Dear Faina,

Today, I am delighted to announce that The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (YIVO) completed the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections Project (EBYVOC), a historic 7-year, $7 million international initiative to process, conserve and digitize YIVO’s divided prewar library and archival collections.

These materials, divided by World War II and located in New York and Vilnius, Lithuania, have now been digitally reunited for the first time.

Comprising approximately 4.1 million pages of archival documents and books, the EBYVOC Project is an international partnership between YIVO, the Lithuanian Central State Archives, the Martynas Mavydas National Library of Lithuania, and the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.

The completion of the EBYVOC Project is an epic milestone in the preservation of Eastern European Jewish history and culture. It was completed on schedule and within budget, providing a global audience access to these treasures through a dedicated web portal free-of-charge. We invite you to explore this remarkable collection at https://vilnacollections.yivo.org/.

YIVO is poised to embark on its next major digitization project later this year. In 1992, YIVO received the Bund Archives of the Jewish Labor Movement. Three times larger than the EBYVOC, this project will make available for the first-time materials about the Bund, Jewish and general political, labor, and trade union movements, as well as Holocaust materials.

Warmest regards,

Shelly Freeman, chief of staff
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
15 W 16th St, New York, NY 10011