YIVO, (Yiddish: ייִוואָ), founded in 1925 as the Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut (Yiddish: ייִדישער װיסנשאַפֿטלעכער אינסטיטוט), or Yiddish Scientific Institute, is the most authoritative source for orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to the Yiddish language. Though it was later renamed the Institute for Jewish Research, it is almost always known by its original initials, which, in Yiddish, form the acronym "YI-V-O". Yiddish (ייִדיש, Jiddisch) is a Germanic language spoken by about four million Jews throughout the world. ... Yiddish (ייִדיש, Jiddisch) is a Germanic language spoken by about four million Jews throughout the world. ... The orthography of a language is the set of symbols (glyphs and diacritics) used to write a language, as well as the set of rules describing how to write these glyphs correctly, including spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. ... Lexicography is either of two things Practical lexicography is the art or craft of writing dictionaries. ... Yiddish (Yid. ... Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial letter or letters of words, such as NATO and XHTML, and are pronounced in a way that is distinct from the full pronunciation of what the letters stand for. ...

YIVO preserves manuscripts, rare books, and diaries, and other Yiddish sources. The YIVO Library in New York contains over 360,000 volumes dating from the 16th century. The YIVO Archives holds over 22,000,000 documents, photographs, recordings, posters, films, videotapes, and other artifacts. Together, they comprise the world's largest collection of materials related to the history and culture of East European Jewry and the American Jewish immigrant experience. The Archives and Library collections also hold many works in twelve major languages, including English, French, German, Hebrew, Ladino, Polish, and Russian. Look up English in Wiktionary, the free dictionary As an adjective, English refers to anything from or pertaining to England. ... Hebrew (עִבְרִית ‘Ivrit) is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by more than seven million people in Israel with the West Bank, the United States, and Jewish communities around the world. ... Ladino is a Romance language, derived mainly from Old Castilian (Spanish) and Hebrew. ...

It also functions as a publisher of Yiddish-language books and of periodicals including YIVO Bleter (founded 1931), Yedies Fun YIVO (founded 1929), and Yiddishe Sprakh (founded 1941). It is also responsible for such English-language publications as the YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Studies (founded 1946).

YIVO was initially proposed by Yiddish linguist and writer Nochum Shtif (1879 – 1933). He characterized his advocacy of Yiddish as "realistic" Jewish nationalism, contrasted to the "visionary" Hebraists and the "self-hating" assimilationists who adopted Russian or Polish. Other key founders included philologist and theater director Max Weinreich (1894 – 1969) and historian Elias Tcherikover (1881–1943). [Liptzin, 1972, 127-130, 133] Linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and someone who engages in this study is called a linguist. ... Jews (Hebrew: יהודים, Yehudim) are followers of Judaism or, more generally, members of the Jewish people (also known as the Jewish nation, or the Children of Israel), an ethno-religious group descended from the ancient Israelites and converts who joined their religion. ... // Nationalism is an ideology that holds that (ethnically or culturally defined) nations are the fundamental units for human social life, and makes certain cultural and political claims based upon that belief; in particular, the claim that the nation is the only legitimate basis for the state, and that each nation... The Modern Hebrew language is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. ... Cultural Assimilation, or assimilation for short (but that word also had other meanings), is an intense process of consistent integration whereby members of an ethno-cultural group, typically immigrants, or other minority groups, are absorbed into an established, generally larger community. ... Philology is the study of ancient texts and languages. ... Max Weinreich (1893/94 Goldingen(Kuldiga), Courland (Latvia) - 1969 New York) was a Yiddish linguist. ...

Founded at a conference in Berlin, but headquartered in Vilna, the early YIVO also had branches in Berlin, Warsaw and New York City. Over the next decade, smaller groups arose in many of the other countries with Ashkenazic Jewish populations. (help· info) is the capital city and a state of Germany. ... Vilnius Old Town Vilnius (sometimes Vilna; Polish Wilno, Belarusian Вільня, Russian Вильнюс, see also Cities alternative names) is the capital city of Lithuania. ... Warsaw (Polish: , (?), in full The Capital City of Warsaw, Polish: Miasto StoÅ‚eczne Warszawa) is the capital of Poland and its largest city. ... Nickname: The Big Apple Official website: City of New York Government Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Geographical characteristics Area Total 468. ... Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim (אַשְׁכֲּנָזִי אַשְׁכֲּנָזִים Standard Hebrew, AÅ¡kanazi,AÅ¡kanazim, Tiberian Hebrew, ʾAÅ¡kănāzî, ʾAÅ¡kănāzîm, pronounced sing. ...

In YIVO's first decades, Tcherikover headed the historical research section, which also included Shimon Dubnow, Saul Ginsburg, Abraham Menes, and Jacob Shatzky; Leibush Lehrer (1887–1964) headed a section including psychologists and educators Abraham Golomb, H.S. Kasdan, and A.A. Roback; Jacob Leshchinsky (1876–1966) headed a section of economists and demographers Ben-Adir, Liebman Hersh, and Moshe Shalit; Weinreich's language and literature section included J.L. Cahan, Alexander Harkavy, Judah A. Joffe, Selig Kalmanovitch, Shmuel Niger, Noah Prilutzky, and Zalman Reisen. [Liptzin, 1972, 130, 133] Simon Dubnow (alternatively spelled Dubnov, Russian: Семен Маркович Дубнов; September 10, 1860–December 8, 1941) was a Jewish historian, writer and activist. ... Zelig Hirsch Kalmanovich (1885, Goldingen(Kuldiga) - 1944, Narva) was a Litvak Jewish philologist, historian, and community archivist of the early 20th century. ...

The Nazi advance into Eastern Europe caused YIVO to move its operations to New York, with a second important center established in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The organization's archives and leadership fortuitously survived the war. For their own reasons, the Nazis carried the bulk of YIVO's archives to Berlin, where the papers survived the war intact and eventually ended up in New York, and all four directors of YIVO's research sections were already in the Americas when the war broke out or were able to make their way there. [Liptzin, 1972, 3, 133] The term National Socialism has been used in self-description by a number of different political groups and ideologies, some of which have no connection with the Nazis; see National socialism (disambiguation). ... Buenos Aires (English: Fair Winds, originally Ciudad de la Santísima Trinidad y Puerto de Santa María de los Buenos Aires, City of the Holy Trinity and Port of Saint Mary of the Fair Winds) is the capital of Argentina and its largest city and port, as well as...

A series of volumes of YIVO's Groiser Verterbukh Fun Der Yiddisher Shprakh (Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language) appeared over the years—volume 1, 1961; volume 2, 1966; volume 3, 1971; volume 4, 1980. The project, founded in New York, was officially moved to Jerusalem, but seems to have petered out. [Prager, 1997] Jerusalem (31°46′N 35°14′E; Hebrew: (help· info) Yerushalayim; Arabic: (help· info) al-Quds, Greek Ιεροσόλυμα), is an ancient Middle Eastern city on the watershed between the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea at an elevation of 650-840 meters. ...

External links

• Official site

References

• Liptzin, Sol, A History of Yiddish Literature, Jonathan David Publishers, Middle Village, NY, 1972, ISBN 0-8246-0124-6.
• Prager, Leonard, "Yiddish Studies in Israel III", Mendele, Vol. 6.277, April 4, 1997