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
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book talk
lecture
A Trip into the Archive: The Case of Otto Schneid – Live on Zoom
YIVO’s Museum of Jewish Art, Judaica, and Art History was initiated in the mid-1930s at YIVO’s Vilna headquarters. Those involved included the well-known artist Marc Chagall and the Austrian-Jewish art historian Otto Schneid. Before Schneid was tapped to spearhead this museum, he had dedicated years of his life to creating a kind of encyclopedia of contemporary Jewish artists, many of them contributors to L’Ecole de Paris and satellites of this avant-garde art movement in cities across Europe. Beginning in 1929, Schneid travelled to view the artwork of over one hundred a hundred Jewish artists such as Chana Orloff, Alfred Reth, Oscar Miestchaninoff, and Henryk Streng. He also corresponded with them by letter, and the artists sent him photographs of their work along with their biographies. Schneid submitted the manuscript of his encyclopedia to his publisher in 1937. Following the Anschluss of March 1938, the Nazis raided the publishing house and destroyed the manuscript. Schneid escaped Europe with the letters and photographs he had gathered with the hope of recreating the book.
Based on her archival work at YIVO and at the University of Toronto’s Fisher Library, Alyssa Quint discusses the lives of Schneid and his artists and uses the case of Schneid to reflect on the allure of and impediments to archival research.
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
performance
The Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds – In-person Event
Through his haunting and evocative score, Ofer Ben-Amots offers an operatic retelling of Sh. An-ski’s masterpiece of the Yiddish theatrical canon. Wracked with grief for her beloved, Leah, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, recounts her love of a young scholar who died on learning of her betrothal to another man. On the day of the wedding, she becomes possessed by an evil spirit, known in Jewish folklore as a dybbuk. In order to exorcize the spirit and save Leah’s soul, the village must learn the spirit’s true origin.
Directed by Stephen Brown-Fried, conducted by Robert Kahn and performed by students from Mannes and the College of Performing Arts, this production of the The Dybbuk is certain to excite your spirits!
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: $18; ASJM, YIVO, & LBI members: $12; Seniors & students: $9
Presented by:
performance
performance
The Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds – In-person Event
Through his haunting and evocative score, Ofer Ben-Amots offers an operatic retelling of Sh. An-ski’s masterpiece of the Yiddish theatrical canon. Wracked with grief for her beloved, Leah, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, recounts her love of a young scholar who died on learning of her betrothal to another man. On the day of the wedding, she becomes possessed by an evil spirit, known in Jewish folklore as a dybbuk. In order to exorcize the spirit and save Leah’s soul, the village must learn the spirit’s true origin.
Directed by Stephen Brown-Fried, conducted by Robert Kahn and performed by students from Mannes and the College of Performing Arts, this production of the The Dybbuk is certain to excite your spirits!
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: $18; ASJM, YIVO, & LBI members: $12; Seniors & students: $9
Presented by:
performance
concert
The Beatrice Diener Ensemble-in-Residence featuring The Momenta Quartet with guest soprano Sharon Harms - In-Person Program
This concert features two world premieres – String Quartet No. 6 and Moonset No. 3 by David Glaser, professor of music at Stern College for Women. Also on the program are the String Quartet No. 3 by Darius Milhaud and Fanny Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in E-flat Major.
Ticket Info: Free admission but registration is required via email.
Presented by:
concert
panel discussion
Yiddish Studies in the Digital Age: 10 Years of In geveb – In-person Event and Live on Zoom
In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies published its first articles, essays, translations, and teacher resources in August of 2015. In the intervening decade, it has to a large degree achieved its founding goal, to become “a central address for the study of all things Yiddish.” A generation of students, culture producers, and emerging scholars of Yiddish have now come of age with In geveb as a place to publish, to keep abreast of current research around the world, to find new translations to teach, and read reviews of everything from the latest scholarly publications to new Yiddish music, theater, and film. This roundtable brings together a group of scholars who have all been involved with In geveb in a range of roles to reflect on what this “born digital” journal has contributed to the field of Yiddish studies. This panel will also reflect on the state of Yiddish studies more broadly over the past decade. The panel will conclude by asking what the next 10 years will hold for the field of Yiddish studies, and how scholarly and cultural spaces like In geveb will need to adapt to be ready to serve a changing academic and cultural landscape.
Panelists include former Peer Review Associate for In geveb Elena Hoffenberg, founding co-editor of In geveb and past president of In geveb’s board of directors Eitan Kensky, and members of In geveb’s board of directors Eddy Portnoy and Rachel Rubinstein. The evening will be introduced and moderated by chief editor of In geveb Jessica Kirzane and president of In geveb’s board of directors Madeleine Cohen.
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
conversation
Survivor Leo Ullman in Conversation with Kyra Schuster - In-Person Program
Leo Ullman survived the Holocaust in hiding with strangers as a toddler—in Amsterdam, the same city where Anne Frank and her family hid and were later discovered. His parents, who also went into hiding in a separate location, were told nothing about his caretakers or his location in order to help keep him safe. Only after the war did Leo realize that the loving couple who had raised him for years were not his biological parents. He later learned just how many of the Dutch families nearby knew about the young Jewish boy in hiding and chose to protect him.
Ullman came to the United States in 1947, served in the U.S. Marine Corps, and practiced law for more than 30 years. He also served as a Director of the Anne Frank Center USA for two decades and as its Chairman for 7 years.
At this program, Leo Ullman will share his memories, in conversation with Kyra Schuster, Lead Acquisitions Curator at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. On the Museum's staff since 1994, Schuster acquires new materials for the Museum's permanent collection and has worked on numerous special exhibitions, Museum publications, and online programs. This program is suitable for families with children ages 11 and above.
A tour of Anne Frank The Exhibition is available following the program. When you register for the program, a ticket link will be included in your confirmation email. Tickets to the exhibition are $25 for youth under 17 and $30 for adults. Attendance at the 6:00 pm program is required to purchase tickets to the exhibition. Tickets to the exhibition are limited so place your order as soon as possible if you would like to attend.
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.
Ticket Info: Pay what you wish; click here to register
CJH members enjoy 40% off on tickets. Join today.
Presented by:
conversation
book talk
Agunot in the Ashkenazi Realm, 1648-1850 – Live on Zoom
An agunah, literally a “chained woman,” is a woman unable to secure a rabbinic divorce because her husband has disappeared or is unwilling to sign the divorce papers. In The Marital Knot: Agunot in the Ashkenazi Realm, 1648-1850, Noa Shashar sheds light on Jewish family life in the early modern era and on the Jewish legal rulings of rabbis, which determined the fate of these marginalized agunot. How did Jewish society deal with the danger of women becoming agunot? What kind of reality was imposed on women who found themselves as agunot, and what could they do to extricate themselves from their plight? How did rabbinic decisors discharge their task during this period, and what were the outcomes given that the agunot were dependent on the male rabbinic establishment? Shashar reexamines the halakhic activity concerning agunot in the early modern period and proposes a new assessment of the attitude that decisors displayed toward the freeing of these women. This study also fills a void in the scholarship on agunot by describing the lives of these women and of the men who brought this about.
Join YIVO for a discussion with Shashar about this book, led by historian Elisheva Carlebach.
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
film screening and discussion
Gentleman’s Agreement with Rachel Gordan, Avinoam Patt, Cecilia Peck, and Gavriel Rosenfeld – In-Person Program
Join us for a screening of the classic film, Gentleman’s Agreement. Philip Green (Gregory Peck) is a highly respected writer who is recruited by a national magazine to write a series of articles on antisemitism in America. He's not enthusiastic about the series, mostly because he's not sure how to tackle the subject. Then it dawns on him: if he was to pretend that he was Jewish, he could then experience the degree of racism and prejudice that exists and write his story from that perspective. It takes little time for him to experience bigotry. His anger at the way he is treated also affects his relationship with Kathy Lacy (Dorothy McGuire), his publisher's niece and the person who suggested the series.
A conversation with Rachel Gordan, Avinoam Patt, Gregory Peck’s daughter, Cecilia Peck, and CJH President Gavriel Rosenfeld will follow the screening.
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
Rachel Gordan is the 2024-25 National Endowment for the Humanities Scholar in Residence at the Center for Jewish History and the Samuel "Bud" Shorstein fellow in American Jewish Culture at the University of Florida, where she teaches in the Department of Religion and the Center for Jewish Studies. Her first book, Postwar Stories: How Books Made Judaism American, was published by Oxford University Press in 2024.
Avinoam Patt is Rennert Director of the Center for the Study of Antisemitism at NYU. He previously held the Doris and Simon Konover Chair of Judaic Studies at the University of Connecticut, where he served as Director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life. He is the author of multiple books on Jewish responses to the Holocaust, including Finding Home and Homeland: Jewish Youth and Zionism in the Aftermath of the Holocaust (2009). He recently completed a book on the early postwar memory of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (The Jewish Heroes of Warsaw: The Afterlife of the Revolt, 2021).
His newest book, Israel and the Holocaust, was published by Bloomsbury Press as part of its Perspectives on the Holocaust series in 2024.
Cecilia Peck is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker. She directed and executive produced the current Netflix documentary series “Escaping Twin Flames.” She also directed, co-wrote, and Executive Produced the four-part docuseries “SEDUCED: Inside the NXIVM Cult for STARZ, and the Netflix feature documentary “Brave Miss World.” Her work has a focus on women’s stories and trauma informed filmmaking. She directed and produced and the Academy Award shortlisted documentary “Shut Up & Sing,” and produced “A Conversation With Gregory Peck,” a personal portrait of her father’s life and career. As an actress, she was nominated for a Golden Globe for “The Portrait,” and played the leading role in “Torn Apart”, among others. She is a graduate of Princeton University and a recipient of a DART fellowship for Ethics in Documentary from the Columbia School of Journalism.
Gavriel D. Rosenfeld is President of the Center for Jewish History and Professor of History at Fairfield University. His areas of specialization include the history of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, memory studies, and counterfactual history. He is the author of numerous books, including the co-edited volume (with Janet Ward) Fascism in America: Past and Present (Cambridge University Press, 2023), The Fourth Reich: The Specter of Nazism from World War II to the Present (Cambridge University Press, 2019), and Hi Hitler! How the Nazi Past is Being Normalized in Contemporary Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2015). He edits the blog The Counterfactual History Review and is an editor at the Journal of Holocaust Research.
Ticket Info: $10 general admission; $8 seniors/students; $6 CJH members; click here to register
Presented by:
film screening and discussion
lecture
Anne Frank’s Diary: The Making of an Urtext of the Holocaust - In-Person Program
Historian Raphael Gross, Director of the German Historical Museum and editor of a history of the worldwide reception of Anne Frank’s diaries, discusses the making of and response to a unique document in literary history. Neither a true diary that chronologically records the daily life and thoughts of its author, nor a work of fiction, the Diary of a Young Girl is an unfinished manuscript.
Adapted from diary entries in multiple stages by the young author herself – and posthumously by her father – it made Anne Frank into perhaps the most famous German- Jewish writer of the 20th century. Today, it is an unparalleled urtext of the Holocaust.
Against this background, the lecture will focus on the worldwide reception of the diary over almost eight decades. How was the edition of the text authorized by Otto Frank received in countries as diverse as Holland, Israel, the USA, Japan, Hungary, Spain, and the GDR? Which aspects of her notes were included? Which faded into the background? And what did the icon “Anne Frank” stand for in all these contexts?
This event will take place in person at the Center for Jewish History and will be followed by a reception. If you are unable to attend in person, the event will be recorded and uploaded to YouTube.
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.
About the Speaker
Raphael Gross is the President of the Foundation Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin.
Before assuming the role in 2017, he served as the Director of the Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture and held the Chair of Jewish History and Culture at the University of Leipzig. Previously, he headed the Jüdisches Museum Frankfurt am Main, (2006-2015); the Fritz Bauer Institute, Frankfurt am Main, (2007-2015); and the Leo Baeck Institute, London, (2001-2015); as director.
Raphael Gross is a historian and the author and editor of numerous books on German-Jewish history and the Holocaust. Many of the exhibitions he initiated explore these and related topics.
In May 2023 Raphael Gross was mandated to evaluate the provenance research of the Foundation E. G. Bührle in Switzerland. He presented his report to the public in June 2024.
Ticket Info: Free
Presented by:
lecture
concert
Evening of Sephardic Art Song – In-person Event & Live on Zoom
This lecture-recital aims to raise awareness about a unique and rich vocal repertoire within the Western classical medium, one that also offers a window into Sephardic culture and history. In this two-part event, Dr. Lori Sen will present an overview of the history, language, and culture of Sephardim, the development of the Sephardic art song genre, and its musical elements and stylistic features. Zoë Johnstone Stewart (guitar) and Andrew Stewart (piano) will join Lori for the recital portion and will present a variety of songs for voice and guitar, and voice and piano by Alberto Hemsi, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Lazare Saminsky, Joaquín Rodrigo, Joaquín Nin-Culmell, Manuel García Morante, Yehezkel Braun, Jose Antonio de Donostia, Daniel Akiva, Matilde Salvador, Ulrike Merk, among others.
The Sidney Krum Young Artists Concert Series is made possible by a generous gift from the Estate of Sidney Krum.
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:
concert
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
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.
Presented by:
lecture
lecture
Two Revolutionary Jews: Leon Trotsky and Chaim Zhitlowsky – In-person Event & Live on Zoom
What role should Jews play in revolutionary movements? Should they act collectively on their own behalf or as indistinct individuals within majority populations in the interest of universalistic ideals? Or was this a false dichotomy? These questions have defined the basis of left-wing Jewish politics since the 19th century.
In this lecture, Tony Michels will discuss two different approaches to revolutionary Jewish politics, as defined by Leon Trotsky and Chaim Zhitlowsky. Both were Russian-born Jews who played seminal roles in the Russian revolutionary movement. Both also came to be seen as embodiments of the modern Jewish experience. However, they gave radically different answers to the predicament of modern Jewry.
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.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required
Presented by:
lecture
lecture
Anne’s Ancestors - In-Person Program
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
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
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
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
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