This past Sunday, the YIVO Institute celebrated the launch of their new Digital Archive on Jewish Life in Poland, a website of memorabilia from the YIVO’s collections on Polish Jewry before the Holocaust. Leonard Grunstein helped bring the project to fruition with a generous $30,000 donation. His support was highlighted at the May 18 event, where numerous speakers took to the stage to thank the Grunstein family for their generosity. The remainder of the funding for the site came from the Gruss-Lipper Family Foundation.
The new project brings together thousands of artifacts from YIVO archives, including videos, photos, books, and posters. Jews in Poland once made up nearly 10 percent of the country’s pre-World War II population and the community one of the most vibrant in all of Europe. YIVO’s website puts this information into an easily accessible archive, making it easy for anyone, be it researchers or Jews of Polish heritage, to learn more about this rich community.
The May 18 event featured tours of YIVO’s rare books and the archives the website is based on. The tours followed a reception in YIVO’s main hall, where a slideshow played home movies from the archives that had been filmed by Eastern European Jews. Following tours, YIVO Institute CEO Jonathan Brent gave a presentation on the importance of documenting the heritage of Eastern European Jews, explaining that the Institute allows Jews to reclaim an empty space that had been left through the destruction of the Holocaust.
Leonard Grunstein celebrates the launch of the new YIVO Digital Archive on Jewish Life in Poland
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Tagged: history, judaism, Leonard Grunstein, YIVO
Leonard Grunstein 
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