{{Infobox person | image = Aaron Lansky Sammy Awards.jpg | caption = Aaron Lansky at the Sammy Awards in 2016 | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1955|06|17}} | birth_place = New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA | education = {{plainlist| * Hampshire College (BA, 1977) * McGill University (MA) }} | known_for = Founding the Yiddish Book Center }}
'''Aaron Lansky''' (born 17 June 1955, New Bedford, Massachusetts) is the founder of the Yiddish Book Center, an organization he created to help salvage Yiddish language publications. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1989 for his work.
==Education== Lanksy was born on June 17, 1955, in New Bedford, Massachusetts.<ref name="CAO">{{cite book |title=Aaron Lansky |work=Contemporary Authors Online |publisher=Gale |year=2008 |location=Detroit}}</ref><ref name="YBC-Bio">{{cite web |title=Aaron Lansky, founder and president |url=http://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/aaron-lansky-founder-and-president |accessdate=April 28, 2015 |publisher=Yiddish Book Center}}</ref>
He graduated from Hampshire College in 1977 with a Bachelor of Arts in modern Jewish history, and earned a Master of Arts in East European Jewish studies at McGill University in Montreal.<ref name="YBC-Bio" />
He was awarded honorary degrees from Amherst College in 1998 and Hebrew Union College, as well as an honorary Doctor of Letters from the State University of New York at Brockport in 2000.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Honorary Degree Recipients |url=https://www.brockport.edu/academics/commencement/honorary-degree-recipients/ |access-date=2025-10-28 |website=www.brockport.edu |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Recipients by Name {{!}} Honorary Degrees & Awards {{!}} Amherst College |url=https://www.amherst.edu/news/events/commencement/awards/name |access-date=2024-03-21 |website=www.amherst.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Aaron Lansky of The Yiddish Book Center |url=https://stockbridgelibrary.org/event/aaron-lansky-of-the-yiddish-book-center/ |access-date=2025-10-28 |website=The Stockbridge Library Museum & Archives |language=en}}</ref>
== Career == While a graduate student at McGill University, Lansky founded the Yiddish Book Center in 1980.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Our Story {{!}} Yiddish Book Center |url=https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/about/saving-literature |access-date=2024-03-21 |website=www.yiddishbookcenter.org |language=en}}</ref> With approximately 1.5 million volumes, the collection serves as the foundation of an 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.<ref>{{cite news |title=Aaron Lansky built a home for 1.5 million Yiddish books. Now he’s handing over the keys |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/aaron-lansky-built-a-home-for-1-5-million-yiddish-books-now-hes-handing-over-the-keys/ |newspaper=The Times of Israel |author=Andrew Silow-Carroll |date=2025-06-11 |access-date=2026-01-09}}</ref>
Lansky is the author of ''Outwitting 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 2005 Massachusetts Book Award.<ref>{{cite web |title=''Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books'' A Reading and Discussion Guide |url=http://www.massbook.org/reading_guides/Outwitting%20History%20discussion%20guide2%20PDF.pdf |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208151447/http://www.massbook.org/reading_guides/Outwitting%20History%20discussion%20guide2%20PDF.pdf |archivedate=February 8, 2012 |accessdate=April 28, 2015 |publisher=The Massachusetts Center for the Book}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Silow-Carroll |first=Andrew |date=2025-06-08 |title=Aaron Lansky built a home for 1.5 million Yiddish books. Now he's handing over the keys. |url=https://www.jta.org/2025/06/08/culture/aaron-lansky-built-a-home-for-1-5-million-yiddish-books-now-hes-handing-over-the-keys |access-date=2025-10-28 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Staff {{!}} Yiddish Book Center |url=https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/about/staff |access-date=2025-10-28 |website=www.yiddishbookcenter.org |language=en}}</ref> He lives in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, with his wife, Gail, and has stated that he intends to devote his retirement to writing and study.<ref>{{cite news |title=He Rescued 1.5 Million Yiddish Books. Now He Will Have Time to Read Some. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/27/books/aaron-lansky-yiddish-book-center.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250102121522/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/27/books/aaron-lansky-yiddish-book-center.html |archive-date=2025-01-02 |newspaper=The New York Times |author=Joseph Berger |date=2024-02-27 |access-date=2026-01-09 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>
==Notes == {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lansky, Aaron}} Category:1955 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century American Jews Category:MacArthur Fellows Category:Yiddish-language literature Category:Hampshire College alumni Category:McGill University alumni Category:21st-century American Jews
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