teifer at (917)606-8217 or e-mail him.

Many Archives and Library materials are not in English. YIVO's staff can guide your research but is not available to provide translation from Yiddish or other languages.

All materials (books, periodicals, microforms, manuscripts, photographs, etc.) must be consulted in the Reading Room and may not be borrowed. There is no charge for consulting library and archival materials. Photocopy services are available, though some restrictions apply. (Click here for more information and for a price list.)

How to Donate Materials to the Archives & Library

YIVO actively collects prints and non-print materials, printed and electronic books, documents, photographs, sound recordings, films, artifacts, art works, and other materials related to all aspects of Jewish history and culture around the world. Of particular interest are materials relating to the everyday life, culture, and history of East European Jews and their descendants in the Americas. Every year, the Archives and Library accession thousands of new items donated by individuals and organizations from all over the world.

The Archives collects everything from the letters, papers, and photographs of ordinary Jewish families to the manuscripts and documents of prominent cultural figures and the institutional records of Jewish organizations. In late 1999, YIVO organized a new grass roots collecting program in religious communities, entitled "Zamler Project: Neighborhood Prayerhouses and Synagogues in the New York Area." For more information about this project, please contact:

Fruma Mohrer
Chief Archivist
(212) 294-6143
Fruma Mohrer

For general information about donating materials to the YIVO Archives, contact:

Leo Greenbaum
Associate Archivist
(212) 294-6145
Leo Greenbaum

The Library collects books, periodicals, and other publications in all languages, including English, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Ladino, Polish, and Russian. It accepts donations of single books, as well as entire libraries, provided it is granted permission to dispose of duplicate items. For general information about donating books to the YIVO Library, contact:

Lyudmila Sholokhova
Yiddish Acquisitions/Catalogue Librarian
(212) 294-6168
Lyudmila Sholokhova

How to Receive Permission to Reproduce Materials from the Archives & Library

YIVO permits the reproduction of materials from its collections on a case-by-case basis, depending on the condition and legal status of the items. Except in certain instances, YIVO does not own copyright to the material in its collections. The user assumes all responsibility for questions of copyright that may arise in the use of copies of YIVO materials.

Photo and duplication orders, as well as requests for permission to reproduce materials for publication should be made in written form to:

Archives/Library

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

15 West 16th Street

New York, NY 10011-6301, USA

Fax: (212) 292-1892

Links to Other Jewish Libraries & Archives

List of Judaica Library web sites
Compiled by Steven M. Bergson for the Association of Jewish Libraries

Judaica Libraries and Archives on the Web

American Jewish Archives
Cincinnati, OH

American Jewish Historical Society
New York, NY. A constituent of the Center for Jewish History.

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religions Libraries
Cincinnati, Los Angeles, New York, Jerusalem

Jewish National and University University Library
Jerusalem, Israel

Jewish Public Library of Montreal
Montreal, Canada

Jewish Women's Archive
Brookline, MA

Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary
New York, NY

Leo Baeck Institute
New York, NY. A constituent of the Center for Jewish History.

London Jewish Cultural Centre
Incorporating the Oxford Institute for Yiddish Studies.

Magnes Museum Library and Archives
Berkeley, CA

New York Public Library—Dorot Jewish Division
New York, NY

Simon Wiesenthal Center Library and Archives
Los Angeles, CA

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Washington, DC

University of Sydney: Archive of Australian Judaica
Sydney, Australia

Related Resources

CAPTION FOR IMAGE AT TOP OF PAGE:
The Reading Room shared by YIVO with the American Jewish Historical Society, the Leo Baeck Institute and the American Sephardi Federation at the Center for Jewish History. (Photograph by Richard Lobell)