2025To the Institute of Jewish Science YIVO, 100 - First Day Cover

In 1925, the Institute of Jewish Studies was founded in Vilnius, the first secular academy of Jewish studies in Eastern Europe. The institute became the most important center for Yiddish research and standardization, and also studied the culture of Jews who spoke Yiddish, published literature in this language, trained Jewish scholars, and amassed the world's largest library and archive on the life of Eastern European Jews. Four sections were established at the institute: Philology, Economic-Statistical, Historical, and Psychological-Pedagogical. It also housed a Yiddish theater museum, and a postgraduate program was established, the purpose of which was to educate the future generation of scholars. In 1940, due to the Nazi threat, the institute was moved to New York and renamed the Jewish Research Institute. In Yiddish, it sounds like Yidisher visnshaftlekher institut, YIVO.