To our members

December 10, 2007

Dear Member:

Sholem aleykhem! I’m writing to ask you to renew your annual membership in the National Yiddish Book Center. But first I want to bring you up to date on our latest adventures and share our incredibly exciting plans for 2008 and beyond.

Thanks to your help, most of the world’s Yiddish books are now secure. Last month we completed the transfer of our core collection from a woefully inadequate 19th-century mill building to a modern, fireproof warehouse with three-foot-thick concrete walls and 24-hour security guards. Soon the full text of most of our books will be available online: you’ll be able to log onto our website and read, search or download virtually any title in our collection completely free of charge.

But our work has only just begun. Interest in Yiddish – in the content of the books you’ve helped us save – has never been greater, especially among young people. A record number of college students applied to our Steiner Internship Program this year. Visitorship at our Amherst headquarters is up 40%. More than 65,000 people are logging onto our website every month. Each day we field phone calls, letters and emails from all over the world. The trend is clear: Jews want to know who they are and where they come from, and they’re turning to us for answers.

So rather than rest on our laurels, we’re in the process of transforming the Yiddish Book Center – this spunky, can-do organization you’ve been supporting all these years – into the liveliest, most inclusive center for Jewish learning the world has ever seen.

Our first step, of course, is to expand our physical space. Thanks to your help (and a generous matching grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts), in just 14 months we’ve raised an astonishing $5.4 million toward the $6.2 million we need to double the size of our current building. The Kaplen Family Building will include classrooms, a student center, a 275-seat Performance Hall (with a wooden dance floor and full theatrical lighting), a large kosher kitchen (both milkhig and fleyshig), a state-of-the-art deposit library, galleries and brand new exhibitions. If all goes well, we’ll break ground in March and open our doors to the public by the spring of 2009.

In the meantime we’re developing the first of the many programs that will take place within. After a year-long search, we’ve hired Hankus Netsky as our new vice president and academic director. Hankus is a legend: 30 years ago he founded the Klezmer Conservatory Band and was a moving force behind the international klezmer revival. He’s an inspired teacher, scholar and cultural activist, and he’s already laying the groundwork for what’s to come.

You already know about some of our plans. As soon as space is available, we’ll double the size of our Summer Internship Program, so we can accept more of the spectacularly qualified students who apply. Next month we’ll launch our first “Winter Internship Program” in conjunction with Smith and Hampshire Colleges.

For high school students (like my own daughters, who are too young for the internship program but no less eager to learn), we’re planning a “Great Jewish Books” program, to take place each summer at one of the area’s prestigious colleges. Students aged 14 to 18 will come together to read and discuss Jewish books (in English or English translation) with the best teachers in the field, and enjoy full days of music, film, hands-on work experience and outdoor activities.

We’ll have plenty of opportunities for adults as well. At our informal “Yiddish University,” adults of all ages can come for days or weeks at a time to discover the “other side” of Jewish identity. Here in the beauty of rural New England, you’ll be able to enjoy gourmet kosher meals and choose from scores of offerings: a Yiddish ulpan (language immersion), and courses and workshops in Jewish history, literature, music, film, theater and television. We’ll encourage our students to learn by doing: pick up an instrument and play klezmer, act in a Yiddish play, or don a fartekh (apron) and grab a kokhlefl (stirring spoon) as you learn Jewish cooking from a master in our new kosher kitchen.

Of course, what has always made our programs special is the thrilling process of discovery. After 28 years of rescuing Yiddish books (we still recover 300 volumes a week), we’re expanding our zamling efforts to include their sequel: forgotten American-Jewish sheet music, letters and manuscripts (in Yiddish and English), recipes, home movies, recordings, photographs, and all the other cultural artifacts that can teach us about who we are and where we come from. These materials will become a cornerstone of our new educational curriculum, telling the story of our history and culture as it’s never been told before. Our program participants will be invited to roll up their sleeves and join us on rescue expeditions, to help us gather, sort and catalog collected materials, to prepare exhibitions and digitize the best for our website.

And we’re not limiting the act of discovery to books, documents and artifacts. Whether we speak Yiddish or English, whether we’re born in the old country or the new, we all have authentic Jewish stories to tell. So we’ll add an oral history studio to our new building, a quiet place where visitors can record their own stories. And we’ll dispatch the next generation of zamlers, equipped with video cameras and tape recorders, to fan out and chronicle more recent chapters of Jewish experience.

If you can’t make it to Amherst yourself, we’ll be bringing the Center to you through co-sponsored events in your own community: courses, travelling exhibitions, and a “touring roster” of speakers and performers. We’re even transforming our website into an interactive forum, where you can browse the fruits of our new collection efforts, meet fellow members, learn Yiddish, discuss books (both Yiddish and English), locate translators, share songs and recipes, and tune in to the Center’s latest interviews, lectures and performances through the magic of streaming video and internet radio.

Gevalt! Does all this sound ambitious? It is. But it’s not impossible. After 28 years, we’ve learned how to temper vision with takhles (practicality), enthusiasm with careful planning and fiscal control. We won’t transform the Yiddish Book Center overnight, but we are laying out a bold agenda that is logical and attainable.

The key is your continued support. For more years than I can remember, you and other loyal members have believed in our vision and helped made our work possible. Now, with so much more still to do, I’m counting on you as never before.

Even after all these years, we’re still a proudly grassroots organization. Annual membership – the response to this single mailing – accounts for almost half of our annual operating budget. Which is why your continued membership is so crucially important.

Annual membership in the National Yiddish Book Center remains just $36 and includes a year’s subscription to Pakn Treger, our award-winning, English-language magazine, discounts at our store, and invitations to our many programs and events.

Given how much we want to accomplish during the coming year, I’m hoping you’ll consider increasing your annual membership contribution:

Whatever you can afford, your renewal this year really matters! Our goal is nothing less than restoring the totality of Jewish identity. We’re more energized, more determined and more optimistic than ever before. But we simply can’t succeed without your help.

Your 2008 membership card and decal are already enclosed. Please – won't you renew your membership by sending your most generous, tax-deductible contribution right now, while it’s still on your mind?

Mit a hartsikn dank – With heartfelt thanks,

Aaron Lansky
President

P.S. If you have shepped nakhes – if you’re pleased with what we’ve accomplished – and if you share our bold vision for the future, then now is the time to renew your membership for 2008! Please– won’t you stand by us by renewing your annual membership today? A sheynem dank – my personal thanks!