Living in the Past   

You’d never know it from the outside, but a nondescript building on 16th Street in Manhattan is home to the 24 million documents of the YIVO institute, a massive archive of Jewish life in the last century, now celebrating its 100th anniversary. From the files of Vilna’s Vaad Hayeshivos to Yiddish newspaper clippings, Jewish immigration records, and anything imaginable in between, for us Jewish history buffs, it was a veritable treasure trove

MY day job has me regularly traveling into historic alleys and byways — I lead trips to Europe and traverse Jewish towns, kivrei tzaddikim, shuls, yeshivos, and Holocaust sites regularly. But my week immersed in YIVO’s historical reservoir has a completely different tone and feel.

I’m sitting with my dear friend and longtime collaborator Dovi Safier in the reading room of what’s officially known as the Center for Jewish History. A quiet and convivial place; the room boasts floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, comfortable tables and chairs down the center, and bright lighting. At each table, researchers hunch studiously over books and documents. This is our third day in the same location, at the same table, and we’ve only begun to get a sense of the contours of the vast repository surrounding us.

Located in a large nondescript building on 16th Street off of 5th Avenue in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood, the Center for Jewish History is actually a merger of sorts, the largest component of which is our destination for the week: the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

YIVO has a long and colorful history. It was initially established in Vilna 100 years ago under the Yiddish name Yiddishe Wissenschaftlecher Institute, the acronym of which provided its name. The year 2025 has been designated as a year-long centennial celebration for the institute, whose holdings currently number over 24 million archive documents, along with a library collection of nearly 400,000 volumes.