News

During the 90th anniversary celebration of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research on 3 May in New York, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Mantvydas Bekešius underlined that the Jewish people had always been an integral part of the history and society of Lithuania   –  which contributed  immensely  to the scientific, economic and cultural development of our country.

“Roman Gary, Jascha Heifetz and Jacques Lipchitz are just a few famous Litvaks. We will never forget the Vilna Gaon and the Litvak community - that have lived in Lithuania since the 14th century and thanks to them Vilnius, our capital city, had earned the title of the “the Jerusalem of the North”. Litvaks have created a priceless legacy which must be preserved for future generations through the implementation of the YIVO Vilna project that will digitize and virtually reunite YIVO’s archives located in New York City and Vilnius,” said Bekešius.

YIVO’s Executive Director Jonathan Brent thanked Lithuania and its institutions, which will contribute about EUR 350,000 to the YIVO Vilna project.

Founded in 1925 in Vilnius, the YIVO Institute was relocated to New York City in 1940, and became the world’s premier research institute devoted to East European Jewish Studies.

In 2014, Lithuanian Ministry of Culture jointly launched the YIVO archives digitization project according to which over 250 thousand document pages will be scanned and over 4,200 books stored in the archives of Lithuania and the National Mažvydas Library over 7 years.