Yiddish Book Center Caps $32 Million Campaign with Groundbreaking

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lou Cove, Vice President (413) 256-4900, x134

AMHERST, MA –- The National Yiddish Book Center has completed a six-year fundraising campaign that brought in $32 million dollars, and will break ground on a $7 million construction and renovation project designed to double the size of their current facility. A groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the start of the project will take place on Sunday, May 4, at 12 noon at the Book Center’s headquarters (1021 West Street, Amherst, MA).

“This new facility represents a major shift in the Book Center's core mission,” says Aaron Lansky, president and founder of the National Yiddish Book Center. “We are declaring victory on the rescue of Yiddish books and turning our attention to the millions of people around the world who can't read these books in the original but are genuinely eager to learn about their content.”

The Book Center is also celebrating a successful end to a six-year fundraising campaign that raised $32 million for educational and public programs, endowment and the building expansion project.

“The success of this campaign, particularly in the current economic climate, is deeply gratifying,” says the Book Center's vice president Lou Cove, who was responsible for launching and guiding the campaign. “Our success defies expectation and suggests that Yiddish and Jewish culture are far from demise. In fact, there's never been more enthusiasm among our 30,000 members - young and old -- or our donors. Each year more students apply to our programs, more visitors walk in our doors, and more programs go online to engage and educate them. And this year the federal and state government contributed to our endowment and construction projects, respectively, indicating a strong interest in Yiddish culture that extends well beyond the Jewish community. Anyone who cares about culture, who cares about books, language, the modern American immigrant story -- they're all a part of this experience and they all stand to benefit from our new programs.”

The six-year campaign has allowed the Book Center to eliminate organizational debt, increase endowment from $600,000 to $5.8 million, proceed with a $7 million facility expansion, and significantly strengthen its donor base.

Built in 1997, the Yiddish Book Center’s current architecturally distinctive headquarters offers exhibitions, galleries, open stacks of Yiddish books, a reading library, bookstore, and public gardens. With the planned 21,000 square foot expansion (and renovation of existing space), the enlarged structure will include:

The National Yiddish Book Center is a 30,000-member organization dedicated to rescuing and distributing Yiddish and other Jewish books and opening their contents to the world. Its headquarters in Amherst, MA, houses the Jack and Ruthe B. Cowl Center for Jewish Culture, the Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library, and a range of other resources.

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