Careers & Volunteering
Internship Opportunities | Volunteer Opportunities | Remote Volunteer Opportunities
- Development Officer, Institutional Giving
- Assistant, YIVO-Bard Uriel Weinreich Summer Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture
YIVO is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer.
Development Officer, Institutional Giving
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research seeks a Development Officer, Institutional Giving to help advance our mission of preserving and sharing the history and culture of East European Jewry.
Founded in 1925 in Vilna (now Vilnius), YIVO is the only pre-war Jewish archives and library to have survived the Holocaust. Today, our collections include over 24 million archival items and more than 400,000 books, making YIVO the largest repository of materials on East European Jewish civilization in the world. YIVO also presents 80+ public programs annually and serves scholars, students, and audiences globally.
Position Overview:
Reporting to the Chief Development Officer, the Development Officer will lead efforts to secure foundation, corporate, and government funding to support YIVO’s programs, collections, and initiatives.
Key Responsibilities:
- Identify, cultivate, and steward institutional funding partners
- Write and submit grant proposals, letters of inquiry, and reports
- Develop strategies to expand YIVO’s institutional funding pipeline
- Collaborate with senior leadership to align funding with program priorities
- Track grant deadlines, reporting requirements, and funder communications
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree required
- 4–5 years of fundraising experience, ideally including institutional or grant fundraising
- Will be familiar with Eastern European culture
- Strong grant writing and communication skills
- Experience with fundraising databases such as Raiser’s Edge preferred
Salary & Benefits:
- $105,000 salary plus comprehensive benefits including health insurance, retirement contributions, paid vacation, Jewish and federal holidays, and transit benefits.
- Location: Manhattan (near Union Square)
- Full-time | Occasional evenings or Sundays
To Apply:
Please submit a cover letter and resume (single PDF) to Melissa Cohen, Chief Development Officer, at mcohen@yivo.org with the subject line “Development Officer, Institutional Giving.”
Assistant, YIVO-Bard Uriel Weinreich Summer Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research seeks an assistant to provide administrative and logistical support for the 2026 YIVO-Bard Uriel Weinreich Summer Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture. This assistant will support in-person classes, including Yiddish language, literature, and conversation courses, as well as seminars, electives, lectures, and special events. The 2026 Summer Program runs June 21 – July 31, 2026.
The position begins mid-June and ends July 31, 2026. Following a week of training in mid-June, the assistant will be expected to work about 30 to 40 hours per week, Monday through Friday. Hours may vary, but a typical day’s schedule may be 8:00am – 4:00pm ET or 9:00am – 5:00pm ET.
This is an in-person position based at YIVO's headquarters in New York City, located in the Center for Jewish History (15 W 16th Street).
Specific Duties & Responsibilities:
- Provide administrative and logistical support as needed to Summer Program faculty and staff
- Serve as a primary point of contact for students and faculty; keep track of inquiries and help answer questions in collaboration with the YIVO Education team
- Facilitate communication and foster community among instructors, students, and staff
- Collect and analyze feedback from students
Qualifications & Experience:
- Strong organizational skills and attention to detail
- Excellent communication skills
- Flexibility and willingness to tackle problems as they arise
- Familiarity with Zoom
- Familiarity with Google Classroom
- Familiarity with the Yiddish language
- Interest in the history and culture of East European Jewry
Additional Information:
- Compensation: $5,000-$6,000
- Position Type: Part-Time, Seasonal
To Apply:
To apply, please send a cover letter and resume to Ben Kaplan, Director of Education, at bkaplan@yivo.org. Applications will be considered as soon as they are received, so early applications are strongly encouraged. Please include “Assistant, YIVO-Bard Uriel Weinreich Summer Program” in the subject heading of the email.