Yung Yidish

Yung Yidish (YUNG YiDiSH) is a non-profit organization and cultural brand based in Israel, founded in 1993 by Mendy Cahan. Its mission is to preserve and transmit Yiddish culture, encourage contemporary Yiddish creativity, and promote Yiddish as a living language. The organization operates a library and cultural center in Jerusalem and a 400-square-meter book annex at the central bus station in Tel Aviv, which is being developed into a Yiddish living museum. Yung Yidish holds one of the five largest Yiddish collections in the world and the largest private collection in Israel, with over 80,000 books, recordings, newspapers, paintings, manuscripts, and archival materials. It hosts concerts, exhibitions, readings, commemorations, and artistic experimentation, and has cooperated with numerous institutions such as Alma College, The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, UCLA, Yad Ben Zvi, and the Diaspora Museum. The organization relies on volunteers and has no salaried positions except for an accountant. As of 2019, Eli Benedict serves as volunteer CEO. Yung Yidish has been featured in over 250 press articles and attracts tens of thousands of visitors annually.

Yung Yidish was founded in 1993 by Mendy Cahan, following his decision in the late 1980s to start collecting Yiddish books and displaying them in his apartment as a space for inspiration and creation for artists and scholars. Cahan saw this as a project of national importance for saving Yiddish culture and as a goal for connecting to contemporary discourse. Together with other committee members, he opened an association in 1993 to institutionalize the project of collecting Yiddish books and Yiddish events that had begun several years earlier. The organization started in a basement at 52 Yirmiyahu Street in Jerusalem, which from 2008 was managed by the Jerusalem Klezmer Association, popularly known as "The Kretshme" (tavern). The Jerusalem branch has since closed, but the Jerusalem Klezmer Association moved to a new location at 161 Jaffa Street, Jerusalem, where part of the Yung Yidish book collection is still displayed. In the early 2000s, another branch opened in Tel Aviv, in the basement of the Beit Leyvik building. The Tel Aviv branch, which became the main one, moved after a few years to the New Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv, to the artists' complex on the 5th floor, Studio 5008, where there is an industrial space of about 400 square meters and about 5.5 meters high. The association has no salaried positions except for an accountant and operates mainly through thousands of annual volunteer hours; as of today, the association has about 40 volunteers engaged in rescuing, preserving, and sorting materials and holding cultural events. In 2015, Eli Benedict joined the management of the association, and from 2019 he has served as volunteer CEO. The association's activities include collecting books and media in Yiddish, new and old, from homes in Israel, closing libraries, universities reducing their collections, closing archives, and people collecting Yiddish books left on the street. Today, the collection includes over 80,000 books, most of which are different titles, records, newspapers, paintings, exhibits, video clips, manuscripts, and archival materials located in the association's branches. The association holds cultural events related to Yiddish heritage, from concerts, cabarets, dance and theater performances, to exhibitions, tours, lectures, and classes. As of today, the association's libraries are located in two main places: the first in Jerusalem, and the second and larger one in Tel Aviv. The association has tens of thousands of visitors per year in guided tours, events, performances, and exhibitions. Over 250 press articles have been written about the association over the years, covering its unusual story.

• 2019

  Eli Benedict became volunteer CEO

• 2015

  Eli Benedict joined the management

• 2008

  Jerusalem branch managed by the Jerusalem Klezmer Association

• 2000

  Tel Aviv branch opened in the basement of Beit Leyvik

• 1993

  Founded by Mendy Cahan

• 1993

  Instrumental in sparking off the first Israeli Yiddish film festival at The Jerusalem Cinematheque

• 1992

  Sole Yiddish presence at the International Jerusalem Book Fair

Non-profit cultural organization and archive dedicated to Yiddish language and culture

Product categories. Yiddish book collection · Cultural events · Exhibitions · Concerts · Educational programs

1. 1YUNG YiDiSH - vu yidish lebt, lakht un trakhtyiddish.co.il
2. 2Yung Yidish - Wikidatawikidata.org
3. 3יונג יידיש (עמותה) - Wikipediahe.wikipedia.org