On Monday, March 24, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research celebrates 100 years of preserving Jewish history, language and culture. And if you’re sitting in St. Louis thinking, “That’s nice, but what does a New York-based archive have to do with me?,” let’s talk.

Because 954 miles doesn’t mean much when history is just a click away.

For a century, YIVO has collected, protected and made accessible the everyday lives of Eastern European Jews—their languages, traditions, political struggles and artistic triumphs. And now, thanks to a massive digitization effort, you don’t need to be anywhere near Manhattan to explore YIVO’s treasures. St. Louisans can browse the world’s largest collection of Yiddish books, flip through handwritten letters from before the Holocaust and even listen to rare recordings of Jewish music—all from home.

This isn’t just about academic research. It’s about connecting to identity, memory and survival.

The Paper Brigade and the heroic act of cultural resistance

Back in 1925, a group of Jewish intellectuals in Vilna, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania), launched YIVO with a mission: to study and document Jewish life in all its messy, beautiful, everyday complexity—from folk songs and political movements to religious customs and street slang.

But in 1941, the Nazis invaded Vilna and ransacked the YIVO Institute. Some materials were destroyed, but others were selected for shipment to Frankfurt to be used in the Nazis’ planned “Museum of the Extinct Jewish Race.” That’s not hyperbole—that was the actual plan.

The Nazis forced a group of Jewish ghetto workers—many of whom had ties to YIVO—to sort the materials. But these same individuals, later known as the “Paper Brigade,” took enormous personal risks to resist. They smuggled rare manuscripts and cultural documents into the Vilna Ghetto, hiding them under their clothing and burying them in basements, attics and secret storage spots.

After the war, the story splits in two:

• The materials that made it to Frankfurt were recovered by the U.S. Army in 1946 and sent to YIVO in New York, which had by then become the organization’s new home.
• The documents that had been hidden in the Vilna Ghetto were recovered—but were then secretly re-hidden in 1948 by Antanas Ulpis, a Lithuanian librarian who feared the Soviet regime would destroy them. Ulpis stashed them in the Church of St. George, which the Soviets had converted into the Lithuanian Book Chamber.

There they remained—completely unknown to the world—until 1989.

After communism fell in Lithuania, the materials were rediscovered. But the Lithuanian government declined to return them to YIVO. Instead, they stayed in Vilnius. And then, in 2022, something extraordinary happened: YIVO completed the “Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections Project,” digitally reuniting the two halves of its archive—separated by war, politics and continents.

Today, more than 4 million pages of these Holocaust-surviving documents are available online. That includes manuscripts, letters, identity cards, photos, records and artifacts. It’s one of the greatest acts of archival restoration ever completed—and it’s all freely accessible, including to anyone in St. Louis with Wi-Fi and curiosity.

“YIVO is a house of treasures, rescued from ruin by superheroes who risked death for their preservation,” said novelist Dara Horn. “Reading, studying and experiencing YIVO’s treasures has shaped my work as a writer and my life as an American Jew.”

A lost world, now within reach from 954 miles away

YIVO isn’t just about what was saved—it’s about who gets to see it.

• Over 5 million pages from YIVO’s archives are now digitized and available to the public.
• The Holocaust collection includes Nazi-issued ID cards, HIAS refugee files and documents from Displaced Persons camps​.
• The “YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe” remains the most comprehensive online resource on Jewish life in the region​.

Every year, more than 700,000 people visit YIVO’s online archive. That includes students, educators, researchers and regular folks from places like—yes—St. Louis.

“For decades I have felt that the YIVO Institute was a kind of anchor,” said historian Dr. Samuel Kassow. “I can’t imagine how I would have written anything without the YIVO archives. It is our precious link to a world that was destroyed but whose spirit and values live on in all of us.”​

And as Professor Ruth Wisse of Harvard puts it, if you want to understand this history, “I recommend the YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe… as the first go-to for basic information or guide to advanced study in this field.”​

What 100 years of YIVO Institute looks like

This year’s centennial isn’t just a celebration of endurance. It’s a reminder that places like YIVO must exist if we want to preserve and share our stories.

Among the upcoming highlights:

• “Hail to the Zamlers: YIVO’s Collections at 100” – An exhibition in New York (June 22–Dec. 31) showcasing never-before-seen items collected by volunteers over the decades​.
• “The YIVO Sound Archive and the Klezmer Revival” – A lecture (April 24) on how a trove of old recordings helped breathe new life into Jewish music​.
• “New Trends in YIVO Scholarship” – A panel (June 11) on cutting-edge research into Jewish history and culture​.
• “100 Objects from the Collections of the YIVO Institute” – A new book that lets you hold a century of stories in your hands​.

“As the destination for knowledge of Eastern European Jewish history and Yiddish culture, YIVO is more important today than ever,” said Jonathan Brent, YIVO’s executive director​.

Why the YIVO Institute matters now

If YIVO’s founders in 1925 had waited, there would have been nothing left to preserve. If the Paper Brigade had followed orders, the documents would’ve been lost. If people like Antanas Ulpis had looked the other way, the stories would have vanished.

Instead, a scattered archive was slowly, painstakingly brought back together.

And now, 954 miles from YIVO’s headquarters, you can experience it in your living room.

For more on YIVO’s centennial events, visit yivo.org/Centennial.