Aaron Lansky | |
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 Aaron Lansky at the Sammy Awards in 2016 | |
| Born | (1955-06-17)June 17, 1955 (age 70) |
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| Known for | Founding theYiddish Book Center |
Aaron Lansky (born 17 June 1955,New Bedford, Massachusetts) is the founder of theYiddish Book Center, an organization he created to help salvageYiddish language publications. He received aMacArthur Fellowship in 1989 for his work.
Lanksy was born on June 17, 1955, in New Bedford, Massachusetts.[1][2]
He graduated fromHampshire College in 1977 with a B.A. in modernJewish history, and earned an MA in East European Jewish studies atMcGill University inMontreal.[2]
He was awarded honorary degrees fromAmherst College in 1998 andHebrew Union College, as well as an honoraryDoctor of Letters from theState University of New York at Brockport in 2000.[3][4][5]
While a graduate student at McGill University, Lansky founded the Yiddish Book Center in 1980.[6] With approximately 1.5 million volumes, the collection serves as the foundation of a multifaceted institution encompassing Yiddish language instruction, university scholarships, translator training programmes, academic conferences, a publishing house for translated works, oral history archives, a podcast, and a digitised library of classic and lesser-known Yiddish texts.[7]
Lansky is the author ofOutwitting History (2004), an autobiographical account of how he saved the Yiddish books of the world, from the 1970s to the present day. It won the 2005Massachusetts Book Award.[8] A children's book called “The Book Rescuer: How a Mensch from Massachusetts Saved Yiddish Literature for Generations to Come” also tells his story.
Lansky retired from the Yiddish Book Center in June 2025, after 45 years as its president.[9][10] He lives inStockbridge, Massachusetts, with his wife, Gail, and has stated that he intends to devote his retirement to writing and study.[11]
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