YIVO

YIVO

Front entrance of YIVO in New York City
Established	1925 (1925)
Location	15 West 16th Street, Manhattan, New York, United States
Coordinates	40°44′17″N 73°59′38″W / 40.738047°N 73.993821°W / 40.738047; -73.993821
Director	Jonathan Brent
Public transit access	Subway: 14th Street–Union Square
Website	YIVO

YIVO (Yiddish: ייִוואָ, pronounced [jiˈvɔ]) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. Established in 1925 in Wilno in the Second Polish Republic (now Vilnius, Lithuania) as the Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut (Yiddish: ייִדישער װיסנשאַפֿטלעכער אינסטיטוט, pronounced [ˈjidiʃɛr ˈvisn.ʃaftlɛχɛr instiˈtut]), Yiddish Scientific Institute.^[1] (The word yidisher means both "Yiddish" and "Jewish.")

Its English name became Institute for Jewish Research after its relocation to New York City, but it is still known mainly by its Yiddish acronym. YIVO is now a partner of the Center for Jewish History, and serves as the de facto recognized language regulator of the Yiddish language in the secular world. The YIVO system is commonly taught in universities and known as klal shprakh (Yiddish: כּלל־שפּראַך, lit. 'standard language') and sometimes "YIVO Yiddish" (Yiddish: ייִוואָ־ייִדיש).