Yiddishland - From Mess to Success!

Jana Mazurkiewicz Meisarosh is organising this fundraiser on behalf of The Yiddish Arts and Academics Association of North America (YAAANA).

Tax deductible

Yiddishland California needs your support. Yiddishland is a cultural center, art gallery, event space, classroom, meeting place, and more, created to expand the understanding of Jewish culture’s many impacts on American life and history by working to preserve and promote Yiddish language and culture. Yiddishland is a project of the nondenominational nonprofit Yiddish Arts and Academics Association of North America (YAAANA), classified as a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization by the standards of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Our EIN is 85-2064877, and all donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by the law. Guests of all faiths, backgrounds, ages, and identities are welcome to appreciate our courses and events as well as the warmth of our La Jolla cultural center and art gallery.

In 2023, the Yiddishland family has watched one art gallery after another closing its doors, and many nonprofit organizations are facing challenges at this present time. Unfortunately, our organization is not exempt from these difficulties and is significantly impacted by the current economic situation in our country. We found that our expenses are increasing while tzedakah is decreasing. Each of us recognizes that Yiddishland is operating in an expensive economy beyond our control.

This is why we decided to, in short 10 days, pack up and head South to Cabo Punta Banda in Baja California, where we have hopes of expanding towards the goal of YiddishLAND. The support of the international community in the last few months has made this shift much smoother and easier for us. Thanks to you, we built relations locally that will allow us to come back to San Diego once a month to organize a special event locally, and to continue broadcasting our classes and events via Zoom. We are still finalizing the specifics of our future event locations post-transition, and we will share the details with you when they are confirmed.

At this juncture, your support is very crucial. We are currently focused on fundraising to facilitate our move and digitize our exhibit, and your generosity plays a key role in this new chapter.

We are asking the public to support us with any possible donation to YAAANA — even the smallest amount can help.

Your donations will assist with:

Increasing public access to YAAANA’s collection of Judaica, Jewish art, books and other ephemera (now totaling thousands of pieces) online

Hosting events and courses. From 2021 until now we hosted close to 600 events and courses, engaged with over 2,000 participants and served over 1,600 students from over 43 states (including California, Texas, and New York) and 27 countries (including South Africa, Canada, and the UK)

Moving expenses - it will be a mega move!

We don’t intend to stop here. Currently, YAAANA is working on digitizing our physical collection, scanning our gallery’s paintings and posting them online for anyone around the world to appreciate. This digital art gallery will also include information on the artists of each piece, which may inspire further exploration of the artist and their other works. It’s an ambitious project, and Yiddishland will see it through!

The online art gallery is just one of our projects for this year. We are intensely working with a team of architects and real estate advisors to pave the way for the creation of YiddishLAND. We are closer and closer, currently talking to a few investors.

Read more about our long-term plans here.

We hope you can join us on our journey! Here are some ways to contribute:

Support us with a tax-deductible donation
Become a member of Yiddishland California
Purchase artwork and Yiddishland souvenirs
Include us in your estate planning
Help us keep the door open by volunteering your time and skills
Become a qualified intern or refer qualified interns for college and academic credit more information here
Share this campaign with your friends and family