National Yiddish Book Center

As a graduate student, Aaron Lansky wondered at the dearth of available Yiddish books and feared that Yiddish, the language of 75% of Eastern European Jews for 1,000 years, was in danger of becoming extinct. His curiosity turned into an insatiable passion to collect Yiddish books from older Jews before they were lost forever. This tireless pursuit resulted in a substantial collection and with support from many individuals, led to the founding of the National Yiddish Book Center based in Western Massachusetts. Beyond the building itself, the Center has also leveraged its collection by making its volumes available through the Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library, and it has also created cultural and educational programs to share Eastern European cultural identity with North American Jews. 

In recent years, the Center has expanded its programming in order to engage more young people in particular. For example, the Steiner Summer Internship is an intensive eight-week program for college students that combines instruction in Yiddish language, history and culture with hands-on work in the Center’s Yiddish book collection. In its newest initiative, akin to catalyzing its early volunteers, the Center has started the Jewish Discovery Corps to rally thousands of volunteers, ages 13 to 22, from across the country. The Corps offers fieldwork expeditions to help young Jews discover neglected Jewish cultural treasures like music, documents, photographs and personal narratives. While developing new programs, the Center’s regular communication vehicles, both print and online, continue to grow. Three times a year, 30,000 recipients receive Pakn Treger, the Center’s English-language literary magazine, its website receives 60,000 visits each month, and its e-mail newsletter enters 12,000 inboxes. 

Propelled by the “passion and drive” of MacArthur Fellow Aaron Lansky, the Center’s impact is felt far and wide. For those interested in the full tale behind Lansky’s work, one evaluator recommends reading Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books. Another evaluator feels certain that the Center will “reinvigorate interest in the richness of Yiddish literature in thousands of young people.”