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 (Sessions 1 - 3) – 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.
Please note: Tickets to the symposium do not include tickets to our keynote panel, “The Future of Jews and Elite Universities” at 3:30 pm. Click here to purchase tickets to that program, which will include the first three panels.
Special thanks to Adam Bellow, Ben Kravitz, and Melanie Notkin for their help in planning this symposium.
Ticket Info:
In person: $18 general admission; $11 CJH members; click here to register
Zoom: Pay what you wish; click here to register
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symposium
symposium
The End of an Era? Jews and Elite Universities (Keynote Session 4) – In-Person Program and Live on Zoom
Join Bill Ackman, CEO, Pershing Square Capital Management; Ambassador Deborah E. Lipstadt, Emory University, and Leon Wieseltier, Editor, Liberties, for a discussion of the future of Jews and elite universities.
Please note: Tickets to this program include the three panels in “The End of an Era?” symposium from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.
Special thanks to Adam Bellow, Ben Kravitz, and Melanie Notkin for their help in planning this symposium.
Ticket Info:
In person: $54 general admission; click here to register
Zoom: Pay what you wish; click here to register
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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
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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 and Tina Brown.
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
Simon Schama: The Holocaust, 80 Years On is part of The WNET Group’s Holocaust Days of Remembrance exploring antisemitism through the history and personal stories of the Holocaust. Thirteen.org/remembrance.
Ticket Info: Pay what you wish; register here
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film screening and discussion
conversation
At Lunch with David Denby – 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
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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
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
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
lecture
Family History Today: Interpreting Your DNA Test Results for Ashkenazi Jews - Live on Zoom
Whether you've tested your DNA with the Center for Jewish History's AncestryDNA Reunion Project or taken a DNA test on your own, this program is here to help you sort through your DNA matches. Do you really have 150,000 new relatives? What is endogamy? How do you figure out who you're actually related to, when all you feel is overwhelmed? Come for the DNA science and stay for the tips and tricks that can help you make sense of it all. Presented by Jenny Rappaport, Head Genealogist at the Center for Jewish History.
About the Speaker
Jenny Rappaport is the Head Genealogist at the Center for Jewish History, where she helps patrons research their family history at the Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute.
Ticket Info: Pay what you wish with a minimum donation of $5 per ticket; register here
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lecture
lecture
"To America on Foot": Romanian Jewish Fusgeyers from 1900 in History and Memory – Live on Zoom
The fusgeyer movement, in which large numbers of impoverished, persecuted Jews suddenly decided to “go on foot” towards the U.S. and Canada, is the most salient characteristic of turn-of-the-century Jewish emigration from Romania. In this presentation, Dana Mihailescu considers the history and memory of the fusgeyer movement by tracking the representation of these emigrants in the Jewish and general press, single issue newspapers, poems, and visual arts from the turn of the twentieth century—as well as in more contemporaneous narratives. We will further consider resources such as the 1900-1903 press coverage of “emigration on foot” in reports on the phenomenon made by American diplomats, as well as the little known manuscript, Zikhroynes fun a fusgeyer fun rumanye keyn amerike, which won the 1942 YIVO-bleter competition for best Jewish immigrant story in the U.S., among others, in order to tell the fascinating story of this unusual moment in the history of Jewish immigration.
About the Speaker
Dana Mihailescu is an Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Bucharest, Romania. She was a Fulbright Junior grantee at Brandeis University and the Edith Kreeger Wolf Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Crown Family Center of Jewish and Israel Studies at Northwestern University. Her main research interests and publications focus on Jewish American studies, Holocaust (child) survivor’ testimonies, graphic narratives and the Holocaust, trauma and witnessing, ethics and memory, migration from Eastern Europe to the United States. She is the author of articles in venues such as MELUS, Rethinking History, Shofar, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, East European Jewish Affairs, American Imago, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and of the monograph Eastern European Jewish American Narratives, 1890-1930: Struggles for Recognition (Lexington, 2018).
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required
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lecture
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.
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panel discussion
concert
Pride Party! With Special Concert Appearance by BETTY – In-Person Event
Consisting of Alyson Palmer (vocals, bass, guitar) and sisters and Amy Ziff (vocals and cello) and Elizabeth Ziff (vocals, guitar, electronic programming), BETTY was founded in the late 1980s outside Washington, DC. Amy and Elizabeth are proudly Jewish, and Aly proudly advocates for Jewish and Black relations.
BETTY has received numerous awards for their work in television, movies, and theater. They have toured the world, playing in Jewish museums, concert halls, clubs and festivals.
This concert is for all ages and is a celebration of Pride Month.
Ticket Info: $45 general admission; $35 CJH members; $25 seniors/students/children; click here to register
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concert
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, Cecile Kuznitz, Rebecca Margolis, Anita Norich, Samuel Norich, Naomi Seidman, Mark Smith, and Kalman 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:
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, Cecile Kuznitz, Rebecca Margolis, Anita Norich, Samuel Norich, Naomi Seidman, Mark Smith, and Kalman 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:
conference