WHAT?

CYCO (pronounced "TSIko": ציקאָ, for "Tsentrale Yidishe Kultur-Organizatsye") is a treasure trove of Yiddish culture and literature. Its home in Long Island City holds poetry, history, novels, memoirs, songbooks, and political tracts – not on closed library shelves, but open to browsing; not in digital form, but in the beautiful volumes they were created to be read in.

Ever since its founding in 1938 , CYCO has been more than a bookstore. As a cultural center and publisher, it has been key to the preservation of Yiddish culture. And above all, it has been a safe haven for lovers of the Yiddish language. When publishing Yiddish books became difficult and dangerous in Europe, CYCO filled the void and became a major source of books for the Yiddish-loving world. (See below for more of this history) From here in New York, CYCO even saw other CYCOs pop up around the globe, as close as Paterson, New Jersey and as far away as Argentina. The other branches (which may have been independent or federated) have closed, but its New York heart has carried on.

WHY?

That heart, and CYCO itself, is now in danger. Like so many other long-lasting small organizations and businesses, it has seen most of its peers close their doors. While the Yiddish language is heartily alive, the ecosystem of Yiddish organizations and clubs, newspapers and magazines, theaters and coffeehouses has been reduced to a few comparatively large institutions which draw most of the available resources, and a scattering of smaller groups struggling to survive.

Just as a thrilling wave of new translations and contemporary authors is bringing Yiddish literature to the forefront of the Yiddish cultural revitalization movement, CYCO – New York’s last secular Yiddish book center – faces a real possibility of closing. But CYCO, as a collection of books, a reading room, and a salon, is essential in keeping Yiddish alive in the hands of readers and writers, in the mouths of performers and debaters, and on the bedside tables of bookworms.

WHO?

Friends of CYCO is a vetted group of young (and youngish) Yiddishists from NYC and beyond, who have come together to help CYCO continue, thrive and open its doors to all people and events that strengthen Yiddish culture. Friends of CYCO believe that CYCO and other small non-profit organizations are key to the future of a flourishing, vibrant, and diverse Yiddish cultural world. We are working with Hy Wolfe, CYCO's long-standing steward, to revitalize the organization and ensure its sustainable survival as an independent, non-partisan home for Yiddish language, literature, and culture.

We envision a CYCO whose space is a reading room by day and a salon space by night. A CYCO where you can browse among thousands of books, dipping into the ones that catch your eye or imagination, and then bring a few home with you if you want. A CYCO that is a home for readers, writers, poets, and performers alike. A CYCO that hosts book clubs, translation circles, songwriting workshops, readings, and performances of music and small-scale theater. A CYCO that continues its role as a publisher, bringing new Yiddish works to new Yiddish readers and longstanding supporters. A CYCO that prints new, affordable editions of hard-to-find and out-of-print Yiddish books, with newly written introductions by 21st century scholars.

We envision a CYCO that opens its doors to the full breadth of the Yiddish-speaking world and encourages the cultural ferment that is only possible in a diverse space. All Yiddishists – frum un fray, queer and trans, cradle-tongue speakers and late-life learners, elders and children, beginners and fluent, from all backgrounds and walks of life – all are welcome at CYCO, where works of classic and modernist Yiddish literature stand alongside works of Jewish history, chronicles of workers’ movements, children’s books, liturgical and paraliturgical texts, and queer and feminist poetry.

HOW?

Some of these things can't happen until it's possible to safely gather in person again. But none of them are possible unless CYCO outlives the pandemic.

This campaign is aimed at raising a full year's budget for CYCO, so that we can have the time to plan and build for the long term. Beyond simply paying the rent, it will also make it possible for us to launch online versions of some kinds of programming, to prepare the space for regular public use, to fully catalog and reorganize the current stock of books, and to begin collaborating with Yiddish cultural initiatives we hope will be long standing partners.

All of this will take hard and painstaking work, and we want as much of it as possible to be paid work that can help support un- and under-employed Yiddishists at a living wage. You can find a breakdown of our projected budget for the year on our website, https://friendsofCYCO.org.

We know that the long-term sustainability of CYCO, like every community cultural organization, depends on the breadth of support it receives. And we know that these past two years have been hard on almost everyone. Please contribute if you can – even if it's just a symbolic amount – as a sign that you believe in the importance of CYCO, and of a vital, varied Yiddish cultural world. We will deeply appreciate it, and you!

And we have some beautiful thank-you offerings for folks who are able to contribute:

- For those who read Yiddish, or just enjoy beautifully-made books, we have works by modern and classic Yiddish writers (many published by CYCO!);

- For those who don’t, or who prefer visual art, we have gorgeous artworks by Molly Crabapple and others, and signed copies of English-language books, including Jeremiah Moss’ Vanishing New York;

- For those who want a deeper relationship to the CYCO space, there are chances to dedicate a shelf, or a full bookcase, and to hold a small event there;

- And for everyone, we have bookmarks and pins made specially for this campaign.

HISTORY

CYCO was founded in 1938 to cultivate and promote Yiddish culture. When the winds of war were swirling in Europe and publishing Yiddish books became a perilous undertaking, CYCO became one of the century's most important publishers of Yiddish books, bringing out new work by acclaimed writers like H. Leivick, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Chaim Grade and David Opatoshu, as well as standard editions of Y. L. Peretz and other classics, literary criticism, history, and more. CYCO did this while maintaining its original mission as being a place of safety for all readers and writers of Yiddish. CYCO’s books are in every library that contains works in Yiddish. The original CYCO, located on 78th Street in Manhattan (in a building owned today by former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg), was a hub for Yiddish literary culture, and its basement cafeteria was a place for conversation while enjoying a coffee and Danish; later incarnations, first further downtown on East 21st Street and now in Long Island City, have carried that role into the 21st century.