Frequently Asked Questions
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