UK billionaire donates nearly $1m. to the Center for Jewish History
The donation to the largest Jewish history archive in the world outside of Israel was a major financial boost, as they have been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
By AARON REICHThe Center for Jewish History in New York City.(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The US-based Center for Jewish History received a sizable donation of £766,000 (nearly $1 million) from Sir Leonard Blavatnik, the fourth wealthiest man in the United Kingdom, the Jewish News reported.The donation to the largest Jewish history archive in the world outside of Israel was a major financial boost, as they have been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus pandemic.The center is made up of other organizations, including the American Jewish Historical Society, the Leo Baeck Institute, the American Sephardi Federation, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and the Yeshiva University Museum. Altogether, these institutions contain a massive archive of various documents, artwork, objects, recordings and more, with the books alone numbering at 50,000 volumes, and a massive digital catalogue of seven million items.However, the crisis sparked by the coronavirus pandemic has seen these institutions suffer financially.However, one of the organizations in the center, the YIVO Institute, actually used the coronavirus to start a new project. In April, it launched an initiative to collect firsthand accounts of how the coronavirus pandemic affected Jewish life.
