100 Objects from the Collections of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
Stefanie Halpern
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (2025)
ISBN: 979-8218622107
Reviewed by Joan Kirschner for Reader Views (12/2025)
YIVO, the Institute for Jewish Research (in Yiddish, Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut, meaning Jewish Scientific Institute), has recently released a beautiful new book highlighting 100 objects from its extensive holdings of cultural artifacts.
YIVO just marked 100 years of study and scholarship by dedicated individuals of multiple professions exploring the history and culture of the Jewish people. YIVO has collected materials and objects of all kinds that represented the lives of Jews throughout the rule of the former Russian Empire, but before and beyond those centuries.
YIVO’s main operations were established in Vilna, Poland, in 1925. That city is now known as Vilnius, Lithuania, having changed hands several times due to war and political restructuring. As Vilna, however, it was a great center for Jewish learning, often referred to as the “Jerusalem of the North” and similarly. The city had a large Jewish population, most of which did not survive World War II.
Because of the deteriorating conditions created by the war, YIVO relocated to New York by 1940. It also has a smaller operation in Buenos Aires and one in Chicago.
YIVO leaders removed as many of the records, archives, and objects as possible and shipped them to the new headquarters, but much was destroyed during the war years. Yet, almost miraculously, there are vast holdings that survived and have since been augmented by additional materials.
This beautifully designed and handsomely produced volume showcases representative selections from YIVO’s collections, a minuscule fraction of the organization’s holdings that will encourage readers to learn more about YIVO and what it represents. As the epigraph states in its English translation of an “appeal from YIVO’s ethnographic commission in January 1926”: “Gather them together, these remnants of cultural wealth that past generations have left us as an inheritance.”
That is exactly what readers will find as they discover the 100 objects that are shown and described in these pages. Some are beautiful, whimsical, or even humorous, but all are fascinating for their intellectual value and visual appeal, while some are heartbreaking on many levels. Readers will be drawn into the times and places evoked by these unique objects and develop a new understanding of the mostly vanished world from which they came.
The book is divided into sections that cover the following topics: Beliefs and Customs, History, The Written Word, Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Labor, Youth, The Holocaust and Its Aftermath, Immigration, and YIVO History. Within each section, each object is shown, sometimes with multiple photographs, and its origin and significance are described in a commentary by an expert on the topic. Each item that has been chosen for this book is a kind of marvel in its own right, and readers will find themselves studying and considering them as they progress through the pages. As a result, it is likely that readers will be motivated to learn more about the classes of objects that particularly interest them.
Well-known names from Jewish culture and history make appearances in these pages, including Abraham Cahan, Otto Frank, Chiune Sugihara, Lucy Dawidowicz, and Sholem Aleichem, but there are many others who will be new discoveries, or whose accomplishments will elicit additional consideration of their work and encourage further reading. This is a book to study, to examine, and discuss with others, and while the dust jacket calls it a “gorgeously illustrated coffee table book,” it is so much more – it is a testament to the diversity and depth of Eastern European Jewish culture, as it was, and how it has evolved and is represented in our contemporary world. It is a book that will be treasured by its purchaser, or by anyone who receives it as a thoughtful gift.
Another absorbing aspect of 100 Objects is its range of contributors, who are listed and described at the end of the text. Again, some of their names will be familiar to readers, but some will be new. They are all enormously well-versed in their fields and have produced many outstanding works on their own, which are mentioned in their biographies.
100 Objects, edited by Stefanie Halpern, is a book for all those interested in Jewish life and culture in Europe as it was before the tragedy of the Holocaust. Each object and its description will open a door that offers a view into a past that is quickly receding but must be recalled and should be treasured. It is also a reminder to ask questions, to share stories, and to consider the value of history and its lessons, as told to us by our elders.
I am motivated to share this extraordinary book with my contemporary family, and to further exchange the reminisces of our grandparents and others that we heard as children, and I hope other readers will be too.