The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research has gathered, preserved and now digitized its pre-WWII papers, the culmination of a seven-year $7 million project. The archive is the largest remnant of Jewish life in Europe posted online for wide distribution and scholarship.

The collection of about 1.5 million pages includes working drafts by Hasidic philosopher Martin Buber; letters from Albert Einstein to Yiddish writers and actors; a diary of a young Theodor Herzl; business papers of the Rothschilds; songs; medical records; and the sermons of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Visit yivo.org for access.