book talk
On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice – Live on Zoom
Since Hamas’s attack on Israel last October 7, the term “settler colonialism” has become central to public debate in the United States. A concept new to most Americans, but already established and influential in academic circles, settler colonialism is shaping the way many people think about the history of the United States, Israel and Palestine, and a host of political issues.
By critiquing the most important writers, texts, and ideas in the field in his book On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice, Adam Kirsch shows how the concept emerged in the context of North American and Australian history and how it is being applied to Israel. He examines the sources of its appeal, which, he argues, are spiritual as much as political; how it works to delegitimize nations; and why it has the potential to turn indignation at past injustices into a source of new injustices today.
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
discussion
2025 Summer Program Information Session – Live on Zoom
Have you always wanted to study Yiddish at the YIVO-Bard Summer Program? Are you wondering what it would be like to take the program online or in person? Join faculty and staff of the Summer Program for a brief information session. This 30-minute session will cover the program’s structure, online and in-person formats, admissions process, and more, with time for questions from prospective Summer Program students. The session will be conducted in English and are entirely optional (prospective students are not required to attend).
Learn more about the YIVO-Bard Uriel Weinreich Summer Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
discussion
lecture
Autocracies in the 21st Century – Live on Zoom
We think we know what an autocratic state looks like: There is an all-powerful leader at the top who controls the police. The police threaten the people with violence. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents.
But in the 21st century, that bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are underpinned not by one dictator, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists, all of which operate across multiple regimes. Corrupt companies in one country do business with corrupt companies in another. The police in one country can arm and train the police in another, and propagandists share resources and themes, pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy.
International condemnation and economic sanctions cannot move the autocrats. Even popular opposition movements, from Venezuela to Hong Kong to Moscow, don't stand a chance. These dictators aren't linked by a unifying ideology, like communism, but rather a common desire for power, wealth, and impunity.
In this conversation, journalist Anne Applebaum and YIVO Executive Director Jonathan Brent discuss how autocracies have evolved in the 21st century.
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
book talk
Closing Borders: Immigration and World War I - In-person Event
The rise of the United States and Israel as centers of Jewish life is closely tied to immigration. Yet the success story of Jewish immigration obscures the experiences of hundreds of thousands of Jews from Eastern Europe who were displaced during and after the First World War. Wherever they turned they faced closed doors. The United States shifted to a restrictive immigration regime in 1921, implicitly targeting Eastern European Jews. Most other countries also restricted immigration. Many Jews who were stranded in permanent transit after 1918 perished in the Holocaust because they could not reach safe havens.
In his new book "Between Borders: The Great Jewish Migration from Eastern Europe" Tobias Brinkmann (Penn State Univ.) sheds light on the journeys of Jewish migrants and refugees before and after the First World War. He argues that the experience of permanently displaced Jews after 1918 deserves more attention and shows parallels to the situation of unwanted refugees and migrants today.
For this event Tobias Brinkmann will be joined by José C. Moya (Barnard College/Columbia University), a leading specialist of modern Latina America and global migration.
Ticket Info: Free; registration required
Presented by:
book talk
discussion
Person Place Thing with Zalmen Mlotek and Steven Skybell – In-person Event and Live on Zoom
Join YIVO and the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene for a recording of the public radio show, Person Place Thing, with actor Steven Skybell and Artistic Director of the NYTF Zalmen Mlotek. 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 reflections on Skybell and Mlotek’s work, including their experiences with the North American production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish and Skybell’s current role as Herr Schultz in Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club on Broadway, for which he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. Skybell and Mlotek will also perform live music 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: In-person: $15; YIVO members & students: $10
Stream: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
discussion
lecture
“America – A New World for Jewish Children”: An Unknown Letter by Sholem Aleichem in the YIVO Archives – Live on Zoom
Within the Herman Bernstein collection at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research lies an unknown and previously unpublished letter by Sholem Aleichem (Shalom Rabinowitz, 1859–1916), one of Yiddish literature’s most renowned writers. Unidentified for over a century, it was first recognized in 2017, 101 years after the author’s death. In the letter, Sholem Aleichem addresses the theme of Jewish cultural assimilation in general, and Americanization in particular.
Apparently written not long after Sholem Aleichem first arrived in America in 1906, the letter is significant because it demonstrates his approach to the phenomenon of Jewish American children, a subject which he developed during the last decade of his life and which culminated in his final literary work, Motl, the Cantor’s Son. A close reading of the letter sheds new light on the his impressions of American Jewish immigrants and, in particular, of American Jewish children. The excitement and fascination generated by this topic would turn out to be one of his main literary subjects until his death 10 years later.
In this presentation, Yael Levi will explore the letter’s content, situating it within the historical and cultural context of Sholem Aleichem’s biography and epistolary legacy, with a particular focus on the pivotal period of Jewish migration and the experience of East European Jewish children in America.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
lecture
book talk
The Many Lives of Anne Frank – In-person program & live on Zoom
A revealing biography of Anne Frank, exploring both her life and the impact of her extraordinary diary.
In this innovative biography, Ruth Franklin explores the transformation of Anne Frank (1929–1945) from ordinary teenager to icon, shedding new light on the young woman whose diary of her years in hiding, now translated into more than seventy languages, is the most widely read work of literature to arise from the Holocaust.
Comprehensively researched but experimental in spirit, this book chronicles and interprets Anne’s life as a Jew in Amsterdam during World War II while also telling the story of the diary—its multiple drafts, its discovery, its reception, and its message for today’s world. Writing alongside Anne rather than over her, Franklin explores the day-to-day perils of the Holocaust in the Netherlands as well as Anne’s ultimate fate, restoring her humanity and agency in all their messiness, heroism, and complexity.
With antisemitism once again in the news, The Many Lives of Anne Frank takes a fresh and timely look at the debates around Anne’s life and work, including the controversial adaptations of the diary, Anne’s evolution as a fictional character, and the ways her story and image have been politically exploited. Franklin reveals how Anne has been understood and misunderstood, both as a person and as an idea, and opens up new avenues for interpreting her life and writing in today’s hyperpolarized world.
Ruth Franklin will be in conversation with author Jonathan Rosen. Book sales and signing will follow the program. Get a discount on the price of your ticket if you pre-order the book.
Thank you to Ancestry, the Center for Jewish History’s Family History sponsor for International Holocaust Remembrance Day programming.
Presented with Jewish Lives and Jewish Book Council
Part of the Center’s programming series Anne Frank in History and Memory in connection with Anne Frank The Exhibition. Purchase your tickets to the exhibition here.
Ruth Franklin is the author of A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction, a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, and of Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Jonathan Rosen is the author, most recently, of The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions, which was named a top ten book of the year by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Slate and People Magazine, and was chosen by Barack Obama as one of his Favorite Books of 2023. The Best Minds was also a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize. Rosen is also the author of the novels Eve’s Apple and Joy Comes in the Morning, and two additional non-fiction books: The Talmud and the Internet: A Journey Between Worlds and The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature. His essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications. He is a consulting editor at The Free Press.
Ticket Info:
In person: $10 general; $8 seniors/students; $6 CJH members; $37 general with book; $35 seniors/student with book; $33 CJH member with book;click here to register
Live on Zoom: Pay what you wish; click here to register
Presented by:
book talk
discussion
2025 Summer Program Information Session – Live on Zoom
Have you always wanted to study Yiddish at the YIVO-Bard Summer Program? Are you wondering what it would be like to take the program online or in person? Join faculty and staff of the Summer Program for a brief information session. This 30-minute session will cover the program’s structure, online and in-person formats, admissions process, and more, with time for questions from prospective Summer Program students. The session will be conducted in English and are entirely optional (prospective students are not required to attend).
Learn more about the YIVO-Bard Uriel Weinreich Summer Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
discussion
film and discussion
UnBroken Film Screening with Beth Lane and Ginger Lane – In-person program
In the documentary filmUnBroken, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor embarks on an international quest to uncover answers about the plight of her mother and her six siblings who, as mere children, escaped Nazi Germany relying solely on their own youthful bravado and the hkindness of German strangers.
UnBroken chronicles the seven Weber siblings who evaded certain capture and death, and ultimately escaped Nazi Germany following their mother’s incarceration and murder at Auschwitz. After being hidden in a laundry hut by a benevolent farmer, the children spent two years on their own in war-torn Germany. Emboldened by their father’s mandate that they ‘always stay together,’ the children used their own cunning and instincts to fight through hunger, loneliness, and fear, and survive bombings and attacks. Their journey culminates with a painful ultimatum, when, separated from their father, they are told that they must declare themselves orphans in order to escape to a new life in America. Unbeknownst to them, this salvation would become what would finally tear them apart, not to be reunited for another 40 years.
After the screening, join us for a panel discussion with the film’s director, producer, and writer Beth Lane and subject (Beth’s mother) Ginger Lane.
View the trailer here.
Thank you to Ancestry, the Center for Jewish History’s Family History sponsor for International Holocaust Remembrance Day programming.
Presented with The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme
Part of the Center’s programming series Anne Frank in History and Memory and film series Holocaust History on Film: Anne Frank and Beyond in connection with Anne Frank The Exhibition. Purchase your tickets to the exhibition here.
This screening is made possible by The Weber Family Arts Foundation.
Ticket Info: Pay what you wish; click here to register
Presented by:
film and discussion
book talk
Saints and Liars by Debórah Dwork - In-person Event
Saints and Liars is a moving history of American relief workers during the Hitler years who sought to save Jews and political opponents targeted by the Nazi regime. Praised by Publishers’ Weekly as “a gripping study of individuals’ operations in terrible extremis,” and selected by Apple Books as a Winter’s Most Anticipated Book, the story historian Debórah Dwork tells arcs through time, place, and situation. From negotiating with government representatives to doing direct (and sometimes secret) refugee relief, aid workers contended with moral questions and fast-changing historical circumstances in their mission to bring people to safety. Drawing on rich archival sources, Saints and Liarsoffers a glimpse into the lives of people who risked all to help those fleeing persecution.
Author Debórah Dwork, director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity at the Graduate Center – CUNY, will discuss her book with Marion Kaplan, Skirball Professor Emerita of Modern Jewish History, NYU.
Ticket Info: Free; registration required
Presented by:
book talk
discussion
2025 Summer Program Information Session – Live on Zoom
Have you always wanted to study Yiddish at the YIVO-Bard Summer Program? Are you wondering what it would be like to take the program online or in person? Join faculty and staff of the Summer Program for a brief information session. This 30-minute session will cover the program’s structure, online and in-person formats, admissions process, and more, with time for questions from prospective Summer Program students. The session will be conducted in English and are entirely optional (prospective students are not required to attend).
Learn more about the YIVO-Bard Uriel Weinreich Summer Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
discussion
book talk
When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary – In-Person Book Talk
Bestselling author Alice Hoffman delivers a stunning novel, aimed at a young adult audience, about one of contemporary history's most acclaimed figures, exploring the little-known details of Anne Frank's life before she went into hiding.
Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl has captivated and inspired readers for decades. Published posthumously by her bereaved father, Anne's journal, written while she and her family were in hiding during World War II, has become one of the central texts of the Jewish experience during the Holocaust, as well as a work of literary genius.
With the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, the Frank family's life is turned inside out, blow by blow, restriction by restriction. Prejudice, loss, and terror run rampant, and Anne is forced to bear witness as ordinary people become monsters, and children and families are caught up in the inescapable tide of violence.
In the midst of impossible danger, Anne, audacious, creative, and fearless, discovers who she truly is. With wisdom far beyond her years, she will become a writer who will go on to change the world as we know it.
Critically acclaimed author Alice Hoffman weaves a lyrical and heart wrenching story of the way the world closes in on the Frank family from the moment the Nazis invade the Netherlands until they are forced into hiding, bringing Anne to bold, vivid life. When We Flew Away features archival content provided by the Anne Frank House, as well as information about Otto Frank's desperate bids to get his family to safety in America gathered from correspondence between Otto Frank and Nathan Straus, Jr. from the Straus Historical Society’s Archives. Based on extensive research and published in cooperation with the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, When We Flew Away is an extraordinary and moving tour de force.
Alice Hoffman will be in conversation with her editor at Scholastic, Lisa Sandell. Book sales and signing will follow the program. Get a discount on the price of your ticket if you pre-order the book.
Part of the Center’s programming series Anne Frank in History and Memory in connection with Anne Frank The Exhibition. Purchase your tickets to the exhibition here.
Presented with Scholastic
Thank you to Ancestry, the Center for Jewish History’s Family History sponsor.
About the Speakers:
Alice Hoffman is the highly acclaimed author of over 30 novels for readers of all ages, including The Dovekeepers, The World That We Knew -- winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, The Marriage of Opposites, Practical Magic, Incantation, The Foretelling, and most recently, The Invisible Hour. Her previous novels for Scholastic Press are Aquamarine, which was made into a major motion picture, Indigo, Green Witch, and Green Angel, which Publishers Weekly, in a boxed, starred review, called "achingly lovely." She lives outside of Boston.
Lisa Ann Sandell is an editorial director at Scholastic Inc., where she publishes literary and commercial fiction and narrative nonfiction, including critically acclaimed author Alice Hoffman’s New York Times bestseller, When We Flew Away;the New York Times bestselling False Prince series by Jennifer A. Nielsen; and #1 New York Times bestseller Sharon Cameron’s The Light in Hidden Places, which was a Reese’s YA Book Club pick; among many other books. Lisa is also the author of four young adult novels. She lives in New York City with her family.
Ticket Info: $10 general; $8 seniors/students; $6 CJH members; $37 general with book; $35 seniors/student with book; $33 CJH member with book; click here to register
Presented by:
book talk
book talk
Hollywood's Unofficial Film Corps: American Jewish Moviemakers and the War Effort – In-person Event
Join the American Jewish Historical Society for a book talk on Hollywood’s Unofficial Film Corps: American Jewish Moviemakers and the War Effort with author Michael Berkowitz.
It has long been known that Hollywood was actively involved in shaping US public opinion during World War II. Less well documented are the ways in which Washington sought to work behind the scenes, subtly obliterating the boundaries between “studio” and “government” films. Michael Berkowitz studies the contributions of humorist and best-selling author Leo Rosten (The Joys of Yiddish, The Education of H*Y*M*A*N* K*A*P*L*A*N) and writer, producer, and screenwriter Budd Schulberg (On the Waterfront, A Face in the Crowd) in order to examine the elusive story of Jewish Hollywood’s role in World War II.
Hollywood’s Unofficial Film Corps shows that Rosten, Schulberg, and others—including Garson Kanin, George Cukor, Stanley Kramer, and Jules Buck—created movies that were both entertaining and politically expeditious for US war aims. At the same time, in an effort to unify the American public, they avoided focusing on the fate of European Jews, even while addressing racism and antisemitism in the United States. Jewish themes were often downplayed, and Jewish directors, writers, and other contributors frequently went uncredited. As Berkowitz writes, “Rosten’s cohort changed feature films forever.” Thanks to his research, we now have a better understanding of how and why.
Ticket Info: General Admission $10, Students $5
Presented by:
book talk
concert
Two Pianos, Six Hands: Phoenix Chamber Ensemble performs Bach, Schubert & Prokofiev – In-Person Concert and Live on YouTube
J.S. Bach/A. Vivaldi: Concerto for 4 Pianos in A minor BWV 1065, transcribed for 2 Pianos, 6 Hands by E. Braslavsky
F. Schubert: Lebensstürme; Characteristic Allegro, Op.144, D.947
S. Prokofiev: Suite from "Cinderella" for 2 Pianos, 4 Hands, edited by Mikhail Pletnev
J.S. Bach: Concerto in C minor, BWV 1060 for 2 Pianos
F. Schubert: Fantasia in F minor, Op.103, D.940
Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach (1759-1845; J.S. Bach’s grandson): Das Dreyblatt for Piano, 6 Hands
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 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; $8 member; click here to register
YouTube: Pay what you wish; click here to register
Presented by:
concert
lecture
The YIVO Library in New York: Personal Reflections on Its History and Collections – Live on Zoom
In the mid-1930s a group of New York Yiddishist intellectuals established the Central Jewish Library and Press Archive, whose collections became the nucleus of the YIVO Library when the Institute relocated from Vilna to New York in 1940. Over the succeeding decades, the Library grew by leaps and bounds, thanks to the dedication of its librarians and supporters. It emerged as a “collection of collections,” absorbing the extensive personal libraries of prominent Yiddish writers, scholars, and book collectors. Crucially, after 1945 the Library also recovered large portions of the Vilna YIVO’s prewar holdings along with thousands of rabbinic works from Vilna’s Strashun Library. Throughout its history, the YIVO Library has been a beehive of scholarship and bibliography, which has been fostered by such outstanding figures as Mendl Elkin and Dina Abramowicz.
In this presentation, Zachary M. Baker will offer some personal reflections on the legacy that the YIVO Library’s founders and builders have left behind.
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
discussion
2025 Summer Program Advanced Level Information Session – Live on Zoom
Are you thinking of returning to the Summer Program to continue your advanced studies? Join Summer Program faculty and staff for a brief information session about YIVO’s advanced levels. Open to graduates of YIVO’s intermediate levels and those with comparable proficiency, this session will cover the structure of YIVO’s advanced levels, the online and in-person formats, admissions process, and more, with time for questions from prospective Summer Program students.
The session will be conducted in Yiddish and is entirely optional (prospective students are not required to attend).
Learn more about the YIVO-Bard Uriel Weinreich Summer Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
discussion
theatrical performance
The Archive by Neta Pulvermacher - In-person Event
Leo Baeck Institute is proud to present the North American premiere ofinterdisciplinary performance The Archive by Neta Pulvermacher. The performances will take place February 24, 25, and 26 at the Center for Jewish History.
When the last person who remembers is gone, whole worlds disappear forever. Israeli/American artist, choreographer and performer Neta Pulvermacher situates her riveting one woman show, The Archive, inside this perforated post-memory landscape. Exploring her German-Jewish family history, she constructs a jarring, funny and deeply moving performative journey that follows the traces to Frankfurt and Berlin – once her family’s home.
Pulvermacher sifts through documents, old pictures, and personal artifacts, conjuring up fragmented narratives, voices, and characters that emerge briefly, only to fade back into oblivion. Through research and memory, she combines real and imagined sites and events, blurring the lines between past and present, battling the gradual disappearance of memories.
For a moment, this pursuit of traces materializes in the Great Hall of NYC’s Center for Jewish History, a place of remembrance itself. As Pulvermacher navigates this layered landscape, she invites the audience to join her as she attempts to reconstruct a lost world. Especially in times of crisis, the questions of memory and history and their significance for understanding our world(s) become relevant and urgent.
Originally commissioned as a site-specific work for a quartet of dancers at the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem, The Archive was reimagined as a one-woman show for the KFW Stiftung Villa 102 in Frankfurt Germany (March 2024) and the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv (June 2024). Following this North American premiere at the Center for Jewish History, Pulvermacher invites the audience to an artist talk.
Made possible in part by support from the Arnhold family and Mary and Saul Sanders.
Ticket Info: LBI/CJH/Partner Members, Students, Seniors: $15; General: $25-$40
Presented by:
theatrical performance
theatrical performance
The Archive by Neta Pulvermacher - In-person Event
Leo Baeck Institute is proud to present the North American premiere ofinterdisciplinary performance The Archive by Neta Pulvermacher. The performances will take place February 24, 25, and 26 at the Center for Jewish History.
When the last person who remembers is gone, whole worlds disappear forever. Israeli/American artist, choreographer and performer Neta Pulvermacher situates her riveting one woman show, The Archive, inside this perforated post-memory landscape. Exploring her German-Jewish family history, she constructs a jarring, funny and deeply moving performative journey that follows the traces to Frankfurt and Berlin – once her family’s home.
Pulvermacher sifts through documents, old pictures, and personal artifacts, conjuring up fragmented narratives, voices, and characters that emerge briefly, only to fade back into oblivion. Through research and memory, she combines real and imagined sites and events, blurring the lines between past and present, battling the gradual disappearance of memories.
For a moment, this pursuit of traces materializes in the Great Hall of NYC’s Center for Jewish History, a place of remembrance itself. As Pulvermacher navigates this layered landscape, she invites the audience to join her as she attempts to reconstruct a lost world. Especially in times of crisis, the questions of memory and history and their significance for understanding our world(s) become relevant and urgent.
Originally commissioned as a site-specific work for a quartet of dancers at the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem, The Archive was reimagined as a one-woman show for the KFW Stiftung Villa 102 in Frankfurt Germany (March 2024) and the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv (June 2024). Following this North American premiere at the Center for Jewish History, Pulvermacher invites the audience to an artist talk.
Made possible in part by support from the Arnhold family and Mary and Saul Sanders.
Ticket Info: LBI/CJH/Partner Members, Students, Seniors: $15; General: $25-$40
Presented by:
theatrical performance
theatrical performance
The Archive by Neta Pulvermacher - In-person Event
Leo Baeck Institute is proud to present the North American premiere ofinterdisciplinary performance The Archive by Neta Pulvermacher. The performances will take place February 24, 25, and 26 at the Center for Jewish History.
When the last person who remembers is gone, whole worlds disappear forever. Israeli/American artist, choreographer and performer Neta Pulvermacher situates her riveting one woman show, The Archive, inside this perforated post-memory landscape. Exploring her German-Jewish family history, she constructs a jarring, funny and deeply moving performative journey that follows the traces to Frankfurt and Berlin – once her family’s home.
Pulvermacher sifts through documents, old pictures, and personal artifacts, conjuring up fragmented narratives, voices, and characters that emerge briefly, only to fade back into oblivion. Through research and memory, she combines real and imagined sites and events, blurring the lines between past and present, battling the gradual disappearance of memories.
For a moment, this pursuit of traces materializes in the Great Hall of NYC’s Center for Jewish History, a place of remembrance itself. As Pulvermacher navigates this layered landscape, she invites the audience to join her as she attempts to reconstruct a lost world. Especially in times of crisis, the questions of memory and history and their significance for understanding our world(s) become relevant and urgent.
Originally commissioned as a site-specific work for a quartet of dancers at the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem, The Archive was reimagined as a one-woman show for the KFW Stiftung Villa 102 in Frankfurt Germany (March 2024) and the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv (June 2024). Following this North American premiere at the Center for Jewish History, Pulvermacher invites the audience to an artist talk.
Made possible in part by support from the Arnhold family and Mary and Saul Sanders.
Ticket Info: LBI/CJH/Partner Members, Students, Seniors: $15; General: $25-$40
Presented by:
theatrical performance
panel discussion
Yiddish Tangos and Klezmer Mambos – Live on Zoom
This panel discussion will explore the remarkable influence of Latin American music and dance on the culture of Yiddish speaking communities in the United States. Ronald Robboy will discuss Latin American musical influences upon Yiddish theater composers, including Sholom Secunda, Abraham Ellstein, and Alexander Olshanetsky; Sonia Gollance will discuss the popularity of dances like the Tango and Mambo in the Borscht Belt, as exemplified by movies like Dirty Dancing and Mamboniks; and Josh Kun will discuss the influence of Latin American music on post-war Jewish music and the influence of Jewish music on U.S. Latino/a artists.
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
book talk
The Civil War Diary of Emma Mordecai – In-person Event and Live on YouTube
Join us in person and online for a book talk on The Civil War Diary of Emma Mordecai with co-author Melissa R. Klapper and moderator Zev Eleff. The Civil War Diary of Emma Mordecai was edited by Dianne Ashton z”l and Melissa R. Klapper and is available from NYU Press.
Emma Mordecai lived an unusual life. She was Jewish when Jews comprised less than 1 percent of the population of the Old South, and unmarried in a culture that offered women few options other than marriage. She was American born when most American Jews were immigrants. She affirmed and maintained her dedication to Jewish religious practice and Jewish faith while many family members embraced Christianity. Yet she also lived well within the social parameters established for Southern white women, espoused Southern values, and owned enslaved African Americans.
The Civil War Diary of Emma Mordecai is one of the few surviving Civil War diaries by a Jewish woman in the antebellum South. It charts her daily life and her evolving perspective on Confederate nationalism and Southern identity, Jewishness, women’s roles in wartime, gendered domestic roles in slave-owning households, and the centrality of family relationships. While never losing sight of the racist social and political structures that shaped Emma Mordecai’s world, the book chronicles her experiences with dislocation and the loss of her home.
Bringing to life the hospital visits, food shortages, local sociability, Jewish observances, sounds and sights of nearby battles, and the very personal ramifications of emancipation and its aftermath for her household and family, The Civil War Diary of Emma Mordecai offers a valuable and distinct look at a unique historical figure from the waning years of the Civil War South.
Ticket Info: General Admission $10, Students $5
Presented by:
book talk
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
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
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