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The rise of today through- These materials provide insight about the age-old disease out the world has many faces and of antisemitism and irrefutable evidence of its devastating disguises. Anti-Zionism, age-old stereo- consequences, thereby countering the world of lies, mis- types, the medieval libel fused conceptions, and hatred upon which antisemitism thrives. with accusations of world domination In the coming months, YIVO will develop new online edu- contained in The Protocols of the Elders cational and public programs, which use these precious of Zion, and the myth materials that both connect us to our past and help us of what today is called, Zydokomuna (Jew-communism) is shape our future. now prevalent throughout Eastern and the United States. One of the root causes underpinning antisemitism Now is your opportunity to help us in our vital educational is pervasive historical ignorance. YIVO is uniquely placed mission by supporting our fundraising effort to raise $1 to address this ignorance. By making YIVO’s collections million to complete this historic project. available to the world for the first time through the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections project, YIVO allows scholars, individuals, and institutions to confront myths, Jonathan Brent slanders, and with robust historical evidence. Executive Director & CEO

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Summer 2019 NEWSLETTER

DIGITIZATION PROGRESS THROUGH About the Project JUNE 1, 2019 “THESE MATERIALS ARE ”

During World War II, the Nazis looted The Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online OVER 2.8 MILLION PAGES DIGITIZED YIVO’s archive and library, along with Collections project, launched in 2015, is other Jewish libraries in Vilnius, Lithua- a $7 million, international landmark dig- nia. The who were forced to sort ital initiative to process, conserve, and Over 95% the materials for the Nazis risked their digitally reunite YIVO’s divided prewar books digitized lives to smuggle these rare treasures to library and archival collections through [Project goal: 12,500 books] hiding places in the Vilna Ghetto. Much a dedicated web portal. These materi- was destroyed, but some of the materials als include newly-discovered Holocaust were returned to YIVO (who by then relo- documentation and the remnants of the % cated to the United States) with the help famed Strashun Library. Over 35 of the U.S. Army. Other items remained in This project is a partnership between archival Vilnius to be recovered and rescued from the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, documents digitized the Soviets by a Lithuanian librarian, who the Lithuanian Central State Archives, the [Project goal: hid them for over 40 years until they were Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Est. 2 million pages] rediscovered in 1988. In 2017, approx- Lithuania, and the Wroblewski Library of imately 200,000 additional documents the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. were discovered in Lithuania, including It has inspired, funders, scholars, and 1.32 million rare and unpublished works. laypeople around the world. images available online (books and documents) [Project goal: YIVO has raised $5.9 million out of $7 million Est. 4.1 million pages]

VILNACOLLECTIONS.YIVO.ORG YIVO Opens In-House Digital Lab: NEWS & UPDATES First Collection Digitized In April, YIVO opened its first in-house digital lab. The lab will coordinate the digitization, online accessibility, and digital YIVO Receives YIVO has received a $193,000 matching preservation of the remaining items from the Vilna Online Col- $193,000 grant from the National Endowment for lections project, as well as all future digital assets. Matching Grant the Humanities (NEH) to process, conserve, The Papers of is the first collection digitized in the lab. from NEH and digitize the archival materials found in Shalom Schwarzbard the Martynas Mažvydas National Library Schwarzbard, a Russian-born watchmaker, writer, and activist, of Lithuania in 2017. This collection is estimated at up to 200,000 was acquitted of the 1926 assassination of Simon Petlyura after pages of original archival material which came to light well after a globally publicized trial in 1927. Petlyura was widely blamed the Vilna Online Collections project began. YIVO’s commitment to for against Ukrainian Jews from 1918-21. His papers including these hidden gems in the project increased the scope of will soon be visible through the project website. archival work by over 15%. This grant enables us to digitize every page. Work on processing these materials began in January.

Half a Million The Vilna Online Collections team cel- Archival Pages ebrates the milestone of putting half a Viewable Online million pages of prewar archival material online. With over half of the archival mate- rials from the Collection now processed and digitized, the work of ingesting materials onto the website has picked up pace and efficiency. This material comes from over 20 different collections, including several which are physically located in Lithuania.

Materials currently viewable online include administrative records for pre-WWII YIVO in Vilnius and the records of several Jewish Community Councils around Eastern Europe before 1940. Also online are the papers of the Mizrakh Yidisher Historisher Archiv (MYHA), which collected information about pogroms in Ukraine, , Poland, and Russia during the 1910s and ‘20s, along with a substantial collection of Yiddish literature and language materials.

View these materials through vilnacollections.yivo.org and YIVO’s shared catalog with the Center for Jewish History, search.cjh.org. Pages from one of Schwarzbard’s notebooks, a memoir. The right side has a list of expenses, mostly Work at the In order to save YIVO materials from food and drink. RG 85, Folder 896. YIVO Archives. Wroblewski the destructive tendencies of the Soviet Library regime, Lithuanian librarian Antanas Ulpis Completed hid our documents in multiple locations throughout Vilnius. It came to light that in President of In March, YIVO proudly hosted the President addition to the basement of the Carmelite monastery, which housed the Republic of of the Republic of Lithuania, H.E. Ms. Dalia the Book Chamber of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic Lithuania Visits Grybauskaitė, in our first ever presidential (where most of YIVO’s collections were found in the 1980s), he hid YIVO visit from the Republic of Lithuania. During them in other libraries around Vilnius. One such repository was the the meeting, the President and YIVO repre- Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, where sentatives discussed ways to expand current over 22,000 pages of YIVO materials were found in 2016. These cooperation and implement joint projects in materials have been processed, conserved, and described by the 2020. This visit highlights the value of the Wroblewski’s archivists and librarians, with YIVO’s support. Digital ties between Lithuania and YIVO. It under- copies have been delivered to YIVO and will be reunited with the lines the importance of YIVO’s mission and rest of the Vilna Online Collections this year. They will also be able activities in Lithuania, which has been home to be viewed online. to such a vibrant Jewish community.

* The Board of the YIVO Institute Friends $1,000+ Our Donors for Jewish Research Joseph Allerhand We greatly appreciate and Anonymous Gary Blumsohn Miriam Engel acknowledge the following donors for Patrons $50,000+ Feygele Jacobs their generous support of this project: Jack Jacobs and Susan J. Milamed Anonymous Alys Kremer Builders $1,000,000+ Joan Larsen Sponsors $25,000+ Heidi Levin Anonymous Hittman Family Foundation David Luski The Alice Lawrence Foundation, Inc. Donna and Elliott Palevsky Benefactors $100,000+ Jonathan Mishkin Joel Ratner Lillian and Joel Cohen Caryl B. Ratner Laurie K. Robinson The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Anonymous, in memory of Ethel G. Romm Against Germany Stanley and David Brown Simon Schama The Good Will Foundation Anonymous, in memory of Loyce Sulkes in honor of the The Government of the Republic of Lithuania Dunn Odoner and Moishe Odoner memory of her beloved husband, Legacy Heritage Fund Anonymous Ruth and David Levine Alvin Sulkes Karen Underhill and Richard Meller National Endowment for the Humanities Supporters $10,000+ Sandra Pine and Mildred Suesser Atran Foundation Deborah Waroff The Kronhill Pletka Foundation Eli and Edythe Broad Righteous Persons Foundation Estate of Jean Dubinsky Appleton *AS OF JUNE 1, 2019 The Slovin Foundation United States Department of State

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