Welcome!

The International Association of Yiddish Clubs (IAYC) has been in existence since 1993. As the sole international organization fostering Yiddish clubs, the IAYC is in the forefront of extolling the benefits of all things Yiddish, which is our "mameloshn," our mother tongue.

With few exceptions, the IAYC has sponsored yearly conferences throughout the United States. During these conferences presentations were given by experts and others who were knowledgeable in a myriad of topics relating to the Yiddish language, culture, and Jewish history. Its first conference was in 1993 in Washington, D.C., and most recently in 2022, the IAYC held a virtual conference via Zoom, which celebrated the life of our treasured member, Shura Vaisman z"l, who dedicated her life to the preservation of Yiddish culture and to her home town of Czernowitz. This was our seventeenth conference.

The mission of the IAYC is to help promote its member clubs, which exist throughout the world, to support them in any way it can, to help them grow, to offer them resources, and programming that they could use during their meetings.

The organizations' guiding force has always been Fishl Kutner, whose guidance and unwavering dedication and boundless energy has led the organization to great heights since its inception. Although he has retired recently as IAYC President, he has left a legacy whose import is impossible to measure.

So, again, welcome to our website! We hope that you have an interest not only in the Yiddish language, but also in honoring and preserving the Yiddish language and Jewish culture for the present and future generations. We encourage you to peruse our website completely, so that you may get a full sense of what the IAYC is all about, and how it may help you further the functioning of your own Yiddish club, or enhance your own yiddishkayt (Jewishness). Perhaps you might like to form your own local Yiddish club, or you may even like to form one that meets virtually, online. Our clubs meet either in person or virtually (via Zoom), or do both.

If we can help you in any way, please feel free to contact us!

Lastly, let us share with you a part of an interview conducted in 2016 by the Yiddish Book Center with our founder, Fishl Kutner, who will tell you eloquently about the founding of our group.