Established in 1925, YIVO – Yiddish Scientific Institute (Yidd. ייִדישער װיסנשאַפֿטלעכער אינסטיטוט) –marked a completely qualitatively new period in research and advancement of traditional Jewish culture and Yiddish language. YIVO managed to collect invaluable Yiddish literature, folklore and various artefacts of Jewish culture. What is more, YIVO standardized Yiddish language and by way of various works managed to successfully disprove the belief that Yiddish was merely a dialect or a jargon, and not a rich language in its own right. Members of the YIVO initiative group were mostly Jews from Berlin. It is precisely in that city that the headquarters of the Institute were to be established. Yet it was soon realized that Vilnius is the cultural centre of “Yiddish world” – with most moral support and determination coming from there. Max Weinreich (1894-1969) and Zalman Reisen (1881-1940?) became the most active promoters of the YIVO concept. At the end of March, 1925, they called a meeting in Vilnius, where the basis for establishing YIVO was laid. Coincidentally, another important Jewish science institute – the Hebrew University of Jerusalem – was founded a week later. The first residence of YIVO was the apartment of Weinreich on Wielka Pohulianka, where Dubnow had also resided earlier (maybe even in the same apartment). In 1929 a foundation was laid for the new lodging of YIVO, here, on the other side of the street. After only a week after, the Great Depression struck the United States and since YIVO was mostly financed by rich Jews and Jewish organisations from the United States, the economic crisis significantly affected the Institute. A never-ending need for funds impelled Reisen to travel to Argentina in 1932, where he succeeded in finding sufficient resources to complete the building and a new chamber of YIVO opened its doors in 1933.