Memoria [EN] Nr 35 (08/2020) | Page 23

Zdjęcia w artykule dzięki uprzejmości Muzeum Reina Sofia

Additional materials available for viewers to explore in Beba Epstein: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Girl include videos of Jewish family life in Eastern Europe in the early 20th century, several notebooks from Jewish schools including Beba’s primary school, and rare documents like the record book of the study house of the 18th Century Vilna Gaon, the most influential rabbi of his time.

Through Beba’s story, the audience will learn about many aspects of Jewish life in Eastern Europe including family dynamics, the school system and curriculum, leisure activities, immigration, as well as antisemitism and the Holocaust.

The YIVO Bruce and Francesca Cernia Slovin Online Museum was established in 2018 with a generous $3 million gift from Bruce Slovin in memory of his late wife Francesca Cernia Slovin for the purpose of telling the story of Jewish life in Eastern Europe and Russia through YIVO’s world-renowned archival and library collections. Future exhibitions planned for the YIVO Cernia Slovin Online Museum will span the history of East European Jewish life over four centuries, drawing from the expansive YIVO archives to create a variety of English language experiential exhibitions.

About The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research was founded in Berlin, Warsaw, and in Vilnius (Vilna) in 1925 with the support of leading intellectuals such as Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud. Its mission is to document, study, and preserve Ashkenazi Jewish civilization in all its aspects, from culture and history to language, literature, and political movements. YIVO’s headquarters were relocated to New York City in 1940 in response to WWII.

Today, YIVO is renowned for its role as a research institute, educational center, and cultural organization, with a library of over 400,000 volumes in addition to its unparalleled archive with over 23 million documents and artifacts. YIVO is dedicated to digitizing and preserving its collections for current and future generations worldwide. YIVO also keeps this heritage alive through its countless public and educational programs, which are conducted in person and digitally for a global community.