Yiddish Book Center facts for kids
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The Yiddish Book Center is located on the campus of Hampshire College.
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| Established | 1980 |
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| Location | 1021 West Street, Amherst, MA, 01002 |
The Yiddish Book Center is a special place in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA. It's like a treasure chest for books written in the Yiddish language. Yiddish is a language that was spoken by many Jewish people, especially in Eastern Europe.
This center works hard to save these books. It also helps people learn about the Yiddish culture and history found in them. It's one of ten museums in western Massachusetts that work together.
Contents
History of the Yiddish Book Center
The Yiddish Book Center started in 1980. It was founded by a young student named Aaron Lansky. He was studying Yiddish literature. Aaron realized that many valuable Yiddish books were being thrown away. This happened because younger Jewish people in America couldn't read the language. Their parents and grandparents had spoken Yiddish.
So, Aaron organized a group of volunteers. These volunteers were called zamlers, which means "collectors" in Yiddish. They started a big effort to save Yiddish books from all over the world. Aaron wrote a book about how the center began. It's called Outwitting History.
When Aaron started, experts thought there were about 70,000 Yiddish books left. But the Yiddish Book Center has found over a million books! They still get thousands of new books every year.
In 1997, the center moved to its current home in Amherst. The building is very large, about 49,000 square feet. Its rooflines look like the old Jewish towns in Eastern Europe, called shtetls. The center has exhibits, a huge collection of books, and educational programs. It also hosts a music festival each year called Yidstock.
In 2010, the center changed its name. It used to be called the "National Yiddish Book Center." Now it's simply the "Yiddish Book Center."
A group called Charity Navigator checked how well the center manages its money. In 2023, they gave the Yiddish Book Center a score of 97 out of 100. This means it's a very well-run charity.
Amazing Book Collections
The Yiddish Book Center has many different collections of books. They even share extra books with students and researchers. They have helped more than 700 libraries and schools around the world.
Here are some of their special collections:
- Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library: In 1997, the center started making digital copies of Yiddish books. They have copied over 12,000 Yiddish books. You can download these books for free from the Internet Archive. In 2012, they teamed up with the National Library of Israel. This library was also digitizing its Hebrew-alphabet books, including many Yiddish ones. Because of this effort, many people can now read Yiddish books online. By the end of 2014, these digital books had been downloaded 1.3 million times!
- David and Sylvia Steiner Yizkor Books Collection: This collection has hundreds of yizkor books. These are special memorial books. They remember Jewish communities in Eastern Europe that were destroyed during the Holocaust. You can search for these books online.
- Noah Cotsen Library of Yiddish Children's Literature: This library has about 800 children's books. Some are original Yiddish stories. Others are Yiddish translations of famous stories from other languages. Most of these books have been digitized. You can find them in the Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library.
- Sami Rohr Library of Recorded Yiddish Books: This collection has about 150 Yiddish books that have been recorded. They include novels, short stories, and poems. Native Yiddish speakers recorded these books in the 1980s and 90s.
- Frances Brandt Online Yiddish Audio Library: This library has recordings of talks and interviews. These were made with writers and poets who visited the Jewish Public Library of Montreal. The Yiddish Book Center is working to make about 1,100 of these recordings available online.
- Wexler Oral History Project: This project has over 1,400 recorded interviews. These interviews are about Yiddish language and culture. Many of them are stories from Holocaust survivors. The collection also includes interviews with Yiddish scholars and students today. In 2013, the project even interviewed the famous actor Leonard Nimoy.
Visiting the Center and Public Programs
In October 2024, the Yiddish Book Center opened a new main exhibit. It's called Yiddish: A Global Culture. This exhibit shows how Yiddish was important in art and thinking in Europe and the Americas. The center also has temporary exhibits that show Jewish artists and themes.
The center offers many programs for the public. These can be in person or online. They cover different topics about Yiddish and modern Jewish culture. One popular event is Yidstock: The Festival of New Yiddish Music, which happens every year.
Pakn Treger is the center's magazine. Its name means "book peddler" in Yiddish. This magazine is in English. It shares stories about Yiddish culture and literature. It also has news from the center. Each year, it publishes a special digital issue with new translations of Yiddish literature.
Educational Programs for Students
The Yiddish Book Center has many educational programs. They are for different age groups and can be online or in person.
- The Steiner Summer Yiddish Program is for college students.
- The Great Jewish Books Summer Program is for high school students.
- There's also a Great Jewish Books Teacher Workshop.
- The center offers fellowship programs for those who want to study Yiddish deeply.
- They have online and in-person classes for adults, including the Bossie Dubowick YiddishSchool.
- The center also offers field trips for middle and high school students.
Translation and Other Projects
In 2013, the center started a big effort to translate Yiddish works. This includes a special program for people who want to become translators. They also have a publishing company called White Goat Press. This press publishes new translations of Yiddish books.
They also created Taytsh.org. This website helps people who are translating Yiddish into English. And each year, they publish a digital collection of new translations in Pakn Treger magazine. As of 2024, White Goat Press has released over twenty books. One of them is In eynem: The New Yiddish Textbook.
