In 1980, a young graduate student made his first, seemingly quixotic trip to collect from people the books he needed to study: works of Yiddish literature. Almost all were out of print in Yiddish, the language spoken by three quarters of the world’s Jews for more than 1,000 years. From this venture grew the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, which marks 45 years—and 1.5 million books rescued—in 2025. As books accumulated, the Center’s mission expanded from rescuing books to helping preserve Yiddish literature and culture as part of Jewish identity. Today digital programs and projects have transformed outreach to the Jewish community and everyone interested in Jewish culture. A good reason to visit now is the Center’s new, immersive core exhibit “Yiddish: A Global Culture,” opened in 2023. Objects, multimedia, and individuals’ stories—and yes, books—present modern Yiddish culture in the context of Jewish history as well as world history and culture.
Aaron Lansky Steps Up
When that young graduate student, Aaron Lansky, the Center’s founder and president, put up notices about collecting Yiddish books, he was astounded. (Lansky’s 2005 book, Outwitting History, tells the story vividly.) In 1980, experts estimated that only 70,000 books in Yiddish remained in North America: Lansky and his zamlers (volunteer book collectors) gathered that number in six months. Yiddish, which evolved from a German dialect and uses the Hebrew alphabet, was carried by Jews to countries including the United States, but the deaths of six million European Jews in the Holocaust and the ongoing assimilation of Jews living elsewhere left Yiddish a language and culture under threat. Lansky and others, though, including the 30,000 original Center members and various other institutions, believed in its continuing relevance.
In 1997, the Center opened a building in Amherst on 10 acres of land purchased from Hampshire College, Lansky’s alma mater; a second building in 2009 accommodated educational programs. Lansky’s announcement in 2024 that he would retire in 2025 (he’ll continue as a part-time advisor) made the front page of the New York Times, which called the Center “one of the country’s leading Jewish cultural institutions.” His successor will be Susan Bronson, currently executive director. Celebrations such as a community event in June will mark the transition.
A Global Culture
The Center’s architecture, including low wooden structures with distinctive gabled roofs, recalls the appearance of an Eastern European shtetl (small Jewish village), but inside, tall ceilings and skylights make it bright and cheerful. Besides the main exhibition space, the building includes an excellent shop, a room with a helpful introductory video, galleries for changing exhibitions, and two performance spaces.
Visitors walking down a ramp to the main level and the “Yiddish: A Global Culture” exhibition encounter a 60-foot-long wall mural by Martin Haake called “Yiddishland” that maps 35 places and events in modern Yiddish culture around the world from the mid-19th century to the present. These include an ongoing Yiddish music festival in Québec, a Yiddish school in Mexico City established in 1935, and Vitebsk (in present-day Belarus), the birthplace of artist Marc Chagall and his wife, Bella. Also along the ramp are 49 books from the Center’s collection, both translations and original works, that are as varied as immigration narratives, children’s books, scientific writing, and poetry.
In the words of Executive Director Susan Bronson, “ ‘Yiddish: A Global Culture’ brings to life a culture that was the bridge between tradition and modernity for a migratory people.” Colorful banners showing magazine and book covers hang above themed kiosks with information panels, photographs, videos, books, and 350 objects from a samovar and a steamer trunk to Yiddish typewriters and a Linotype machine. Throughout the space, shelves of Yiddish books (collection duplicates) are for sale, a longtime feature of the Center. Among the 17 diverse, engagingly presented topics are Modernism—The Yiddish Avant-Garde 1914–39; Women’s Voices—Gender, Stereotypes, and the Struggle for Equality; Press & Politics—Mass Newspapers and Mass Politics; and Khurbn/Holocaust. One lively section introduces the personalities, places, and music (with headphones) of global Yiddish theater, and another holds the re-created Peretz’s Salon, with 24 portraits of writers in the literary circle of influential Polish writer I. L Peretz (1851–1915).
Reaching Out: Books and Beyond
Outreach is integral to the Center’s mission of engaging everyone interested in Yiddish and Jewish culture. Some programs are decades old, others brand-new. Since 2009, the Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library has grown to more than 11,000 titles, with over 1.6 million free downloads. In 2002, the Center began collaborating with Yale University Press to publish translations of Yiddish works; in 2019 it started White Goat Press, publishing newly translated works. To create translations requires translators, and the Center has trained more than 90. One of the Center’s most ambitious long-term projects is as a partner in the creation of a Universal Yiddish Library, where the National Library of Israel, the New York Public Library, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research will combine digital holdings in one searchable online portal; a beta version may be available early in 2025.
Book collecting efforts continue, with Yiddish books gathered from places such as Venezuela and Zimbabwe. Over the decades, some books collected have been given to more than 720 libraries in 26 countries seeking to build Yiddish collections. Besides books, the Center has gathered more than 1,400 oral histories about Yiddish culture and language, interviewing people from six continents for the Wexler Oral History Project.
Educational programs for high school and college students, adults, and teachers are key initiatives. The weeklong Great Jewish Books Summer Program gives high school students the opportunity to read and discuss modern Jewish literature; accepted students receive a scholarship to cover costs. The Center also offers extensive online and in-person courses in Yiddish and has published a multimedia textbook, In eynem: The New Yiddish Textbook. Cultural programming includes a book club, online and in-person talks, and the popular four-day Yidstock: The Festival of New Yiddish Music, held in July at the Center. The new Yiddish Arts and Culture Community Initiative encourages organizations to partner with the Center to create Yiddish cultural programs locally. The first 14 organizations are now planning programs including music sessions and a Yiddish Café.
This all began with one man who wanted to find books in Yiddish. Though there are always challenges to address, such as fundraising, managing partnerships, and encouraging innovation to engage people, the Center’s record indicates that it will survive—as Yiddish has.
Side Dishes
Near the Center, locally owned Atkins Farms Country Market stocks regional produce in season, and its deli offers fresh-made cold and hot sandwiches and entrées as well as a vegetable and fruit salad bar. Delicious choices from the in-market bakery include cookies, pies, and pastries. Eat in the casual dining area indoors or alfresco at picnic tables.
Want to see more around Amherst? Side of Culture has explored the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and the Emily Dickinson Museum (the main house and newly reopened Evergreens). In New York, SOC visited the Center for Jewish History.
Linda Cabasin is a travel editor and writer who covered the globe at Fodor’s before taking up the freelance life. She’s a contributing editor at Fathom. Follow Linda on Instagram at @lcabasin.
