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YIVO Institute raise $34 million to expand exhibitions, digitize archives

That is 85% of its goal of $40 million, thanks to the generosity of early donors, foundations and community partners.

YIVO Centennial Campaign
Sgt. Nathan Friedkas, a photographer in the U.S. Army, circa 1940s. Credit: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (YIVO) announces the launch of the public phase of its Centennial Campaign, a fundraising effort to safeguard the perpetuation of Jewish culture in an ever-changing global landscape.

For a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education and cultural expression. Its archives contain 24 million unique items, and its library has more than 400,000 volumes—the single largest resource for the study of Eastern European Jewish life in the world.

The campaign seeks to raise $40 million to build new educational programs, expand its exhibitions and public programs, and digitize its archives to increase accessibility while growing institutional capacity to better serve the global community.

Since the quiet phase of the campaign began in 2022, YIVO has already raised some $34 million—85% of its goal, thanks to the generosity of early donors, foundations and community partners.

“We invite the entire community to join us in shaping the future of YIVO,” said executive director and CEO Jonathan Brent. “Jewish life, culture and spirit can flourish only through the power of knowledge of our past.”

The public phase of the campaign encourages community members, alumni, businesses and supporters to participate in reaching its goal and ensuring that YIVO can continue its work well into the next century.

Contributions can be made online at: yivo.org/CENT2025 or by contacting Melissa S. Cohen, chief development officer, via email at: mcohen@yivo.org.

About & contact the publisher
YIVO is dedicated to fostering knowledge of the ongoing story of Jewish life, with a focus on the history and culture of East European Jewry—the ancestry of a significant proportion of Jews in the world today. Scholars continue to uncover new layers of the story in our archives and library, one of the world’s most important resources on Jewish life and history in Europe; Yiddish language, literature and folklore; the Holocaust; and the American Jewish immigrant experience. See: yivo.org.
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