When Aaron Lansky was studying Yiddish literature at McGill University, he was having difficulty finding the books he needed. First generation Jewish Americans, escaping pogroms and poverty abroad, had flocked to America, bringing their Yiddish books with them. But, Mr. Lansky wondered, what would happen to those books left to their children, who did not speak the language?

In an article published Feb. 29 in The New York Times, Joseph Berger chronicled the events that led to a collection of 1.5 million books and the establishment of the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA., one of the nation’s leading Jewish cultural institutions, The Times said.

Mr. Lansky had expected to amass about 70,000 books. What exists now is an institution that is part museum, part library, part bookstore, and part storehouse, currently lodged in two buildings on the campus of Hampshire College, where Mr. Lansky was an undergraduate student.

So far, 11,000 titles have been digitized, and have triggered five million downloads, The Times said.      NYTimes photo