Yizkor Books: Frequently Asked Questions

Yiddish Book Center - Download yizkor book PDFs

NEW! Yiddish Book Center keyword search (OCR)

Genealogy Indexer.org - Search yizkor books, directories and more

New York Public Library - Read digitized yizkor books online

JewishGen.org -

Find English translations, search bibliographic database

JewishGen Yizkor Book Necrology Index - search yizkor book necrologies (list of names of the dead)

Is there a yizkor book for my shtetl/town/city?
Check JewishGen’s bibliographic database. 

Where can I find English translations?

• Check JewishGen
• Check the Library's catalog.
• Find a translator through Yiddish Book Center or YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
• Sponsor a translation.

Why aren't all of the Library's yizkor books online?
About 15% are not online, usually for copyright and/or formatting reasons, and must be used in person at the Library. Please contact us with questions: dorotjewish@nypl.org. 

Can I do a word search within a digitized yizkor book?

Yes. You have two options:

• The Yiddish Book Center's new OCR (optical character recognition) search is here.
• About half of the digitized yizkor books are also searchable in the Hebrew, Latin and Cyrillic alphabet at GenealogyIndexer.org . 

Where can I buy my own copy of a yizkor book?
Buy reprints from the Yiddish Book Center. 

May I donate a yizkor book to the Library's collection?
The Library welcomes yizkor book donations, but does not collect duplicates.
Please contact us at dorotjewish@nypl.org