As for his Yiddish books, they too were popular at the time they first appeared.

His work was commissioned for stained glass windows, bookplates, community centers and Yiddish and English books.

"Nobody's going to go around reading Yiddish books anymore," he said.

Its headquarters on Fifth Avenue houses the world's largest collection of Yiddish books -300,000 volumes from the 16th century to the present.

At the time, scholars estimated there were 70,000 Yiddish books still extant and recoverable.

The Center has rescued over a million Yiddish books.

This had no impact on mainstream orthography but a number of Yiddish books are currently available in romanized editions.

"Vows" is a very Catholic story, so the fact that I spent a few years as a collector of Yiddish books didn't seem to fit.

He also began illustrating a number of Yiddish books with ink drawings.

Lansky felt compelled to preserve the language, and issued a public appeal for unwanted Yiddish books.