Yiddish Book Center
Legal name: National Yiddish Book Center Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 042708878
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Amherst, MA, USA
- Phone
- 4132564900
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Cultural, Ethnic Awareness
- Affiliation
- Judaism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $14,384,981
- Expenses
- $9,338,151
- Assets
- $89,075,545
- Liabilities
- $698,909
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
33 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- AARON LANSKY (PRESIDENT THROUGH 6/17/2025)
- SUSAN BRONSON (PRESIDENT AS OF 6/17/2025)
Highest reported compensation
- AARON LANSKY (PRESIDENT THROUGH 6/17/2025): $450,115 total reported compensation
- SUSAN BRONSON (PRESIDENT AS OF 6/17/2025): $365,862 total reported compensation
- ROBERT LOEB (CFO & TREASURER): $246,151 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The national yiddish book center (the "center") works to recover, celebrate, and regenerate yiddish and modern jewish literature and culture to advance a fuller understanding of jewish history and identity. The center engages diverse, worldwide audiences, generating enthusiasm, knowledge, and commitment to the history and future of yiddish and jewish culture. These goals are furthered through a range of innovative educational and cultural programs, digital initiatives, and strategic partnerships. Books are recovered from across the globe and lead ground-breaking digital collections projects including the universal yiddish library to make all yiddish books accessible through a single online portal. Educational programs serve high school students, college students, teachers, and adults. Translators are trained and publication of new english language translations are done through white goat press, the center's book imprint, and pakn treger, an english language magazine.
What it reported doing in 2024
Education the center offers several major educational programs for undergraduates and recent college graduates. The 7-week steiner summer program includes 18 students who study yiddish language and modern jewish history and culture. The fellowship program for college graduates is a 12-month program for recent graduates who participate in a variety of experiential learning projects including book digitization, oral history, exhibit development, on-site and online course development, and the center's english language magazine, pakn treger. The great jewish books program is offered to high school students who spend one week engaged in an intense exploration of jewish literature. The center's newest program for teachers, "paper bridges: teaching the holocaust through yiddish literature," launched in summer 2025 and included 12 teachers from across the united states. Yiddish school, a weeklong residential yiddish program for adults takes place every spring and online yiddish classes are offered annually. The center created a new beginning yiddish language textbook which was published in summer 2020 and has sold more than 4000 copies. Based on this textbook, the center trains, mentors, and certifies yiddish language teachers. The center's yiddish culture for jewish communities supports yiddish cultural programming for jewish communal organizations. The public libraries program serves forty public libraries annually offering training for librarians, books for reading groups, resources for programming, and a traveling exhibition.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 82% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 99% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 56
- Transparency & Controls: 80
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 80
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 52.8%; rating input score 53
- Program expense ratio: 71.4%; rating input score 71
- Fundraising efficiency: $6.71 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Pass
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 76.5%; rating input score 76; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 35.1%; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 9.54; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 22.1%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 6.4% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.6% per year; rating input score 100; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6.3% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 52.8% of revenue deployed · 71.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 24 of 24 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $6.7M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $450K · 33 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $914K reported
- Consistency: 36 of 37 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 9 filed money-flow records
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 53/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 27/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 3/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.