Yiddish Book Center

History

The Yiddish Book Center was founded in 1980 by Aaron Lansky, then a twenty-four-year-old graduate student of Yiddish literature and, as of 2016, the center's president. In the course of his studies, Lansky realized that untold numbers of irreplaceable Yiddish books were being discarded by American-born Jews unable to read the language of their Yiddish-speaking parents and grandparents. He organized a nationwide network of zamlers (volunteer book collectors) and launched a campaign to save the world’s remaining Yiddish books. Lansky recounts the origins of the center in his 2004 memoir, Outwitting History.

At the time Lansky began his work, scholars estimated there were 70,000 Yiddish books still extant and recoverable. Since then, the Yiddish Book Center has recovered more than a million volumes, and it continues to receive thousands of new books each year from around the world.

In 1997, the Yiddish Book Center moved to its current site in Amherst, Massachusetts, a 49,000-square-foot complex that echoes the rooflines of an East European shtetl (Jewish town). The center is home to permanent and traveling exhibits, a Yiddish book repository, educational programs, and the annual Yidstock: The Festival of New Yiddish Music.

Collections

The center has drawn on its duplicate holdings to distribute books to students and scholars, and to establish or strengthen collections at more than 700 research libraries, schools, and museums around the world.

The Yiddish Book Center includes a number of different collections:

Educational programs

The center's educational programs include the Steiner Summer Yiddish Program for college students, the Great Jewish Books Summer Program for high school students, a Great Jewish Books Teacher Workshop, a fellowship program, a translation fellowship, and Tent: Encounters with Jewish Culture, as well as online and on-site classes for adult learners, including YiddishSchool. The center also offers a field trip program for middle and high school students.

In 2001, Ruthe B. Cowl (1912–2008) of Laredo, Texas, donated $1 million to create the Jack and Ruthe B. Cowl Center, which promotes "Yiddish literary, artistic, musical, and historical knowledge and accomplishment" at the center. Early in 2007, Cowl donated another $750,000 to create the Cowl Jewish Leadership Program for promising college students.

Translation initiative

In 2013, the center launched a translation effort that includes a translation fellowship program; a publishing venture; Taytsh.org, a website and interactive resource for working Yiddish-to-English translators; and an annual digital Pakn Treger translation anthology.

Criticism

The organization's history has been controversial from the start. Lansky's claims that Yiddish was in a state of obsolescence provoked the ire of many people long-involved in Yiddish cultural activities. His invocation of Yiddish nostalgia for the purposes of fundraising has also been the subject of debate, both among Yiddish cultural activists and by critics of "ethnic marketing". Lansky rankled initial supporters again when the new center was built by a non-union contractor that had no collective bargaining agreement with its workers. Despite claims that this was offensive given the role of Yiddish speakers in the founding of the American labor movement and trade unions, petitioners from the Jewish Labor Committee and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America were ignored.

The manner in which the center raises and spends its funds has also been the target of criticism. According to the organization's IRS Form 990, Lansky's 2008 salary was reported as more than $195,000. Since the bulk of the organization's funds are spent on the salaries of the top three employees and on fundraising, the independent charity evaluator Charity Navigator rated its efficiency a zero, or "exceptionally poor", and the overall organization as "poor" in 2008. As of 2011 Charity Navigator gives the National Yiddish Book Center an overall score of three stars out of four, based on a financial-performance score of two out of four stars and an "Accountability & Transparency" score of four out of four stars.