New Books in Jewish Studies
New Books in Jewish Studies

Yiddish Scholarship Comes to America: The YIVO Institute at 100 with Kalman Weiser (Wayne State UP, 2026)

October 9, 2026

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5 min read

In 1925, a group of Yiddish-speaking scholars in Vilna, then a major center of Jewish intellectual life, founded an institute that would eventually outlast the world that created it. The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, which moved its headquarters to New York City during World War II, turns 100 this year. In Yiddish Scholarship Comes to America: The YIVO Institute at 100 (Wayne State UP, 2026), Kalman Weiser, the Silber Family Professor of Modern Jewish Studies at York University, traces the institute’s improbable survival and reinvention. Weiser spoke with New Books Network publisher Caleb Zakarin about the book, which is as much a biography of an institution as it is a portrait of the scholars—particularly the Weinreich family—who shaped it.

An Institute Born of Diaspora Nationalism

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (02:35) **Introduction: Kalman Weiser and the YIVO Institute at 100** - The host introduces the guest and the book, framing YIVO as a crucial but under-studied institution.
  • 2 (04:14) **Kalman’s Personal Journey to YIVO** - Weiser explains how he first encountered YIVO and why he became dedicated to writing its history.
  • 3 (09:43) **The Founding of YIVO in Vilna, 1925** - Weiser explains the original mission and the environment that led to YIVO’s creation.
  • 4 (13:27) **YIVO During World War II: The Move and the Rescue of Materials** - Weiser details the dramatic challenges of protecting YIVO’s collections during the Holocaust and the post-war contest over their ownership.
  • 5 (22:05) **Max Weinreich: The Central Figure of YIVO** - Weiser introduces Max Weinreich, the polymath who shaped YIVO and the academic study of Jews.
  • 6 (26:36) **Uriel Weinreich: A Brilliant Life Cut Short** - Weiser discusses Max’s son, Uriel, a major figure in American linguistics and Yiddish studies.
  • 7 (29:33) **What is Yiddish? A Controversial Question** - Weiser provides a concise introduction to the Yiddish language, its origins, and its unique character.

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Show Notes

This comprehensive history of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research—a groundbreaking American Jewish cultural organization, library, and research center—details its longstanding efforts to preserve eastern European Jewish culture during a century of genocide and mass emigration. Founded in 1925, YIVO was a global organization with headquarters in Vilna until World War II. It represented the symbolic pinnacle of building a modern, secular Yiddish culture.

Yet post-war, YIVO struggled to establish itself on a new continent, to reclaim what had survived of its Vilna collections, to document a lost world, and to impart the value of eastern European Jewish history and culture to new generations. Through the institute's steady commitment to establishing itself in New York and beyond, Yiddish language learning and scholarship became a crucial part of post-Holocaust Jewish life in a time when Hebrew was increasingly promoted in Jewish communities. Drawing on extensive archival research and oral histories, Weiser focuses on the transitional period of the YIVO Institute from 1940 to 1970 and showcases how the institute carved its own path toward scholarship and public engagement that remained true to its founding ethos—"from the folk, for the folk, and with the folk"—while acclimating to American society and mainstream Jewish culture.

Kalman Weiser is the Silber Family Professor of Modern Jewish Studies and director of the Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies at York University.

Caleb Zakarin is CEO and Publisher of the New Books Network.


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