Blogs You Need To Know - YIVO YEDIES

YIVO has stepped up their blog game of late. The new YEDIES (news) blog has a great mix of YIVO news with archival curiosities. 

YEDIES isn't just the name of the YIVO blog, it's also the name of their (English language) newsletter and was an official (Yiddish language) YIVO publication from the beginning. 

Here, archivist Roberta Newman brings to light a controversy from 1935. Hebrew University was refusing to accept students from Vilne's two Yiddish language high schools. YIVO had been founded in Vilne in 1928 and was still located there in 1935, so the city's Yiddish language schools were a matter of immediate importance to the YIVO board.

Even though students had no trouble being accepted at universities in France, Germany and Belgium, Hebrew University chancellor Judah Magnes insisted the school

would only be willing to accept diplomas accredited by the Polish government or from Jewish schools in which the language of instruction was Hebrew.

Ouch!

The controversy ended up in YEDIES after all attempts at private resolution of the matter failed.