Why I may finally buy a Jewish coffee table book

A new Yiddish culture book skips the Midwest entirely. So we went looking — and found a garment strike, a socialist afterschool program, and a kid who just wanted to play outside.

Published July 14, 2025

I’m going to be completely honest with you: I’m not a coffee table book kind of guy. I’ve also never really had a coffee table that would justify owning a coffee table book. I don’t live in the kind of home where decorative hardcover books are casually fanned out on a sleek oak surface. But when I am in the homes of coffee table book people, I get it. I flip through their massive books on Brutalist architecture or obscure jazz photographers and think, “OK, this is actually kind of great.”

I tell you this because I may have finally found a book that could justify buying a coffee table — and I think it’s worth your attention, too.

It’s called “100 Treasures from the YIVO Archives,” and it’s exactly what it sounds like: a beautifully produced book filled with one hundred objects from the vast YIVO collection, which houses the world’s largest archive of Yiddish and Eastern European Jewish culture. Published to mark YIVO’s 100th anniversary, the book is a curated explosion of Jewish history — rare photographs, old Bundist flyers, a handwritten letter from Marc Chagall, posters from early Yiddish theater, a preserved wedding dress from a displaced persons camp. It’s stunning.

“Each object in the book tells a story not just of Jewish life, but of survival, creativity and community across generations,” said Stefanie Halpern, director of collections at YIVO. “We wanted to highlight the incredible range of material in the archive — from the monumental to the everyday.”

If you’re the kind of person who likes to get lost in old photographs, cool artifacts and the beautifully mundane details of Jewish history, this book is a rabbit hole worth falling into. One page might show you a fragment of Yiddish sheet music scribbled on hotel stationery; the next, a passport photo from a vanished shtetl or a theater poster for a forgotten touring company. You can order a copy (and maybe clear a little space on your own coffee table) right here.

St. Louis curiosity

Naturally, as I flipped through it, I found myself wondering if there might be anything from my hometown. St. Louis doesn’t always make the cut in big national stories about Jewish culture — and sure enough, I didn’t see it here either. But instead of being surprised or annoyed, I got curious. If YIVO’s book was just the highlight reel, what might be hiding in the archives themselves?

So, I reached out. Was there anything in the YIVO Archives tied to St. Louis?

And that’s when things got interesting.

A flyer from the picket line

The first thing the archivists found was a flyer from the St. Louis branch of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, dated 1933. It’s plain and printed in English, not Yiddish — “likely for accessibility,” said Halpern.

But its message is urgent. That summer, more than 6,500 garment workers across the city walked out of 81 factories, demanding union recognition.

“These materials were originally part of the Bund Archives, which closed in 1992,” Halpern explained. “The entire collection was then donated to YIVO as part of our effort to preserve Jewish labor and political history.”

It’s not flashy. But it’s real — and it puts St. Louis squarely on the map of Jewish activism.

A school, a concert, a reluctant student

Then they sent me something completely different: a program from the Workmen’s Circle School of St. Louis. It was from a 1930s student concert — and tucked between ads from local Jewish businesses are short essays written by the kids themselves.

One in particular, by a girl named Lillian Morgan, reads like a familiar story: she didn’t want to go to Yiddish school. She told her mom she’d rather be outside. She figured none of her friends would be there. But her mom won. And it turns out, Lillian kind of loved it. “I like to read Yiddish books,” she wrote, “and I have met friends I hope will last a lifetime.”

That essay — small, handwritten, honest — hit me harder than any poster or artifact in the book.

“The Workmen’s Circle sent out circulars to all its branches for its 70th anniversary,” Halpern said. “Materials like this were gathered from across the country, including from St. Louis.”

Turns out, we were in there all along

So no, St. Louis didn’t make the book. But if you take a step back — or dig just a little deeper — we were never really missing.

And if you want to flip through the book yourself (or just need an excuse to finally get that coffee table), it’s right here: yivo.convio.net/100-Objects.