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Guide to the YIVO Archives
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Comments/Reviews
Description: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research was founded in 1925 in Vilna as a center for scholarship on East European Jewish history, Yiddish language, and culture. The New York branch of YIVO, established in 1926, became the institute's new home during World War II when Vilna fell under Nazi rule.
From the beginning, the New York YIVO Archives collected materials pertaining to Jewish life both in Eastern Europe and in the United States. In the decades after the war the archives undertook a series of initiatives to document Jewish life under the Nazis, life in pre-war Europe, the period of the displaced persons camps and the Jewish experience in the United States from the time of mass immigration. YIVO has also worked continuously to relocate and restore the pre-war YIVO Vilna library and archives. The archives now houses such diverse collections as records of the Vilna Kehillah, the American Jewish Committee, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the Jewish Labor Bund, the Workmen's Circle, and over 700 landsmanshaftn; papers of Simon Dubnow, Max Weinreich, Horace Kallen, Abraham Cahan, Jacob Glatstein, and Maurice Schwartz; rabbinical manuscripts; photographs by Roman Vishniac, Alter Kacyzne, and Menakhem Kipnis; art works by Shloyme Yudovin, Enrico Glicenstein, Abraham Manievich, and Abbo Ostrowsky; films; posters, sound recordings; and more.
Selected Contents:
INTRODUCTION
The YIVO Institute and the YIVO Archives: A Brief History
The YIVO Institute in Vilna
The YIVO Institute in New York
The YIVO Archives in Vilna
The YIVO Archives in New York
Organization of the YIVO Archives: A Brief Overview
Guide to the YIVO Archives: Purpose, Organization, and Format
Format of the Guide and the Index
Note on Standardization of Names
Note on Transliteration and Capitalization of Foreign Language Words
The YIVO Archives: Services and Policies
Archival Services: Reference Services, Reading Room Services, Access to Collections, Reproduction Services
Special Collections: Access and Reference: Music Collections, Photographic and Film Archives, Sound Archives, Art Collection
Statement on Copyright Ownership of Documents in the YIVO Archives
Collection Policy of the YIVO Archives
THE COLLECTIONS
Comment(s): "The YIVO Archives, now in its seventy-second year, has played a prominent role in Jewish culture and scholarship over the entire span of its existence. Tangible traces of it can be found in a multitude of works that make use of documents preserved in the YIVO Archives and in countless acknowledgments and credits from those who have used its resources. ... On the one hand, readers will discover historical records which document broad and sweeping developments in the Jewish world. On the other hand they will also find materials which in minute detail describe daily life, work, learning, culture, religious observance, changing traditions, politics, and more." -- from the Preface
Review(s): The breadth of YIVO's rich original documentation on Jewish life has long been known to genealogists, historians, writers, artists, literary critics--in fact, anyone who loves to explore Jewish history in the original. Now, for the first time since YIVO's founding, information about these treasures is available in a single volume. An important step in making the YIVO Archives a user-friendly place, the "Guide" includes summaries of more than 1,000 collections of documents and a detailed index. Forward
This important guide is a welcome addition to the growing field of Jewish reference tools. It is arranged alphabetically by collection name, and provides a detailed description of each collection. ... An extremely valuable, detailed index includes personal names, corporate bodies, geographic names, conferences, titles of newspapers, periodicals, and other works. The index is also useful as a quick reference for acronyms. Highly recommended for all reference collections. Choice
An essential addition to any serious Jewish studies or East European reference collection is this useful guide to the valuable archival holdings of one of the world's leading collections of resources for Jewish history and one of this country's most important repositories of material relating to the history of Eastern Europe in general. ... Given the complexity of this collection, the appearance of a general overview ... in a single volume is a welcome event. ... Should contribute significantly to researchers' use of this scholarly treasure. College & Research Libraries
    
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