Education boost for UK

JEWISH HISTORICAL education in Britain will receive a major boost when the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research opens a London office in January, following approval by the Charity Commission.

YIVO was founded in Vilna, Poland, in 1925, to document all aspects of Jewish life in, primarily, Eastern Europe. Its website says it is “the primary source of the documentary history of East European Jewry and the surviving record of millions of lives of Jewish victims of the Holocaust.”

Jonathan Brent, the New York-based executive director and CEO, said: “The London office will be responsible for developing programmes and conferences in the area of East European and Russian Jewish history and culture, taking advantage of the programmes produced in New York and adapting them for UK (and European) interests and conditions.”

YIVO London will also become “the focal point for dissemination of online educational programmes to the UK and Europe,” he said.

These may include a courses on Ashkenazi civilisation, which, according to Mr Brent, has been taken by “over 3,500 people from 50 different countries”.

YIVO-NY board members will meet their UK colleagues in February to discuss plans for developing UK programmes, exhibitions, and initiatives.

“YIVO London will help us more deeply engage with English academics and institutions to help YIVO fulfill its global mission,” Mr Brent said.