lecture
Leo Baeck Memorial Panel: LBI at 70 - In-Person Program
About the Lecture
Bridging Generations, Disciplines, and the Atlantic: LBI at 70
As they began their salvage of the material and intellectual legacy of European Jewry, the Leo Baeck Institute's founders hoped to assemble a narrative of the German-Jewish past that was comprehensive, synthetic, and "free from apologetic or tendentious coloring." Today, the collections of the LBI inform a corpus of scholarship that surely surpassed the founders' wildest expectations in scope, but whose "coloring" has also changed as much as society and the academy. The 66th Leo Baeck Memorial Lecture will assemble a panel of scholars to discuss the evolution of the field of German-Jewish history over seven decades and its prospects for the future. At the center of their discussion will be the LBI as an institution that has both shaped and been shaped by the many turns of intellectual history. Featuring Michael Brenner (American University / University of Munich), Elisheva Carlebach(Columbia), Raphael Gross (German Historical Museum, Berlin), Marion Kaplan (NYU), and Helmut Walser-Smith (Vanderbilt).
After the lecture, visitors will have the opportunity to view LBI's anniversary exhibit, 70 Years of LBI: Bridging Generations.
This event will take place in-person at the Center for Jewish History and will be followed by a reception.
The Leo Baeck Memorial Lecture is endowed by Marianne C. Dreyfus and Family, the descendants of Rabbi Leo Baeck
Ticket Info: Free
Presented by:
lecture
conversation
At Lunch with Lawrence Bacow – Live on Zoom
Julie Salamon (New York Times best-selling author) sits down with retired Harvard President Lawrence Bacow. Lawrence S. Bacow served as the 29th President of Harvard University from 2018 until 2023. Widely recognized as one of higher education’s most respected leaders, Bacow’s tenure at Harvard was marked by the creation of a range of academic initiatives, advocacy for public service and immigration, diversity and access to opportunity, and steady leadership of the university through the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2011 to 2014, he served as President- in-Residence in the Higher Education Program at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. From 2014 to 2018, he served as the Hauser Leader-in-Residence at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Center for Public Leadership. Prior to joining Harvard, Bacow was President of Tufts University from 2001 to 2011. During his tenure, he advanced the university’s commitment to excellence in teaching, research, and public service and fostered collaboration across the university’s eight schools. Before his time at Tufts, Bacow spent 24 years on the faculty of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he held the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professorship of Environmental Studies. Interested in math and science from an early age, Bacow attended college at MIT, where he received his S.B. in economics in three years and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He went on to earn three degrees from Harvard: a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.P.P. from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a Ph.D. in public policy from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Ticket Info: Free; register online for a Zoom link
Presented by:
conversation
lecture
The YIVO Sound Archive and the Klezmer Revival – Live on Zoom
YIVO sound archivist Eléonore Biezunski will tell the story of the Max and Frieda Weinstein Archive of YIVO Sound Recordings in relation to the revitalization of klezmer music since the mid-1970s. The impetus of young folk musicians seeking to reclaim the music of their ancestors, particularly the instrumental genre known as klezmer music, in a general context of “roots movement,” was a major factor in the establishment of the YIVO Sound Archive in the early 1980s. As a sound archivist and Yiddish musician, Biezunski presents the archive not only as a repository of documents, possible sources, but also as a living space – a historical phenomenon in its own right and a dynamic spatialized territory generated by individuals with their own creativity, caught in a web of social and cultural, intellectual and scientific, institutional and artistic contexts.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
lecture
panel discussion
Generation to Generation: Honoring the Past, Shaping the Future – In-Person Program
Join us on Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) for an evening of memory, resilience, and testimony. The event aims to explore how Holocaust memory is transmitted and transformed across generations, and how it continues to shape Jewish identity today. We're excited to welcome Jerry Lindenstraus as our keynote speaker, a firsthand survivor of Kristallnacht who escaped the war and made his way to the US after spending seven years as a refugee in hiding in Shanghai. Jerry's story is preceded by Alison Berg, the granddaughter of two Hungarian Holocaust survivors, who has dedicated much of her life to sharing her family's story as a means of fostering justice and tolerance. The program will culminate in a panel discussion and audience Q&A featuring Jerry, Alison, and another member of one of their families representing second generation testimony.
This gathering is more than a remembrance—it is a call to listen, to learn, and to carry forward the voices of those who endured. The program will run for approximately 75 minutes and be followed by a light reception.
Part of the Center’s programming series Anne Frank in History and Memory in connection with Anne Frank The Exhibition.
Thank you to Ancestry, the Center for Jewish History’s Family History sponsor
About the Speakers
Alison Berg is the maternal granddaughter of two Hungarian Holocaust survivors, Anna and Eugene Greenwood. Her close relationship to her grandmother inspired a deep, lifetime involvement in the Jewish philanthropic community, including mentoring teens on incorporating Judaism into their daily lives, serving on the board of a youth philanthropy program, and participating in a service trip to Nicaragua. She is also a Big Sister with Big Brothers Big Sisters New York City. Alison joined 3GNY's WEDU program after her grandmother’s passing to continue to share the stories and lessons so critical to her own understanding of justice and tolerance. Alison graduated from the University of Michigan with degrees in Communications and Political Science and works as the Associate Director of Communications for the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business.
Gerald “Jerry” Lindenstraus
Born in Germany in 1929, Jerry witnessed the horrors of Kristallnacht before fleeing with his family to Shanghai, where he spent seven years as a refugee. His journey took him across continents—from war-torn Europe to Colombia and ultimately to New York, where he has dedicated his life to ensuring that the lessons of the Holocaust are never forgotten.
Ticket Info: Pay what you wish; click here to register
Presented by:
panel discussion
lecture
AI in Genealogy: Practical Applications and Limitations for Family Research – In-Person Lecture & Live on Zoom
This presentation explores the practical applications and current limitations of artificial intelligence in genealogical research. Drawing from his experience, Steve Little will demonstrate real-world AI applications, including a specialized tool he's collaboratively developing that analyzes cemetery headstones - extracting and translating text, describing symbols, and providing cultural context particularly relevant for Jewish genealogy. The session will cover how AI can assist with tasks like document transcription, data organization, and project management, while also discussing important limitations such as research verification and translation reliability. Attendees will receive an overview of major AI platforms and their specific strengths, concluding with guidance on finding reliable resources for continued learning in this rapidly evolving field.
With the support of the Lucille Gudis Memorial Fund for Jewish Genealogy of the JGSNY
Thank you to Ancestry, the Center for Jewish History’s Family History sponsor
About the Speaker:
Steve Little serves as AI Program Director for the National Genealogical Society and founded AI Genealogy Insights, where he explores the integration of artificial intelligence into genealogical research. His background uniquely combines graduate work in computational linguistics with years of experience building information systems for libraries and archives. As co-host of The Family History AI Show podcast, he helps researchers understand both the possibilities and limitations of AI in family history research. His work focuses particularly on using technology to understand complex genealogical relationships, including endogamy and pedigree collapse.
Ticket Info:
In person: $5 general admission; free for JGSNY and CJH members; click here to register
Zoom: Pay what you wish; click here to register.
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lecture
lecture
Two Revolutionary Jews: Leon Trotsky and Chaim Zhitlowsky – In-person Event & Live on Zoom
When Jews plunged into the world of politics en masse at the beginning of the 20th century, a variety of new options were available to them. Two of the leading figures who proffered novel, but opposing political avenues to the Jewish masses were Dr. Chaim Zhitlowsky and Leon Trotsky. Zhitlowsky, a founder of the Russian Socialist Revolutionary party, offered a synthesis of socialism and Yiddish nationalism. Trotsky, a leading Russian Social Democrat, formulated a strict version of internationalism that left no room for Jewish national aspirations. Many Jews, however, did not view their political choices in such stark terms. Instead, they saw both men as leaders and thinkers who pointed the way to Jewish national liberation and working-class revolution, a Jewish homeland, as well as a flourishing life in the diaspora. In this lecture, Tony Michels will explore the political ideas of Trotsky and Zhitlowsky, and how Jews engaged with them during the first half of the 20th century.
This evening’s program is the first in a series of programs held in conjunction with YIVO’s current digitization of the Jewish Labor and Political Archives (JLPA). Consisting of nearly 200 collections encompassing 3.5 million pages of archival documents that were collected by the Bund Archives, the JLPA forms the world’s most comprehensive body of material pertaining to Jewish political activity in Europe and the United States.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
About the Speaker
Tony Michels teaches American Jewish history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also serves as director of the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies. He is author of A Fire in Their Hearts: Jewish Socialists in New York, editor of Jewish Radicals: A Documentary History, and co-editor of The Cambridge History of Judaism, Volume Eight: The Modern World, 1815-2000.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required
Presented by:
lecture
lecture
Anne’s Ancestors - Live on Zoom
To understand Anne Frank’s family, identified widely as a Frankfurt family that fled to Amsterdam in the 1930s, one needs a more detailed study of Anne’s “annecestors” who lived throughout Germany in prior centuries. In this talk, Karen S. Franklin delves into this history. The shocking discovery of the fate of Anne’s forebears some 600 years before she was murdered casts her fate in the larger context of Jewish historical experience.
The talk takes place in conjunction with Anne Frank The Exhibition at the Center for Jewish History.
This event will take place online. In case you are not able to attend the live meeting, the event will be recorded and posted on YouTube.
Karen S. Franklin is Director of Family Research at the Leo Baeck Institute, a position she has held for over 30 years. She has served as chair of the Council of American Jewish Museums, chair of ICMEMO, the Memorial Museums Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), president of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS), and as co-chair of the Board of Governors of JewishGen. In 2019 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award of IAJGS.
In 2012, she received a Service Citation from ICOM-US, the national committee of the ICOM, for her work in Nazi-era looted art restitution.
Ticket Info: Free
Presented by:
lecture
lecture
Jews and the KKK: Antisemitism, Vigilantism, and Resistance – Live on Zoom
Join AJHS and Andrew Sperling, Leon Levy Fellow at CJH, for an online lecture. Since its revival in 1915, the Ku Klux Klan has targeted Jewish Americans and others through violence, harassment, and propaganda. The continuous presence of a hostile hate group has prompted Jews to ask several questions: how can the Klan be defeated, and what is the Jewish role in that process? This program offers a history of Jewish encounters with the Klan in every region of the U.S., between its popular peak in the 1920s and its resurgence under the White Power movement of the 1980s. Highlighting moments of antisemitic terrorism and anti-Klan resistance, Andrew Sperling reflects on the legacy and lessons of this historical struggle.
Ticket Info: Free; register online for a Zoom link
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lecture
book talk
Warsaw Testament by Rokhl Auerbach – In-person Event & Live on Zoom
Born in Lanowitz, a small village in rural Podolia, Rokhl Auerbach was a journalist, literary critic, memoirist, and a member of the Warsaw Yiddish literary community before the Holocaust. Upon the German invasion and occupation of Poland in 1939, she was tasked by historian and social activist Emanuel Ringelblum to run a soup kitchen for the starving inhabitants of the Warsaw Ghetto and later to join his top-secret ghetto archive, the Oyneg Shabes. One of only three surviving members of the archive project, Auerbach’s wartime and postwar writings became a crucial source of information for historians of both prewar Jewish Warsaw and the Warsaw Ghetto. After immigrating to Israel in 1950, she founded the witness testimony division at Yad Vashem and played a key role in the development of Holocaust remembrance.
Join us for a lecture by historian Samuel Kassow about Auerbach’s memoir, Warsaw Testament, which paints a vivid portrait of the city’s prewar Yiddish literary and artistic community and of its destruction at the hands of the Nazis.
Buy Warsaw Testament, translated by Samuel Kassow.
Buy Who Will Write Our History?: Rediscovering a Hidden Archive from the Warsaw Ghetto.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required
Presented by:
book talk
lecture
The Yiddish Patient: Postwar Illness and the Sanatorium in Daniel Charney’s Oyfn shvel fun yener velt – Live on Zoom
This talk examines the life and work of memoirist, poet, and journalist Daniel Charney (1888-1959), with a focus on his time at the Arbeter Ring (Workmen’s Circle) tuberculosis sanatorium in Liberty, New York in the mid-1940s. Drawing on Charney’s trove of letters, photographs, and mementos from his time at the sanatorium, as well as his highly entertaining, subtly moving sanatorium memoir, Oyfn shvel fun yener velt [On the Threshold of the Other World] (1947), Jacqueline Nekhe Krass argues for Charney’s significance as an underread voice of postwar Yiddish American literature and the Yiddish memoir genre. His work offers new ways of thinking about illness, institutionalization, and humor in the immediate wake of the Holocaust.
About the Speaker
Jacqueline Nekhe Krass is a writer, translator, and PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work focuses on postwar Jewish American literature in English and Yiddish, situating it within histories of multilingual writing, publishing, and translation in the United States.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required
Presented by:
lecture
concert
Falafel, Freilach and Frijoles: From Mambo to Borscht - In-person Event and Live on Zoom
Arturo O’Farrill, and his Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, perform a concert that explores the relationship between the Latino and Jewish communities. The evening will feature Jewish and Yiddish classics in Afro Latin big band versions, and Latin classics in Klezmer arrangements. The Orchestra will feature performances by special guests including trumpeter/slide trumpeter, composer Steven Bernstein.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Ticket Info:
In Person: $25; Members (YIVO, Belongó, ASJM, Borscht Belt Museum, LBI): $15; Students: $15
Zoom Livestream: $10
Presented by:
concert
book talk
The Jews: 5,000 Years and Counting – In-Person Program
Join author Rob Kutner and moderator Dan Friedman, former executive editor of the Forward, for a talk on Rob’s new book, The Jews: 5,000 Years and Counting, whichis packed with Jew-facts, Jew-figures, and the original, never-before-seen documents from those who lived through Jewish history. Read the transcript of the Biblical Patriarchs’ and Matriarchs’ Group Therapy Session! Sneak a peek at Moses’ Secret Diary or check out the awkward “I’m dumping you” text chain from Spain to the Jews in 1492! Collect and trade Rabbi Action Cards!
Covering every major moment in Jewish history from the literal “Beginning” to Tuesday’s rerun of Seinfeld, this book will make you laugh. It might inadvertently make you learn. If you’re Jewish, it will unquestionably give you something to kvetch about.
The book will be available for sale and signing from 2:00 – 5:00 pm.
About the Speakers
Dan Friedman is the former executive editor of the Forward and the author of an ebook about Tears for Fears, the 80s rock band. He is an editor, writing coach, and communications consultant. He has a PhD from Yale and writes a monthly column about SF, as well as about books, whisky, and the dangers of online hate for a variety of publications. Subscribe to his newsletter.
Rob Kutner is an Emmy-winning TV comedy writer (The Daily Show, CONAN) and bestselling author (Apocalypse How: Turn the End Times into the Best of Times, Look out for the Little Guy). He was once named a SuperJew by TimeOut New York.
Ticket Info: Pay what you wish; register here
Presented by:
book talk
discussion
Person Place Thing with Jonathan Brent – In-person Event & Live on Zoom
Join YIVO for a recording of the public radio show, Person Place Thing, with YIVO Executive Director Jonathan Brent. Hosted by humorist Randy Cohen, Person Place Thing is an interview show based on the idea that people are especially engaging when they speak, not directly about themselves, but something they care about. Guests talk about one person, one place, and one thing with particular meaning to them.
The conversation will consist of Brent and Cohen discussing three different objects from the YIVO Archives and Library. YIVO’s collections contain 24 million items and 400,000 books, offering insight into centuries of Jewish history. Brent and Cohen will cover topics such as the Holocaust, American antisemitism during the interwar period, and more. Jardena Gertler-Jaffe and Bethany Pietroniro will play selections of music found in YIVO’s collections throughout the event.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Ticket Info: $15; YIVO members & students: $10
Presented by:
discussion
lecture
The Making of a Historian of East European Jewry and the Holocaust: Lucy S. Dawidowicz and the YIVO in Vilna, New York, and Offenbach – Live on Zoom
This talk by Nancy Sinkoff will explore the influence of the YIVO on Lucy S. Dawidowicz (1915-1990), a postwar American Jewish public intellectual and historian, who was central to the field that is now called “Holocaust Studies.” Witness to the vital Jewish world of pre-war Vilna, shaped by the group of refugee and survivor historians at the New York YIVO during the war, and an activist working with Jewish DPs and salvaging Jewish cultural treasures in Germany after the war, Dawidowicz played a principal role in the construction of postwar American Holocaust consciousness. With The Golden Tradition: Jewish Life and Thought in Eastern Europe (1967) and The War Against the Jews: 1933–1945 (1975), a classic of “intentionalist” Holocaust historiography that emphasized the centrality of Hitler’s antisemitic ideology to the Nazis’ “Final Solution,” Dawidowicz became a central authority on East European Jewry, the Holocaust, and antisemitism in the postwar years.
Buy Nancy Sinkoff’s book about Lucy S. Dawidowicz.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
lecture
lecture
Immigrant Jewish Musicians and New York Mutual Aid Societies, 1920s-1960s – Live on Zoom
As hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants arrived in New York City in the early twentieth century, they formed mutual aid societies, labor unions, political and cultural clubs to find stability and solidarity. Known as landsmanshaftn, many of these societies were formed around the towns that the immigrants were from, e.g. the Kolomear Friends Association, the Independent Bialystoker Brotherly Love Association No. 1, the Krementchuger Ladies Benevolent Association, and so on. Offering burial services, sick benefits, emergency loans; landsmanshaftn also organized attendance at funerals, marriages, and bar mitzvahs of members, and held regular social events. The most elaborate events were Installation Banquets for new leadership and Anniversary Banquets, which were typically held every five years from the founding of the organization. They also held dances, masked balls, charity banquets for overseas causes, cultural nights, and Purim balls, among others.
Nearly all of these events involved the hiring of a Jewish orchestra to perform live at the event. They played marches and anthems during ceremonial functions, classical or Yiddish theatre compositions for listening, and Jewish and popular American music for dancing. The musicians they hired were almost exclusively Jewish and were often, but not always, klezmer orchestras. If the landsmanshaft had a bandleader among its members, his orchestra was generally hired for everything. Otherwise, they would hire popular New York klezmer musicians like Naftule Brandwein, Dave Tarras, or Shloimke Beckerman.
In this lecture, Dan Carkner will give an overview of the relationships between immigrant Jewish musicians and Jewish mutual aid societies in New York City from the 1910s to the 1960s. It will examine how these societies recreated aspects of the traditional musical culture of their hometowns back in Eastern Europe with a turn over time to modern American practices.
About the Speaker
Dan Carkner is a historian and library technician from Vancouver, Canada. He has a BA in History from Simon Fraser University (2017) and an MA in History from the University of British Columbia (2020). His current research interests relate to immigrant klezmer musicians in New York from the 1890s to 1920s, including their biographies and family histories, their professional relationships, and their efforts to copyright their compositions with the U.S. Library of Congress during the interwar years. He was a Music Editorial Board member of the Klezmer Institute's Scholarly Editions Project (2023–24) and an active volunteer for the Institute's Kisegof-Makonovetsky Digital Manuscript Project (KMDMP). He is a member of the board at the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture in Vancouver and works at the Centre for Postsecondary Accessible Resources BC (CAPER-BC) in Vancouver.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
lecture
concert
Twenty Years of the Blavatnik Chamber Music Series at CJH: Phoenix Chamber Ensemble Performing Mozart and Mendelssohn in Celebration – In-Person Program and Live on YouTube
The Phoenix Chamber Ensemble is thrilled to be celebrating its 20th anniversary at the Center for Jewish History with this special concert. Join Phoenix Chamber Ensemble pianists Vassa Shevel and Inessa Zaretsky with frequent guest artists, Telsa Quartet members Michelle Lie (violin) and Austin Fisher (cello).
Program:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Sonata for Piano 4 hands in C Major, K.V. 521
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Piano Trio in D minor, Op.49
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano trio No.5 in C Major, K.548
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Hebriden Overture, Op.26 arr. for Piano 4 hands, Violin and Cello by C. Burchard
Founded in 2005 by pianists Vassa Shevel and Inessa Zaretsky, the Phoenix Chamber Ensemble has, over the course of two decades, become a vital part of the New York classical community, presenting more than 70 public concerts in the Blavatnik Chamber Music Series at the Center for Jewish History. The ensemble has garnered a devoted following with its innovative programming and sensitive interpretations, earned an international reputation presenting concerts in Russia, Poland, Italy, and other European venues, and collaborated with numerous acclaimed guest artists, including clarinetist David Krakauer, the Grammy-nominated Enso Quartet, the Tesla Quartet, members of the Jasper String Quartet, the New York Little Opera Company, the Metropolitan Opera, and New York City Ballet.
Made possible by the Stravinsky Institute Foundation through the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation.
Ticket Info:
In person: $10 general; $9 senior/student; $6 CJH member; click here to register
YouTube: Pay what you wish; click here to register
Presented by:
concert
lecture
Systemic Yiddish Teaching in the Lodz Ghetto: Successes and Failures – Live on Zoom
The educational system in the Lodz Ghetto has already been described and analyzed more than once. Relevant chapters in canonical monographs have been devoted to this issue by Wolf Jasny, Yeshaya Trunk, and Yitzhak Rubin. In a series of exhaustive articles, Danuta Dabrowska wrote on this subject in the 1960s. Additionally, drawing both on the work of their illustrious predecessors and on new findings of their own, the functioning of this branch of the ghetto administration has been recounted by researchers of the younger generation such as Andrea Löw and Adam Sitarek. All of the above-mentioned publications considered the theme of the systematic teaching of Yiddish, which was implemented as a language of instruction in the ghetto in the autumn of 1940. However, the issue of Yiddish language instruction in the ghetto has not been discussed at any length anywhere and remains an important cultural. In this lecture, Monika Polit will consider the surviving documentation left by the Ghetto School Department and other texts produced by the administration of the Lodz Ghetto in order to elucidate the phenomenon of Yiddish as a language of instruction in the ghetto school system.
About the Speaker
Monika Polit is a professor and literary scholar who teaches Yiddish language and literature in the Department of Jewish History and Culture at the Faculty of History of the University of Warsaw. She is the author of numerous translations from Yiddish and studies of scholarly editions of sources. She has published, among others: Encyclopedia of the Ghetto. The Unfinished Project of the Lodz Ghetto Archivists (2014, compiled with Krystyna Radziszewska, Ewa Wiatr, Adam Sitarek, and Jacek Walicki); The Writings of Peretz Opoczynski (Ringelblum Archive, vol. 31, 2017); Jozef Zelkowicz, “The writer of these words is an employee of a ghetto institution...” From the Diary and Other Writings from the Lodz Ghetto (2019), The Ringelblum Archive: Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, vol. 7 (2022, compiled with Eleonora Bergman and Ewa Wiatr).
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required
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lecture
symposium
The End of an Era? Jews and Elite Universities – In-Person Program and Live on Zoom
This program gathers a remarkable group of scholars, writers, and thinkers for a day of urgently needed discussion about the recent surge of antisemitism on American college campuses. Focusing on the turmoil at Harvard University, Columbia University, and other elite bastions of higher education, the panelists will explore the complex history of Jews and American universities, analyze the factors contributing to the current crisis, and venture solutions for the future. The symposium is the latest event sponsored by the Center for Jewish History’s Jewish Public History Forum.
Click here for information on panels and speakers.
Ticket Info:
In person: $18 general admission; $11 CJH members; click here to register
Zoom: Pay what you wish; click here to register
Presented by:
symposium
workshop
Shkheynim (Neighbors) – Live on Zoom
Join YIVO and the International Association of Yiddish Club for a discussion about the Polish comedy film Shkheynim (Neighbors), dubbed in Yiddish with English subtitles. Originally premiering in 1937 as Pietro wyzej (One Floor Up), the film was released in New York as a fully dubbed Yiddish version, retitled Shkheynim. While the Polish-language version of the film struggled to gain an audience in New York, the Yiddish-language release became a financial success.
Note that the film will not be shown during the program. Participants can watch the film online here. Each participant must register in advance and will receive a link to join the Zoom meeting on May 18.
The film follows two neighbors who are unrelated but share the same last name and live in the same apartment building. The two men are complete opposites; from their wide age gap, to their different tastes in music, the neighbors struggle to live in harmony together. Directed by Leon Trystan, co-director of the well-known Yiddish film A brivele der mamen (A Letter to Mother, 1938), Neighbors is notable for featuring the first on-screen appearance of a drag queen in Polish cinema.
Originally believed to be lost, the Yiddish-language dubbed version of Neighbors was discovered several years ago. In this program, Dr. Iosif Vaisman will be presented with the IAYC Lifetime Achievement Award. He will then lead a discussion in English about the film, highlighting key scenes and motifs.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required
Presented by:
workshop
film screening and discussion
The Holocaust, 80 Years On – In-Person Program
In the year marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the death camps, renowned historian Sir Simon Schama confronts the history of the Holocaust as not just a Nazi obsession, but as a Europe-wide crime. Schama visits mass killing sites in Lithuania, the home of his mother's family. He travels to the Netherlands, a nation famed for its long history of tolerance and where he lived and worked as a young historian, to answer the question of why fewer Jews survived here than in any other Western occupied country. The film also captures the emotional toll of Schama's first-ever visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Join us for a screening of the documentary film and a discussion and Q&A with Simon Schama.
Part of the Center’s film series Holocaust History on Film: Anne Frank and Beyond in connection with Anne Frank The Exhibition. Purchase your tickets to the exhibition here.
Thank you to Ancestry, the Center for Jewish History’s Family History sponsor
Ticket Info: Pay what you wish; register here
Presented by:
film screening and discussion
conversation
At Lunch with Lawrence Bacow – Live on Zoom
Julie Salamon (New York Times bestselling author) sits down with writer David Denby to discuss his latest book, Eminent Jews: Bernstein, Brooks, Friedan, Mailer. David Denby is the New York Times bestselling author of Great Books. His other books include American Sucker and Lit Up. He was a film critic for New York magazine and The New Yorker, where he is now a staff writer. His essays have appeared in The New Republic and The Atlantic. He lives in New York City with his wife, novelist Susan Rieger.
Ticket Info: Free; register online for a Zoom link
Presented by:
conversation
symposium
Music, Sound, and Antisemitism – In-person Event
This symposium, presented by the American Society for Jewish Music’s Jewish Music Forum and the Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation at the CUNY Graduate Center, with co-sponsorship by YIVO, features presentations that consider the historical and contemporary intersections between music, sound, and antisemitism.
Interdisciplinary and wide-ranging papers by scholars from across the globe explore the variety of ways in which sound and different types of music have been used to convey antisemitism. All papers will be followed by a Q&A session.
Non-presenters can register to participate in lunch on Wednesday, May 28 and Thursday, May 29 for a $30 fee.
For those unable to join us in person at YIVO, additional symposium presentations will take place on Zoom on Wednesday, June 4, 2025 and Thursday, June 5, 2025. Separate registration is required to receive the Zoom link.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
symposium
symposium
Music, Sound, and Antisemitism – In-person Event
This symposium, presented by the American Society for Jewish Music’s Jewish Music Forum and the Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation at the CUNY Graduate Center, with co-sponsorship by YIVO, features presentations that consider the historical and contemporary intersections between music, sound, and antisemitism.
Interdisciplinary and wide-ranging papers by scholars from across the globe explore the variety of ways in which sound and different types of music have been used to convey antisemitism. All papers will be followed by a Q&A session.
Non-presenters can register to participate in lunch on Wednesday, May 28 and Thursday, May 29 for a $30 fee.
For those unable to join us in person at YIVO, additional symposium presentations will take place on Zoom on Wednesday, June 4, 2025 and Thursday, June 5, 2025. Separate registration is required to receive the Zoom link.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
symposium
symposium
Music, Sound, and Antisemitism – Live on Zoom
This symposium, presented by the American Society for Jewish Music’s Jewish Music Forum and the Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation at the CUNY Graduate Center, with co-sponsorship by YIVO, features presentations that consider the historical and contemporary intersections between music, sound, and antisemitism.
Interdisciplinary and wide-ranging papers by scholars from across the globe explore the variety of ways in which sound and different types of music have been used to convey antisemitism. All papers will be followed by a Q&A session.
Non-presenters can register to participate in lunch on Wednesday, May 28 and Thursday, May 29 for a $30 fee.
For those unable to join us in person at YIVO, additional symposium presentations will take place on Zoom on Wednesday, June 4, 2025 and Thursday, June 5, 2025. Separate registration is required to receive the Zoom link.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
symposium
symposium
Music, Sound, and Antisemitism – Live on Zoom
This symposium, presented by the American Society for Jewish Music’s Jewish Music Forum and the Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation at the CUNY Graduate Center, with co-sponsorship by YIVO, features presentations that consider the historical and contemporary intersections between music, sound, and antisemitism.
Interdisciplinary and wide-ranging papers by scholars from across the globe explore the variety of ways in which sound and different types of music have been used to convey antisemitism. All papers will be followed by a Q&A session.
Non-presenters can register to participate in lunch on Wednesday, May 28 and Thursday, May 29 for a $30 fee.
For those unable to join us in person at YIVO, additional symposium presentations will take place on Zoom on Wednesday, June 4, 2025 and Thursday, June 5, 2025. Separate registration is required to receive the Zoom link.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
symposium
book talk
The New Jewish School in Music (1908-1938) as Part of the Jewish Cultural Renaissance – Live on Zoom
The history of the “New Jewish School of Music” began when several music students from the St. Petersburg Conservatory founded the Society for Jewish Folk Music in St. Petersburg in 1908. The end of this movement came with the 1938 invasion of Austria by Germany and the dissolution of the Viennese Society for the Promotion of Jewish Music that same year. The fascinating and dramatic history of the New Jewish School is the subject of From St. Petersburg to Vienna: The New Jewish School in Music (1908-1938) As Part of the Jewish Cultural Renaissance by Jascha Nemtsov. While many other national "schools" of music—such as the Russian, Czech, and Hungarian—were able to develop freely and establish themselves in an environment of cultural transparency, the Jewish school was violently suppressed. From St. Petersburg to Vienna was first published in 2004 in German, focusing on the reconstruction of the Jewish school’s historical development in Russia and, after 1917, increasingly in other Eastern and Central European countries.
Join YIVO for a discussion with Nemtsov about this recently-revised and translated edition of the book, led by YIVO Director of Public Programs Alex Weiser.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required
Presented by:
book talk
panel discussion
New Trends in YIVO Scholarship – Live on Zoom
Since 1925, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research has been a pioneer in the field of Jewish studies. At the core of YIVO since its founding was its commitment to scholarship which supported the Jewish “folk.” This manifested in a variety of initiatives, including youth autobiography contests and a youth research division (yugfor), an Economic-Statistical section (ekstat), and the establishment of various YIVO branches. These YIVO's activities continue to pique the interests of scholars, who have recently produced new scholarship analyzing these initiatives through the lens of new pioneering research methods.
Join YIVO for a panel discussion sharing new research on these historic YIVO initiatives featuring presentations by William Pimlott, Kamil Kijek, and Nicolas Vallois, followed by a conversation led by Jessica Kirzane.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
panel discussion
conference
YIVO in America – In-person Event and Live on Zoom
Join us for a celebration of YIVO’s 100th anniversary with a conference focusing on how YIVO’s founding vision for Jewish social sciences has been realized in America since its headquarters shifted to New York City in 1940.
The destruction of East European Jewry during the Holocaust—including YIVO’s original headquarters in Vilna—challenged fundamental ideas about Jewish peoplehood and the Yiddish language’s role in it that had animated YIVO since its founding. Despite this, YIVO continued to publish scholarly works in America, support the study of Yiddish linguistics and folklore, and serve as a repository documenting East European Jewish history and culture. YIVO also developed new ventures, helping to create the field of Holocaust studies, playing a pioneering role in the teaching of Yiddish as it ceased being the mother tongue of the Jewish masses, and bolstering the development of Jewish studies more broadly.
In this conference, scholars will discuss YIVO’s work since 1940 touching on how YIVO’s purpose shifted in the American context, major achievements of YIVO’s work in America, YIVO’s role in the post-war evolution of Yiddish and Jewish studies, and what work lies ahead for YIVO and Jewish studies more broadly.
Scholars featured in this conference include Jonathan Brent, Leyzer Burko, Deborah Dash Moore, Hasia Diner, Eric Goldstein, Itzik Gottesman, Stefanie Halpern, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Cecile Kuznitz, Rebecca Margolis, Anita Norich, Samuel Norich, Naomi Seidman, Mark Smith, Kalman Weiser, and Steve Zipperstein.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
conference
conference
YIVO in America – In-person Event and Live on Zoom
Join us for a celebration of YIVO’s 100th anniversary with a conference focusing on how YIVO’s founding vision for Jewish social sciences has been realized in America since its headquarters shifted to New York City in 1940.
The destruction of East European Jewry during the Holocaust—including YIVO’s original headquarters in Vilna—challenged fundamental ideas about Jewish peoplehood and the Yiddish language’s role in it that had animated YIVO since its founding. Despite this, YIVO continued to publish scholarly works in America, support the study of Yiddish linguistics and folklore, and serve as a repository documenting East European Jewish history and culture. YIVO also developed new ventures, helping to create the field of Holocaust studies, playing a pioneering role in the teaching of Yiddish as it ceased being the mother tongue of the Jewish masses, and bolstering the development of Jewish studies more broadly.
In this conference, scholars will discuss YIVO’s work since 1940 touching on how YIVO’s purpose shifted in the American context, major achievements of YIVO’s work in America, YIVO’s role in the post-war evolution of Yiddish and Jewish studies, and what work lies ahead for YIVO and Jewish studies more broadly.
Scholars featured in this conference include Jonathan Brent, Leyzer Burko, Deborah Dash Moore, Hasia Diner, Eric Goldstein, Itzik Gottesman, Stefanie Halpern, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Cecile Kuznitz, Rebecca Margolis, Anita Norich, Samuel Norich, Naomi Seidman, Mark Smith, Kalman Weiser, and Steve Zipperstein.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
conference