The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe Online Version launches

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research today launched the Online Edition of the YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, whose aim is to “make accurate, reliable, scholarly information about Eastern European Jewish life universally available online free of charge.” This online edition contains the information from the printed 2008 YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe (published by Yale University Press), which provides the history and culture of Jews in Eastern Europe from the beginning of their settlement in the region to the present. But there’s added content in this online edition: interactive maps, more color photographs, rare letters and documents, video and audio clips.

At the home page, researchers can Explore a Topic by clicking into pages on Arts, Daily Life & Places, Language & Literature, History & Politics, and Religion. Each of those subsequent pages includes an essay, slideshow (or other visual element), a short “teaser article,” and links to other articles. There’s a Media Gallery with almost 1,400 items, each linked to related articles including: 50 audio recordings ranging from cantorial, klezmer and theatrical performances to children’s choral music and excerpts from wedding services; 70 video clips including street scenes, horses and cattle, brass bands, public gatherings, political events, children at school and summer camp: and 192 new documents from the YIVO archives that have never before been presented to the public, including such items as: letters from Leon Trotsky; manuscript notes by Sholem Aleichem; an invitation to a service at the Great Synagogue in Warsaw in honor of a visit from the President of Poland in 1930; and a ration card from the Warsaw ghetto.

To access this freely-available site, just go to: http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org, but be prepared to want to spend a lot of time there — it is a truly remarkable resource.

At your service,
Cheryl