About Us

We are the Partnership for Russian, East European and Eurasian Folklore, a California nonprofit public benefit corporation and a 501(c)(3) organization.

PREEEF’s mission is to support and promote American understanding of Russian, Eurasian, and East European traditional life and culture. To this end, we sponsor study trips for Westerners, matching them up with established scholars ready to share their deep knowledge of local folklore in their home countries.  We also support educational and cultural presentations at universities, conferences, and festivals.

Why do we do this work? To move to a better relationship between the global East and global West, we need to understand each other. And what better way to understand a people than to understand what lies at the very roots of their culture? Folklore encompasses marvelous songs, enchanting words, customs, colors, rituals –but its worth is not simply esthetic. The folklore of a people is a window into their hearts and minds, and once you’ve looked through that window, doors open in your own heart, your own mind, and you discover rooms you didn’t know were there.

We invite you to join us however you can –whether it be signing up for a study trip, making a donation, or just telling people about us.