Our Mission  

What we are:

The Congress for Jewish Culture was founded in 1948 to promote Yiddish language and culture. Among the founders were such luminaries as Shmuel Charney, Shmerke Kaczerginski, H. Leivick, and Yoysef Opatoshu. We believe that the printed word is the face of a language, the spoken word its beating heart, the song its soul. We join artists and individuals to the Yiddish community through live programming, web media, and print publications with resources for all levels of Yiddish understanding.

אונדזער שליחות

In addition to regular Yiddish programming via videos, Zoom, and live performance, we provide valuable resources for students and teachers of the language, as well as researchers and translators. Currently we are developing our Leksikon and Library Project, creating the largest online database on Yiddish writers. The database includes access to the original Yiddish texts of "Der Leksikon fun der nayer Yidisher literatur" (Biographical Dictionary of Modern Yiddish Literature) as well as Professor Joshua Fogel’s English translations. Over time, we will add in other Yiddish leksikonen, and in the library, we will include other materials published by the Congress and its affiliates, from our literary journal "Di Tsukunft" (The Future), to children's literature, drama, research works and literary criticism all in Yiddish.