Hail to the Zamlers! | The Paper Brigade | The Strashun Library

In honor of its centennial, YIVO presents three landmark exhibitions that illuminate the extraordinary stories preserved in its world-renowned collections. These exhibitions highlight the passion, courage, and dedication that built the world’s foremost archive of Eastern European Jewish life.

Bloomberg Connects – A Free Digital Museum Guide

Explore YIVO’s exhibitions with our digital guide on Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app. Use the app to dive deeper into our on-site exhibitions, learn more about YIVO and its 100 years of history, and find out more about how to take advantage of all that YIVO has to offer.

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Hail to the Zamlers! YIVO’s Collections at 100

Built by the people, for the people, YIVO’s remarkable archive stands as a testament to generations of volunteers, scholars, and everyday Jews who worked to preserve the 1,000-year-old culture of Ashkenazi Jewry. This expansive exhibition honors the zamlers (Yiddish for collectors) who gathered the books, documents, art, and ephemera that now form YIVO’s extraordinary holdings. Featuring over seventy artifacts across six thematic sections, visitors will journey through the evolution of Yiddish literature, the performing and visual arts, immigration, the Jewish labor movement, and the inspiring story of YIVO itself.

The Paper Brigade: Smuggling Jewish Treasures in Nazi-Occupied Vilna

During the Holocaust, a courageous group of Jewish poets and scholars risked everything to preserve their cultural heritage. These forced laborers were conscripted by the Nazis to sort and pack rare Jewish cultural treasures for shipment to Germany. Known as the “Paper Brigade,” these men and women smuggled rare books and manuscripts from the YIVO building to the Vilna ghetto—hiding and burying them in hopes they would survive the war. This exhibition showcases the cultural treasures they saved—silent survivors of genocide—and honors the extraordinary resistance of those who chose preserving their culture over survival.

The Strashun Library: Rare Books Rescued from the Ashes of Vilna

Founded in 1892, the Strashun Library was the first Jewish public library in the world, open to scholars, students, and everyday readers. Built upon the prestigious collection of renowned scholar and bibliophile Rabbi Matisyahu Strashun, the library grew to house over 35,000 volumes and became a beacon of Jewish learning—until its looting by the Nazis during World War II. Some of the books were hidden in the Vilna ghetto, others were seized and shipped to Germany, and fortunately, a significant portion made their way to YIVO in New York.

In 2022, YIVO completed the digitization of its Strashun Library materials as part of its Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections project. Now these materials are freely available online, preserving the legacy of Jewish life in Vilna, the “Jerusalem of Lithuania.”