lecture
Forms Serving Functions: Coins and Medals as Judaica – In-Person Event
Numismatic imagery has mirrored and illuminated many facets of Jewish culture for centuries. The current Center for Jewish History exhibition, Jewry Reflected, Refracted, and Recorded on Medals, and this presentation based on it, highlight the wide variety of forms and functions that Jewish coins, tokens, and medals have assumed over the centuries. Having served as active agents, as actual participants, in the religious and social lives of Jewish people both in the Holy Land and in the Diaspora, they incorporate and constitute material evidence of past Jewish experience.
About the Speaker
Ira Rezak is a retired physician and educator who has studied and collected Judaica for many years. An Emeritus Professor at Stony Brook University, he serves as president of the Harry G. Friedman Society.
Ticket Info: Pay what you wish; register here
Presented by:
lecture
curator’s tour & panel discussion
The Courage to Create: Addressing the Holocaust through Art - In-person Event
A curator-led tour of the exhibition Tapestries by Shoshana Comet: From Survival to Strength will be followed by a panel of scholars in conversation with Dr. Shay Pilnik, Director of The Emil A. and Jenny Fish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies of Yeshiva University.
The discussion will reference the tapestries to explore artistic representation of the Holocaust, the use of art to record and preserve history, and art as a means of recovery from trauma.
Panelists include:
- Mariya Keselman-Mekler, Creative Arts Therapist and Program Manager of Wellness Program for Holocaust Survivors at KleinLife in Philadelphia
- Archie Rand, Artist and Presidential Professor of Art at CUNY - Brooklyn College
- Dr. Ori Z. Soltes, Teaching Professor at the Center for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University.
Light refreshments will be served.
Co-sponsored by Yeshiva University Museum and The Emil A. and Jenny Fish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
The exhibition Tapestries by Shoshana Comet has been made possible with assistance from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. Supported by the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future and by the German Federal Ministry of Finance.
Ticket Info: This is a free event, but advance registration is requested at rsvp@yum.cjh.org.
Presented by:
curator’s tour & panel discussion
book talk
Alfred Dreyfus: Antisemitism and Jewish Identity at the Turn of the Twentieth Century – In-person Event
In 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French military, was falsely accused of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island. Over the next five years, his case divided France and riveted the world.
Maurice Samuels, the Betty Jane Anlyan Professor of French at Yale University, and the Director of the Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism, explores the ins and outs of the affair, focusing on the Jewish dimension of the case and especially on the question of antisemitism. What were the causes of antisemitism in fin-de-siècle France? What role did antisemitism play in the legal case against Dreyfus and in the affair that followed? How did Jewish communities around the world respond to the crisis? And what lessons can we draw for our current moment?
Following the talk, Samuels’ book, Alfred Dreyfus: The Man at the Center of the Affair, will be available for sale and signing.
Please visit the related exhibit, for which Professor Samuels was academic advisor, The Dreyfus Affair in Postcards: Going Viral at the End of the 19th Century, in the Center’s Valentin Blavatnik Gallery.
Ticket Info: Pay what you wish; register here
Presented by:
book talk
book talk
My Life as a Jew - Live on Zoom
Born in a displaced persons’ camp two years after the end of the Holocaust, Michael Gawenda spent his childhood and teenage years at the Sholem Aleichem College in Melbourne. This shaped the sort of Jew he became — a secular Jew who loved Yiddish language and culture.
Gawenda went on to become a public figure during his 40 years as a journalist, including his role as editor-in-chief of the prestigious Australian publication The Age — the only Jewish editor-in-chief in the newspaper’s history. Throughout this time, hostility towards Israel that he witnessed in his professional life sparked him to examine his own Jewish identity and his relationships with his Jewish friends, and to forensically examine the basis of the critiques of Israel.
Join YIVO for a discussion with Gawenda about his new autobiography, My Life as a Jew, led by editor at large of the New York Jewish Week Andrew Silow-Carroll.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
About the Speakers
Michael Gawenda is one of Australia’s best-known journalists and authors. In a career spanning four decades, he was a political reporter, a foreign correspondent based in London and in Washington, a columnist, a feature writer, and a senior editor at Time Magazine. He was editor and editor-in-chief of The Age from 1997 to 2004. Michael Gawenda has won numerous journalism awards, including three Walkley awards. He was the inaugural director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne, and is the author of four books.
Andrew Silow-Carroll is New York Jewish Week's Editor at Large and Managing Editor for Ideas of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Previously he served as editor in chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, editor-in-chief and CEO of the New Jersey Jewish News and wrote an award-winning weekly column in the Times of Israel. He was also the managing editor of the Forward newspaper, editor of the Washington Jewish Week, senior editor of Moment magazine, and a reporter for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
book talk
conference
After Orthodoxy: Cultural Creativity and the Break with Tradition - In-person Event and Live on Zoom
There is a widespread fascination with stories about leaving the Orthodox Jewish community. But what happens after this often-traumatic break? Join YIVO for the first conference and festival organized by and featuring formerly Orthodox Jewish scholars, activists, performers, and artists, as we explore the cultural achievements that emerged from this break with tradition.
Through performances, presentations, and panel discussions, we will discuss the challenges and opportunities of leading a meaningful life “after Orthodoxy.” What do formerly Orthodox Jews have to offer the communities they joined, the communities they left behind, and the larger world? What resources do artists and performers draw from their Orthodox upbringings? How have ex-Hasidic activists changed the communities in which they were raised? And how do these challenges and opportunities resonate among those who left other insular religious groups?
Panel discussions will include ex-Orthodox activism with Naftali Moster, Elad Nehorai, Beatrice Weber, and Lani Santo; religion after Orthodoxy with Yehuda Jacobowitz, Amichai Lau-Lavie, Shaul Magid, and Jericho Vincent; scholarship and the break with tradition with Yair Hess, Roni Masel, Zalman Newfield, Naomi Seidman, Jessica Lang, and Dikla Yogev; and leaving other insular religious communities with Hannah Abbasi, Jeremy Jenkins, Amy Jemmett, and Jessica Pratezina.
The conference will also include a music, film, and performance festival, featuring Luzer Twersky as MC; Castles in the Air, a new film by Pearl Gluck; the visual art of Sara Erenthal and Malky Goldman; and performances by Basya Schechter, Riki Rose, Rayne Lunger, Yermiyahu Ahron Taub, Melissa Weisz, and Michael Wex.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
conference
conference
After Orthodoxy: Cultural Creativity and the Break with Tradition - In-person Event and Live on Zoom
There is a widespread fascination with stories about leaving the Orthodox Jewish community. But what happens after this often-traumatic break? Join YIVO for the first conference and festival organized by and featuring formerly Orthodox Jewish scholars, activists, performers, and artists, as we explore the cultural achievements that emerged from this break with tradition.
Through performances, presentations, and panel discussions, we will discuss the challenges and opportunities of leading a meaningful life “after Orthodoxy.” What do formerly Orthodox Jews have to offer the communities they joined, the communities they left behind, and the larger world? What resources do artists and performers draw from their Orthodox upbringings? How have ex-Hasidic activists changed the communities in which they were raised? And how do these challenges and opportunities resonate among those who left other insular religious groups?
Panel discussions will include ex-Orthodox activism with Naftali Moster, Elad Nehorai, Beatrice Weber, and Lani Santo; religion after Orthodoxy with Yehuda Jacobowitz, Amichai Lau-Lavie, Shaul Magid, and Jericho Vincent; scholarship and the break with tradition with Yair Hess, Roni Masel, Zalman Newfield, Naomi Seidman, Jessica Lang, and Dikla Yogev; and leaving other insular religious communities with Hannah Abbasi, Jeremy Jenkins, Amy Jemmett, and Jessica Pratezina.
The conference will also include a music, film, and performance festival, featuring Luzer Twersky as MC; Castles in the Air, a new film by Pearl Gluck; the visual art of Sara Erenthal and Malky Goldman; and performances by Basya Schechter, Riki Rose, Rayne Lunger, Yermiyahu Ahron Taub, Melissa Weisz, and Michael Wex.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
conference
curator's tour
Curator's Tour of Tapestries by Shoshana Comet: From Survival to Strength - In-person Event
Join Curator Ilana Burstein Benson for a guided tour of the exhibition. The five tapestries in this exhibition were created in the late 1960s by psychotherapist and Holocaust survivor, Shoshana Comet (1923 – 2011). Through the lens of these unique works and Shoshana’s story, we explore the themes of Holocaust history and trauma, psychological repair, and affirmation of life.
Ticket Info: Free admission but reservations are required. To attend, please email RSVP@yum.cjh.org and include the date of the tour you are registering for.
Presented by:
curator's tour
film screening
Family Treasures Lost & Found - In-person Event
Join the American Jewish Historical Society and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research for a premiere film screening of Family Treasures Lost and Found, followed by a talkback with filmmakers Karen A. Frenkel and Marcia Rock.
In Family Treasures Lost and Found, journalist Karen A. Frenkel investigates her parents’ unspoken WWII stories. She knew little about their lives before and during the Holocaust, but her detective work leads to astonishing revelations of her family’s riveting journeys through Europe, Cuba, Mexico, and New York. Karen shares steps in family history research such as using digital and real-world archives to fills gaps in what she was told. A family archive of portraits, photos, documents, and artifacts also reveals the cultural life of pre-war urban assimilated Polish Jews. The process deepens Karen’s appreciation for her relatives’ resistance to fascism, luck, altruism, and the reasons for their silence. She honors her parents, sole surviving grandfather, and lost relatives, who cease to be mere names. Ultimately, Karen’s sleuthathon ensures that memories of a vanished culture will endure and shows why filling in the blanks of lives lost is important not only to her, but to the history of the Jewish people and society as a whole.
Family Treasures Lost and Found is a Women Make Movies Production Assistance Program Project. Established in 1972, Women Make Movies is a 501(c)3 nonprofit media arts organization registered with the New York Charities Bureau of New York State.
Karen A. Frenkel: (www.karenafrenkel.com) is an award-winning journalist, author, and documentary producer. Previous documentaries: Minerva’s Machine: Women and Computing (1995) won Best Documentary in a Small Market, 1997 EMMA (Exceptional Merit Media Award) given by National Women’s Political Caucus and Radcliffe College, Best Documentary, Brooklyn Arts Council, 30th Annual International Film and Video Festival, Best Television Series, Runner Up, Eleventh Annual Computer Press Award. Net.LEARNING (1998) won the 1998 National Education Reporting First Prize, Television Documentary and Feature. Both documentaries aired on public television. Ms. Frenkel co-authored with Isaac Asimov Robots: Machines in Man’s Image (Harmony 1985). Her articles have appeared in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, CACM, Discover, Essence, FastCompany.com, Forbes, Scientific American, Technology Review, and The New York Times among others. She blogs for The Times of Israel about her parents’ survival during World War II, fascism, and political parallels today.
Marcia Rock: Marcia’s documentaries cover international dilemmas, women’s issues as well as personal perspectives. Before Family Treasures, Rock co-produced and directed. UnReined, about an Israeli equestrian Champion, Nancy Zeitlin, who built the first Palestinian equestrian team. Rock also produced SERVICE: When Women Come Marching Home about women transitioning from active duty to civilian life, NY Emmy. She covered the changing role of women in Northern Ireland, Daughters of the Troubles: Belfast Stories, AWRT Grand Documentary Award. McSorley’s New York is about the history of the NY Irish and won a NY Emmy. She experimented with personal storytelling in Dancing with My Father. Rock started and is the director of News and Documentary at the NYU Carter Journalism Institute and co-authored with Marlene Sanders, Waiting for Primetime: The Women of Television News.
Ticket Info: General Admission: $10, Students: $5
Presented by:
film screening
conversation
At Lunch with Joan Nathan – Live on Zoom
Julie Salamon (New York Times best-selling author) sits down with award-winning cookbook author Joan Nathan. Joan is the author of twelve cookbooks including her latest work, My Life in Recipes: Food, Family, and Memories. Her books Jewish Cooking in America and The New American Cooking both won James Beard Awards and IACP Awards. She is a regular contributor to The New York Times and other publications. Nathan’s PBS television series, Jewish Cooking in America with Joan Nathan, was nominated in 2000 for the James Beard Award for Best National Television Food Show. She was also senior producer of Passover: Traditions of Freedom, an award-winning documentary sponsored by Maryland Public Television. Nathan has appeared as a guest on numerous radio and television programs including the Today show, Good Morning, America, The Martha Stewart Show and National Public Radio.
Ticket Info: Free; register online for a Zoom link
Presented by:
conversation
lecture
Creative Tax Planning: Leave a Legacy – Live on Zoom
Please join us for a conversation with guest speaker Morris Sabbagh, Partner at Vishnick McGovern Milizio LLP, to explore creative ways to maximize your charitable giving while optimizing your tax benefits. In this interactive webinar, we will discuss upcoming changes to the estate and gift tax exemptions, as well as strategies and best practices for incorporating philanthropy into your financial and estate planning, ensuring that your legacy reflects your values and makes a lasting impact on the institutions you care about. Morris has valuable insights to share, and we are all sure to learn a lot.
Please use the link below to register for the webinar and send your questions.
About the Speaker
Morris Sabbagh is a partner in Vishnick McGovern Milizio ’s Tax Law, Wills, Trusts, and Estates , Trust and Estate Planning , and Elder Law practices.
He focuses on assisting families with the preservation of wealth and administration of estates and trusts and works with high-net-worth individuals to prevent the dissipation of assets to taxes, creditors, and long-term care expenses.
Mr. Sabbagh’s extensive experience includes planning for gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer taxes, business succession, marital issues, creditor and asset protection, and public benefits and elder law issues.
He assists clients with the implementation of complex estate planning strategies and with the creation and administration of charitable foundations and charitable planned giving vehicles. In addition, he assists executors and trustees in the probate process and the administration of estates, as well as gift, estate, and income tax audits before the Internal Revenue Service and the New York State Department of Taxation.
Mr. Sabbagh is a founding member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA), New York Chapter.
Ticket Info: Free; click here to register
Presented by:
lecture
panel discussion
Yiddish on the Move: Yiddish Writing and Publishing after the Holocaust - In-person Event and Live on Zoom
The destruction of Eastern European Yiddish-speaking Jewry and its established cultural centers during the Holocaust necessitated a complex reevaluation of the relationship between the perceived former periphery of Yiddish literary capitals, which included Lodz, Warsaw, and Vilnius, and the new, emerging Yiddish centers of Buenos Aires and Montreal. A particularly intriguing case is the literary production on the Soviet territory behind the Iron Curtain. These structural dynamics intricately link the multifaceted roles of writers, editors, translators, and, ultimately, publishers.
Join YIVO for a panel discussion featuring Rachelle Grossman, Matt Johnson, Harriet Murav, and Christin Zühlke, moderated by Erin McGlothlin, as they delve into the elaborate dynamics of Yiddish writing and publishing across transnational literary networks after the Holocaust. They will also discuss the intertwined topics of audience, translations, self-translations, and the profound impact of Holocaust memory and testimony.
This discussion grows out of a working group that is developing The Cambridge History of Holocaust Literature.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
About the Speakers
Rachelle Grossman is Assistant Professor in the Department of Comparative & World Literature at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is a scholar of Yiddish Studies specializing in print and material culture. In her research, she develops a geopolitical approach to literature, focusing especially on the transformation of literary centers and peripheries in the postwar period. She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Harvard University.
Matt Johnson is Associate Senior Lecturer in Yiddish at Lund University in Sweden. In 2022, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and subsequently taught at the Ohio State University. His research is broadly comparative, with a focus on Yiddish, German, and English-language literature and cultural history from the 18th century to the present. At Lund, his teaching focuses on the history of Yiddish literature and culture, as well as on topics with a comparative or theoretical focus.
Harriet Murav is Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Comparative and World Literatures at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She currently serves as editor of Slavic Review. She is the author of Music from a Speeding Train: Jewish Literature in Post-Revolution Russia and David Bergelson's Strange New World: Untimeliness and Futurity. With Gennady Estraikh, she co-edited Soviet Jews in World War II: Fighting, Witnessing, Remembering.
Christin Zühlke is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Holocaust Literature at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research focuses on Jewish experiences and responses to the Holocaust, with a specific emphasis on gender (masculinities) and religious aspects. She also examines Holocaust memory and representation. She co-edits the Cambridge History of Holocaust Literature, New Approaches to Teaching Holocaust Literature, the Elie Wiesel Research Series, and the 24-volume edition of Elie Wiesel Werke (Works of Elie Wiesel).
Erin McGlothlin is Professor of German and Jewish Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research interests include fictional and non-fictional works of Holocaust literature and film, as well as such topics as the generational discourse on the Holocaust, the narrative structure of Holocaust literature and film, perpetrator representation and perpetrator trauma, and ethical questions related to Holocaust representation. She is the author of Second-Generation Holocaust Literature: Legacies of Survival and Perpetration (2006) and The Mind of the Holocaust Perpetrator in Fiction and Nonfiction (2021).
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
panel discussion
commemoration
Remembering Fishl Kutner - Live on Zoom
Philip (Fishl) Kutner dedicated his life to Yiddish culture. He served as president of the International Association of Yiddish Clubs (IAYC), helping to coordinate Yiddish conferences throughout North America. Fishl also published Der Bay, an Anglo-Yiddish newsletter focusing on Yiddish culture that ran for 25 years. Der Bay had a readership across every US state and 35 countries around the world. Fishl passed away in February 2024, but he leaves behind a lasting impact in the Yiddish cultural world.
Commemorate the life and achievements of Yiddish culture advocate Fishl Kutner through this virtual two-and-a-half-hour tribute program complete with lectures, theater performances, Yiddish conversation, and resources for learning Yiddish.
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:
commemoration
curator's tour
Curator's Tour of Tapestries by Shoshana Comet: From Survival to Strength - In-person Event
Join Curator Ilana Burstein Benson for a guided tour of the exhibition. The five tapestries in this exhibition were created in the late 1960s by psychotherapist and Holocaust survivor, Shoshana Comet (1923 – 2011). Through the lens of these unique works and Shoshana’s story, we explore the themes of Holocaust history and trauma, psychological repair, and affirmation of life.
Ticket Info: Free admission but reservations are required. To attend, please email RSVP@yum.cjh.org and include the date of the tour you are registering for.
Presented by:
curator's tour
concert
Music in Our Time 2024 - A Bouquet of Jewish Choral Music - In-person Event
Join us for a bouquet of Jewish choral music performed by the acclaimed New York Virtuoso Singers, under the direction of its award-winning conductor Harold Rosenbaum. The program includes music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composers Yehudi Wyner, Aaron Jay Kernis, Shulamit Ran, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, as well as new and exciting Jewish music by Samuel Adler, Gerald Cohen, Alex Guerrero, Leon Hyman, Natasha Hirschhorn, Joel Mandelbaum, and 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: Admission: $18; YIVO, ASJM & LBI members: $12; Seniors & students: $9
Presented by:
concert
film and discussion
The Boy in the Woods – In-Person Event
Winner of multiple film festival awards, The Boy in the Woods follows the true story of Max (Jett Klyne), a Jewish boy escaping Nazi persecution in Eastern Europe. After he is separated from his family, Max finds refuge with a Christian peasant, Jasko (Richard Armitage), who hides him in plain sight until a tense stand-off with some Nazi police. Afraid for his own family's life, Jasko sends Max to live in the woods where he learns to survive alone. With echoes of a Grimm's Fairy Tale, Max's experience is both terrifying and magical. He inhabits a landscape crawling with Jew-hunters and partisans and haunted by ghosts. Then everything changes when he meets another boy in hiding, Yanek (David Kohlsmith). Their extraordinary adventure culminates in the heroic rescue of a baby girl, but it comes at a tragic price. Based on the best-selling memoir by Canadian Holocaust survivor Maxwell Smart and inspired by the award-winning documentary Cheating Hitler: Surviving the Holocaust.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with writer and director Rebecca Snow, lead actor Richard Armitage, and the survivor on whose memoir the film is based, Maxwell Smart. The discussion will be moderated by Annette Insdorf, host of Reel Pieces at the 92nd Street Y.
The film will be available on VOD and digital platforms in the US on September 24th. For pre-orders on Apple iTunes go to https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/the-boy-in-the-woods/umc.cmc.x6fjuyoh1n66tjv793g71p4w .
About the Speakers:
Richard Armitage recently wrapped production on the Netflix limited series DAMAGE, based on the 1991 novel about a British politician in the prime of his life, who causes his own downfall through an inappropriate relationship. He stars alongside Charlie Murphy, who plays Armitage’s daughter-in-law turned love interest in the series. Richard can currently be seen in the British crime limited series, STAY CLOSE, based on Harlan Corben’s novel of the same name for Netflix. The series debuted on December 31st and was the fifth most watched English language series on Netflix in the week following its release. Richard can previously be seen as the lead in Netflix’s series THE STRANGER based on Harlan Coben’s eponymous novel and in the third season of EPIX’s espionage drama, BERLIN STATION opposite Richard Jenkins and Rhys Ifans. Anonymous Content (MR. ROBOT) produced the show and Michael Roksam (BULLHEAD) directed it. He also appeared as the lead villain in Gary Ross’ OCEAN’S EIGHT alongside Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, and Mindy Kaling. Richard boasts a diverse resume in film, television, and the stage, gaining momentum on UK shows including ‘MI-5’ and ‘Robin Hood.’ He achieved international recognition with his performance in the 2011 box office smash ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ opposite Chris Evans and Hugo Weaving, before following it up with his iconic performance as ‘Thorin’ in Peter Jackson’s THE HOBBIT trilogy, which has grossed over $1 billion to date. Richard can be seen as the lead in PILGRIMAGE opposite Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal as well as BRAIN ON FIRE (directed by Gerard Barrett) opposite Chloe Grace Moretz.
Annette Insdorf is Professor of Film at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, and Moderator of the popular “Reel Pieces” series at Manhattan’s 92Y, where she has interviewed almost 300 film celebrities. She is author of the landmark study, Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust (with a foreword by Elie Wiesel); Double Lives,Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski; Francis Truffaut, a study of the French director’s work; Philip Kaufman, and Intimations: The Cinema of Wojciech Has. Her latest book is Cinematic Overtures: How to Read Opening Scenes, currently in its fourth printing.
Originally born OZIAC FROMM, Maxwell Smart was born in 1930 in the predominantly Jewish town of Buczacz, Poland (now Ukraine). He survived the Holocaust and eventually immigrated to Montreal, Canada in 1948. Besides his parents, Smart lost his only sibling, a younger sister, and 62 members of his extended family. In Montreal, he became a successful expressionist artist and businessman. He published his memoir Chaos to Canvas about surviving the holocaust with the Azrieli Foundation. After participating in the documentary CHEATING HITLER, he was approached by Harper Collins to write an expanded version of his experiences which was released as THE BOY IN THE WOODS in 2022. Maxwell optioned his memoir to Lumanity Productions and served as an executive producer on the feature film adaptation.
Born in London England, Rebecca Snow started her career at the BBC working on historical dramas and arts documentaries. Since then, she has worked in Los Angeles and Toronto with broadcast writing/directing credits that include NBC’s Emmy-nominated documentary series ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’, CBC’s ‘Nature of Thing’s, and History Channel’s ‘Hunting Nazi Treasure’, ‘Museum Secrets’ and ‘Real Vikings: Viking Women’ for which she won the Canadian Screen Award for directing. Her first feature-length documentary ‘Pandora’s Box: Lifting the Lid on Menstruation’ had its world premiere at Santa Barbara International Film Festival in 2020 and won the Alliance of Women Film Journalists Special Jury Award at Whistler Film Festival. ‘The Boy In The Woods’ is her first narrative feature and is based on the memoir of a Holocaust survivor who appeared in her feature-length documentary ‘Cheating Hitler: Surviving the Holocaust’. The documentary made world news and was nominated for 6 Canadian Screen Awards.
Ticket Info: $10 general; $8 seniors/students, $6 CJH members/Claims Conference employees register here
Presented by:
film and discussion
concert and lecture
Darius Milhaud’s Opera 'Esther de Carpentras' - In-person Event
Esther de Carpentras is an opera-bouffe in two acts composed by Darius Milhaud and based on a text by Armand Lunel. It premiered in 1938 at the Paris Opéra Comique, just two years prior to Milhaud’s escape to the United States. Both the music and libretto reference the literary and theatrical interpretations of the biblical Esther story and integrate the Jewish heritage of Milhaud and Lunel with that of the papal domains of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin (13th to 18th centuries) in southern France. Traditional readings of the Esther stories and the accompanying theatrical performances took place during the festival of Purim in the carrières (Jewish ghettos) of the cities of Avignon, Cavaillon, Carpentras, and L’isle-sur-Sorgue. In the synagogues, the biblical text was read in Hebrew, understood exclusively by the community’s men, while the literary, musical, and theatrical performances were staged in colloquial Judéo-Provençal, thus accessible also to the community’s women and children. Similar musical and theatrical performances existed in other Jewish (Ashkenazi and Sephardic) and Christian communities of Europe, a heritage that shaped both the composer’s and librettist’s vision.
This performance will feature excerpts from the opera, a video animation interpreting the work, as well as short lectures.
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:
concert and lecture
concert
Jewish Musicians in 18th-Century London with the Raritan Players - In-person Event
Eighteenth-century London was an especially cosmopolitan city and a relatively tolerant one, which led Jewish musicians from across Europe—from Sephardic, Ashkenazic, Italian, and Eastern descent—to move there. The Jewish community adopted musical customs of the greater London scene while maintaining their own musical traditions. By the second half of the century, Jewish musicians were performing in opera houses, public concerts, and at the English royal court alongside the leading Christian musicians of their day. While some managers and institutions were accommodating, Jewish musicians sometimes experienced clear anti-Jewish sentiment. By exploring the careers of Jewish figures such as the cellists Jacob and James Cervetto and the singer-composer Harriett Abrams, this concert by the Raritan Players sheds new light on the themes of exile, diaspora, belonging, and music as a site of self-expression among Jews in 18th-century London.
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:
concert
panel discussion
New Perspectives on European Jewish History - Live on Zoom
A Jew in the Street: New Perspectives on European Jewish History brings together original scholarship by 17 historians, drawing on the pioneering research of their teacher and colleague, Michael Stanislawski. These essays explore a mosaic of topics in the history of modern European Jewry from early modern times to the present, including the role of Jewish participants in the European revolutions of 1848, the dynamics of Zionist and non-Zionist views in the early 20th century, the origins of a magical charm against the evil eye, and more. Collectively, these works reject ideological and doctrinal clichés, demythologize the European Jewish past, and demonstrate that early modern and modern Jews responded creatively to modern forms of culture, religion, and the state from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Contributors to this volume pose new questions about the relationship between the particular and universal, antisemitism and modernization, religious and secular life, and the bonds and competition between cultures and languages, especially Yiddish, Hebrew, and modern European languages. These investigations illuminate the entangled experiences of Jews who sought to balance the pull of communal, religious, and linguistic traditions with the demands and allure of full participation in European life.
Join YIVO for a panel discussion about this new volume with editors Nancy Sinkoff, Jonathan Karp, James Loeffler, and Howard Lupovitch.
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
walking tour
Walking Tour: Brooklyn’s Sephardic Community (2 hours)
Sarina Roffé, professional genealogist and founder of the Sephardic Heritage Project, will lead an in-depth journey through the vibrant 100-year history of Brooklyn’s Syrian Jewish community. As a lifelong member of this famously insular community, Roffé will offer her unique insider’s perspective. Strolling through Gravesend, an iconic Brooklyn neighborhood that now houses Sephardic Jews hailing from Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, and Syria, we’ll visit synagogues and community centers, pass magnificent homes and modest grocery stores, and enjoy a snack on Ocean Parkway.
The tour will be held rain or shine. Note: Some tour stops are not wheelchair accessible. The meeting location and additional logistical information will be emailed to all registrants one week before the tour, and again the day before the tour.
Ticket Info: $38 general; $31 Center or Partner members. Register here. NOTE: Limited spots available. Tickets will sell out quickly!
Presented by:
walking tour
curator's tour
Curator's Tour of Tapestries by Shoshana Comet: From Survival to Strength - In-person Event
Join Curator Ilana Burstein Benson for a guided tour of the exhibition. The five tapestries in this exhibition were created in the late 1960s by psychotherapist and Holocaust survivor, Shoshana Comet (1923 – 2011). Through the lens of these unique works and Shoshana’s story, we explore the themes of Holocaust history and trauma, psychological repair, and affirmation of life.
Ticket Info: Free admission but reservations are required. To attend, please email RSVP@yum.cjh.org and include the date of the tour you are registering for.
Presented by:
curator's tour
lecture and concert
Nusakh Vilne Memorial - In-person Event and Live on Zoom
Join us in commemorating the Jewish community of Vilna through poetry, music, and presentation. This year, Bret Werb will discuss Shmerke Kaczerginski’s work collecting songs of the Holocaust. A mini concert featuring musical settings of Kaczerginski’s poetry performed by Temma Schaechter and Binyumen Schaechter will follow Werb’s presentation.
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 required
Presented by:
lecture and concert
workshop
Fabric Art Workshop for Adults (ages 14 and up) - In-person Event
Participants will view the exhibition, Tapestries by Shoshana Comet: From Survival to Strength and create a piece of fabric art inspired by a meaningful life event - transition, healing, joy, or hope.
Workshop will be led by fiber artist Heather Stoltz, whose quilted wall hangings and fabric sculptures are inspired by social justice issues and Hebrew texts.
Ticket Info: $12 per person
Presented by:
workshop
exhibit opening & panel discussion
Between Antisemitism and Activism: The Jewish University Experience in Historical Perspective – In-Person Event
7:00pm: Exhibition viewing
7:30pm: Panel discussion followed by reception
Given the continuation of campus protests against the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, CJH’s new exhibition Between Antisemitism and Activism could not be more timely.
Between Antisemitism and Activismexamines the turbulent experiences of Jewish students and faculty at European and American universities over the course of the past century. Through a series of thought-provoking historical vignettes, visitors will explore how Jews have been targets of antisemitic persecution as well as passionate leaders of activist movements.
From the harrowing experiences of Jewish scholars in Nazi Germany to the creation of Jewish student organizations in the United States, the exhibition offers visitors a historical perspective on the ongoing challenges facing Jewish students and faculty on college campuses. As college students return for the fall academic semester, the exhibition will provide essential historical context for understanding the complexities of Jewish life and activism at today's universities.
Ticket Info: Pay what you wish; register here
Presented by:
exhibit opening & panel discussion
curator's tour
Curator's Tour of Tapestries by Shoshana Comet: From Survival to Strength - In-person Event
Join Curator Ilana Burstein Benson for a guided tour of the exhibition. The five tapestries in this exhibition were created in the late 1960s by psychotherapist and Holocaust survivor, Shoshana Comet (1923 – 2011). Through the lens of these unique works and Shoshana’s story, we explore the themes of Holocaust history and trauma, psychological repair, and affirmation of life.
Ticket Info: Free admission but reservations are required. To attend, please email RSVP@yum.cjh.org and include the date of the tour you are registering for.
Presented by:
curator's tour
film and panel discussion
The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg – In-Person Event
Please join us for a remastered version of the acclaimed documentary on the 25th anniversary of the film’s release and the 90thanniversary of Hank Greenberg’s Yom Kippur stand.
The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg is a humorous and nostalgic documentary about an extraordinary baseball player who transcended religious prejudice to become an American icon. Detroit Tiger Hammerin’ Hank’s accomplishments during the Golden Age of Baseball rivaled those of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
This compelling documentary examines how America’s first Jewish baseball star was a beacon of hope to American Jews who faced bigotry during the Depression and World War II. Included in the colorful collage of 47 interviews are Hank Greenberg and family members; sports figures Ira Berkow, Ernie Harwell, Joe Falls and Dick Schaap; fellow players Bob Feller, Charlie Gehringer and Ralph Kiner; fans Alan Dershowitz, Congressman Sander Levin and Senator Carl Levin; and actors Walter Matthau, Michael Moriarty, and Maury Povich.
The screening will be followed by a conversation with director, producer, and writer Aviva Kempner, Pulitzer prize-winning sports columnist for The New York Times and editor of Hank Greenberg: The Story of My Life, Ira Berkow, and Hank Greenberg’s son, Stephen Greenberg.
About the Speakers:
Washington, DC based filmmaker Aviva Kempner makes award winning documentaries about underknown Jewish heroes for 44 years. Kempner just completed A Pocketful of Miracles: A Tale of Two Siblings (2023), which chronicles the heroism of the two Ciesla Foundation namesakes, Helen Ciesla Covensky and David Chase—siblings who survived the Holocaust separately and managed to reunite after the war. She co-directed, co-wrote and co-produced Imagining the Indians: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting (2022), adocumentary on the movement to remove Native American names, logos, and mascots from the world of sports. Her The Spy Behind Home Plate (2019)is about baseball player and OSS spy Moe Berg. Kempner launched the SEW: Sports Equality for Women website which strived to amplify the stories and voices of women in sports.
Kempner made Rosenwald (2015), a documentary about how philanthropist Julius Rosenwald partnered with Booker T. Washington in establishing over 5,000 schools with African Americans in the Jim Crow South. She also made Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (2009), about Gertrude Berg who created the first television sitcom. She also wrote and directed the short film Today I Vote for My Joey (2002), a tragic comedy about the 2000 Presidential Elections in Palm Beach County. Kempner directed the Peabody awarded The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (1999), about the Hall Famer slugger who faced anti-Semitism during the 30s. It is being rereleased this September for its 25th anniversary. She also produced the award-winning Partisans of Vilna (1986), about Jews fighting the Nazis, whose entire interviews are being digitized by the USC Shoah Foundation.
She is presently finishing a film on famous screenwriter and journalist Ben Hecht, who as an activist exposed the horrors of the Holocaust to the American public and advocated to bring more Jews to US shores. Kempner is also making Pissed Off, a documentary short exploring the struggles faced by female lawmakers in Congress who advocated for potty parity in the United States Capitol.
Ira Berkow earned his BA in English Literature at Miami University, and his MA from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University. He was a reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune, a syndicated features writer, sports and general columnist, and sports editor for the Newspaper Enterprise Association.
From 1981 to 2007 he was a sports reporter and columnist for The New York Times and has written for Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Art News, Seventeen, Chicago Magazine, The Chicago Tribune Magazine, National Strategic Forum Review, Reader's Digest, and Sports Illustrated, among others.
He shared the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his article "The Minority Quarterback" in The New York Times series “How Race Is Lived in America.” His work has been reprinted or cited over six decades in the annual anthologies Best Sports Stories and its successor Best American Sports Writing, and a column of his was included in Best American Sports Writing of the Century (1999). The novelist Scott Turow wrote, "Ira Berkow is one of the great American writers, without limitation to the field of sports." He was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, "For thoughtful commentary on the sports scene."
In 2006, he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. He holds an honorary doctorate degree from Roosevelt University (Chicago), 2009. Berkow is the author of 26 books including the Edgar Allan Poe Award nominated non-fiction The Man Who Robbed The Pierre: The Story of Bobby Comfort and the Biggest Hotel Robbery Ever.
Stephen Greenberg is the son of Hall-of-Famer Hank Greenberg. He currently serves as Managing Director at Allen & Company, where he focuses on the sports and media industries. Previously, Stephen served as Deputy Commissioner of Major League Baseball and, with his business partner Brian Bedol, co-founded Classic Sports Network (now known as ESPN Classic) and CSTV: College Sports Television (now known as CBS Sports Network). He is on the Board of Directors of the Jackie Robinson Foundation.
Ticket Info: $15 general; $13 senior/student; $12 CJH members; click here to purchase tickets
Presented by:
film and panel discussion
concert
Romantic Yearnings: The expressive piano trios of Brahms, Mendelssohn, and more – In-Person event and live on YouTube
Join Phoenix Chamber Ensemble pianists Vassa Shevel and Inessa Zaretsky with guest artists Anna Elashvili on violin and Joshua Halpern on cello.
Program:
Joseph Ahron: Stimmungen
Bela Bartok: Romanian Dances
Johannes Brahms: Trio in C Majo, Op.87
Gabriel Fauré: Élégie, Op.24
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Piano Trio in C minor, Op.66
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. Presented in partnership with the Leo Baeck Institute.
Ticket Info:
In person: $15 general; $13 senior/student; $12 member; click here for tickets
YouTube: Pay what you wish; click here for tickets
Presented by:
concert
curator's tour
Curator's Tour of Tapestries by Shoshana Comet: From Survival to Strength - In-person Event
Join Curator Ilana Burstein Benson for a guided tour of the exhibition. The five tapestries in this exhibition were created in the late 1960s by psychotherapist and Holocaust survivor, Shoshana Comet (1923 – 2011). Through the lens of these unique works and Shoshana’s story, we explore the themes of Holocaust history and trauma, psychological repair, and affirmation of life.
Ticket Info: Free admission but reservations are required. To attend, please email RSVP@yum.cjh.org and include the date of the tour you are registering for.
Presented by:
curator's tour
workshop
Fabric Art Workshop for Adults (ages 14 and up) - In-person Event
Participants will view the exhibition, Tapestries by Shoshana Comet: From Survival to Strength and create a piece of fabric art inspired by a meaningful life event - transition, healing, joy, or hope.
Workshop will be led by fiber artist Heather Stoltz, whose quilted wall hangings and fabric sculptures are inspired by social justice issues and Hebrew texts.
Ticket Info: $12 per person (or per family project)
Presented by:
workshop
book talk
Lessons from Henrietta Szold's Legacy: Author Francine Klagsburn in Conversation with Felicia Herman – In-person Event
Award-winning author Francine Klagsbrun discusses Henrietta Szold: Hadassah and the Zionist Dream, her new biography of Henrietta Szold, the founder of Hadassah and a Zionist trailblazer, with moderator Felicia Herman in celebration of this book receiving a Natan Notable Book Award from the Natan Fund in partnership with the Jewish Book Council.
Henrietta Szold (1860–1945) was a pioneer who challenged prevailing attitudes of immigrants, Jews, and women to create new educational, health, and Zionist institutions that still exist today. In this new biography, Klagsbrun details the incredible achievements of this extraordinary woman who understood not just the ideals but also the necessary actions—of her and of the world around her—to build a better world for Jews, Americans, and immigrants. The founder of Hadassah–the Women’s Zionist Organization of America–Szold was also a scholar, editor, and translator; an educator who started a night school for new immigrants in Baltimore that became a model for schools across the United States; the director of Youth Aliyah, which rescued thousands of Jews from Nazis; and an advocate for numerous public health initiatives in America and the Yishuv.
In a moment when it feels like the world is in so much turmoil, we are looking to Szold, who mobilized generations of American Jewish women to advocate for the future of America and Israel. We are honored to celebrate her legacy, Francine Klagsbrun’s compelling biography, and the legacy of American Jewish women who have been and continue to advocate for a better tomorrow.
Francine Klagsbrun is the author of numerous books, including the award-winning Lioness: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel. She has been a columnist for Jewish Week and Moment, is a contributing editor to Lilith, and is on the editorial board of Hadassah Magazine. Her writings have appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Newsweek, Ms.magazine, and other national publications.
Felicia Herman is Managing Director, North America, of Maimonides Fund and Associate Editor of SAPIR: Ideas for a Thriving Jewish Future. She joined Maimonides in 2021 after 16 years as Executive Director of Natan, a giving circle/grantmaking foundation focused on supporting Jewish and Israeli social innovation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she also served as Director of the Aligned Grant Program of the Jewish Community Response and Impact Fund. Felicia sits on the boards of the American Jewish Historical Society, DreamStreet Theatre Company, and Natan, as well as on the advisory boards of two initiatives launched by Natan: Shomer Collective and Amplifier, both of which she founded. She holds a Ph.D. in Jewish History and an M.A. in Jewish Women’s Studies from Brandeis University, and she is a proud recipient of the Jewish Funders Network’s JJ Greenberg Memorial Award.
This program is in partnership with the Natan Fund, the Jewish Book Council, and Hadassah: The Women’s Zionist Organization of America.
Ticket Info: Free with RSVP
Presented by:
book talk
book talk
Liberty Street: A Savannah Family, its Golden Boy, and the Civil War - Live on Zoom
Join us online for a discussion with author Jason K. Friedman and moderator Laura Arnold Leibman!
As Jason K. Friedman renovated his flat in a grand townhouse in his hometown of Savannah, Georgia, he discovered a portal to the past. The Cohens, part of a Sephardic community in London, arrived in South Carolina in the mid-1700s; became founding members of Charleston’s Jewish congregation; and went on to build home, community, and success in Savannah.
In Liberty Street: A Savannah Family, Its Golden Boy, and the Civil War Friedman takes the reader on a personal journey to understand the history of the Cohens. At the center of the story is a sensitive young man pulled between love and duty, a close-knit family straining under moral and political conflicts, and a city coming into its own. Friedman draws on letters, diaries, and his experiences traveling from Georgia to Virginia, uncovering hidden histories and exploring the ways place and collective memory haunt the present. At a moment when the hard light of truth shines on gauzy Lost-Cause myths, Liberty Street is a timely work of historical sleuthing.
Ticket Info: Free with RSVP
Presented by:
book talk
lecture
Two Revolutionary Jews: Leon Trotsky and Chaim Zhitlowsky - In-person Event and 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.
About the Speaker
Tony Michels teaches American Jewish history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also serves as director of the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies. He is author of A Fire in Their Hearts: Jewish Socialists in New York, editor of Jewish Radicals: A Documentary History, and co-editor of The Cambridge History of Judaism, Volume Eight: The Modern World, 1815-2000.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
lecture
curator's tour
Curator's Tour of Tapestries by Shoshana Comet: From Survival to Strength - In-person Event
Join Curator Ilana Burstein Benson for a guided tour of the exhibition. The five tapestries in this exhibition were created in the late 1960s by psychotherapist and Holocaust survivor, Shoshana Comet (1923 – 2011). Through the lens of these unique works and Shoshana’s story, we explore the themes of Holocaust history and trauma, psychological repair, and affirmation of life.
Ticket Info: Free admission but reservations are required. To attend, please email RSVP@yum.cjh.org and include the date of the tour you are registering for.
Presented by:
curator's tour
lecture
In Search of Greener Fields: Rurality, Nostalgia, and Ideology in Yiddish-American Folksong - Live on Zoom
This presentation by Zeke Levine considers themes of rurality in 20th century Yiddish-American folksong. On one hand, the "fiddler on the roof" image of Yiddish rurality served as a nostalgic salve for American Jews attempting to negotiate their place in post-WWII United States. On the other, contemporary rural Yiddish life, expressed through songs such as "Dzhankoye," carried a radical ideological valence, symbolizing a Soviet-aligned return to the land that broke from the Tsarist past.
Through the analysis of musical performances, liner notes, and concert programs, this lecture unpacks the multitude of meanings of rurality within Yiddish-American folksong, linking this musical tradition not only with Eastern European antecedents but also with the burgeoning American folk revival.
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 Yiddish Supernatural on Screen - Live on Zoom
As a linguistic carrier of a thousand years of European Jewish civilization, the Yiddish language is closely tied to immigrant pasts and sites of Holocaust memory. In The Yiddish Supernatural on Screen: Dybbuks, Demons and Haunted Jewish Pasts, Rebecca Margolis investigates how translated and subtitled Yiddish dialogue reimagines Jewish lore and tells new stories, where the supernatural looms over the narrative. The book traces the transformation of the figure of the dybbuk—a soul of the dead possessing the living—from folklore to 1930s Polish Yiddish cinema and on to global contemporary media. Margolis examines the association of spoken Yiddish with spectral elements adapted from Jewish legends within the horror genre. She explores how all-Yiddish prologues to comedy film and television depict magic located in an immigrant or pre-immigrant past that informs the present. Framing spoken Yiddish on screen as an ancestral language associated with trauma and dispossession, Margolis shows how it reconstructs haunted and mystical elements of the Jewish experience.
Join YIVO for a discussion with Margolis about her book, led by Olga Gershenson.
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
book talk
Jewish Folk Medicine in Eastern Europe - Live on Zoom
Jews have been active participants in shaping the healing practices of the communities of Eastern Europe. Their approach largely combined the ideas of traditional Ashkenazi culture with the heritage of medieval and early modern medicine. Holy rabbis and faith healers, as well as Jewish barbers, innkeepers, and peddlers, all dispensed cures, purveyed folk remedies for different ailments, and gave hope to the sick and their families based on kabbalah, numerology, prayer, and magical Hebrew formulas. Nevertheless, as new sources of knowledge penetrated the traditional world, modern medical ideas gained widespread support. Jews became court physicians to the nobility, and when the universities were opened up to them, many also qualified as doctors. At every stage, medicine proved an important field for cross-cultural contacts.
In A Frog Under the Tongue: Jewish Folk Medicine in Eastern Europe, Marek Tuszewicki studies manuscripts, printed publications, and memoirs to tease out therapeutic advice, recipes, magical incantations, kabbalistic methods, and practical techniques, together with the ethical considerations that such approaches entailed. His research fills a gap in the study of folk medicine in Eastern Europe, shedding light on little-known aspects of Ashkenazi culture, and on how the need to treat sickness brought Jews and their neighbors together.
Join YIVO for a discussion with Tuszewicki about this book, led by cultural critic and playwright Rokhl Kafrissen.
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
book talk
Soviet Born: The Afterlives of Migration in Jewish American Fiction – Live on Zoom
Join Soviet Born author Karolina Krasuska in discussion with moderator Josh Lambert.
In 2010, when The New Yorker published a list of twenty writers under the age of forty who were “key to their generation,” it included five Jewish-identified writers, two of whom—American Gary Shteyngart and Canadian David Bezmozgis—were Soviet-born. This publicity came after nearly a decade of English-language literary output by Soviet-born writers of all genders in North America. Soviet-Born: The Afterlives of Migration in Jewish American Fiction traces the impact of these now numerous authors—among others, David Bezmozgis, Boris Fishman, Keith Gessen, Sana Krasikov, Ellen Litman, Gary Shteyngart, Anya Ulinich, and Lara Vapnyar—on major coordinates of the Jewish American imaginary.
Entering an immigrant, Soviet-born standpoint creates an alternative and sometimes complementary pattern of how the Eastern and Central European past and present resonate with American Jewishness. The novels, short stories, and graphic novels considered here often stage strikingly fresh variations on key older themes, including cultural geography, the memory of World War II and the Holocaust, communism, gender and sexuality, genealogy, and finally, migration. Soviet-Born demonstrates how these diasporic writers, with their critical stance toward identity categories, open up the field of what is canonically Jewish American to broader contemporary debates.
Ticket Info: Free; register online for a Zoom link
Presented by:
book talk
film screening and discussion
Joseph Brodsky: Epitaph for a Centaur, Six Years Later - In-person Event
Join YIVO and Poetry in America for a panel discussion and screening of a short film examining the life of Joseph Brodsky, the celebrated Russian-Jewish American writer and Nobel Laureate.
Through analyses of two of Brodsky's evocative poems, “Epitaph for a Centaur” and “Six Years Later,” this 25-minute film encapsulates Brodsky's exploration of identity, belonging, and the passage of time. The film examines the paradoxical relationship between the U.S. and Russia during the Cold War, intricately portrayed through the symbolic figure of the centaur—a representation of Brodsky’s own multi-faceted existence as Russian, American, and Jewish. By delving into the intricate language of Brodsky’s poetry, this short film explores Brodsky’s Jewish identity, his legacy, and the political undertones of his writing.
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:
film screening and discussion
concert
Jewish Songs and Dances for Piano: Joel Engel's "A krants yidishe folksnigunim" (1924) - Live on YouTube
Join us for a performance of Joel Engel’s A krants yidishe folksnigunim (1924): a collection of Jewish folksongs, dances, Hasidic nigunim, and religious melodies in arrangements for piano and four hand piano. Engel’s earlier Jewish Folksongs volumes I, II, and II (featured by YIVO in November 2020 and June 2021) were the first published classical compositions to feature Yiddish folksongs. His use of Yiddish folk music in his compositions proved to be influential and inspired the Society for Jewish Folk Music and the composers affiliated with it to create a vast oeuvre of similar work.
This collection of 29 pieces will be performed by Ryan MacEvoy McCullough and Sahun Sam Hong.
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: Free; registration is required
Presented by:
concert
book talk
Representations of the Israeli Experience in Yiddish Prose, 1948–1967 - Live on Zoom
Israel's cultural space is frequently studied as if it were synonymous with the Hebrew-Israeli one. But within the borders of Israel, a fascinating culture was (and continues to be) created in many languages other than Hebrew.
I Am Your Dust: Representations of the Israeli Experience in Yiddish Prose, 1948–1967 expands the boundaries of current studies of Israel's cultural history by presenting and analyzing Yiddish-Israeli prose written during the country's first two decades as an independent state. It offers a comprehensive study of that unique, and hitherto little understood, literature, a detailed historical documentation of the contexts of its production, and an eye-opening comparison of its themes to the more familiar outputs of Hebrew-Israeli prose.
I Am Your Dust is the first socioliterary investigation of Yiddish-Israeli culture, and it explores how Yiddish-Israeli writers played a vital role in shaping the country's cultural identity in its early years.
Join YIVO for a discussion of the newly published translation of this book with author Gali Drucker Bar-Am, led by Barbara Mann.
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
'Tefilatah' (Her Prayer): The Female Experience Through the Eyes of Male Composers - In-person Event
This program offers a beautiful and culturally rich experience of how various male composers from different eras captured the female experience. It presents a rich tapestry of Jewish American and Israeli classical songs composed by male composers yet uniquely crafted from a female perspective and intended for the female voice.
Spanning various epochs and musical styles, the repertoire celebrates the profound tradition of Jewish music and literature, emphasizing the distinctive contributions of these composers. Each song serves as a narrative milestone within this genre, offering compelling stories that resonate deeply. The themes explored within the songs are diverse, ranging from the struggles of battered women to the yearnings for love, homeland, wealth, and stability—themes that often come with a high emotional cost.
Performed by soprano Ronit Widmann-Levy, this concert includes music by Kurt Weill, Menachem Wiesenberg, Daniel Akiva, Maurice Ravel, Sasha Argov, Oded Lerer, and Leonard 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: Free; registration is required
Presented by:
concert
conversation
At Lunch with Adam Nagourney – Live on Zoom
Julie Salamon (New York Times best-selling author) sits down with Adam Nagourney, national politics reporter for The New York Times. Since joining the newspaper in 1996, he has served as Los Angeles bureau chief, West Coast cultural affairs reporter, chief national political correspondent, and chief New York political reporter. Adam is the author of The Times: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism and co-author of Out for Good, a history of the modern gay rights movement. Adam is our first At Lunch returning guest and will be joining us to discuss the 2024 Presidential Election.
Ticket Info: Free; register online for a Zoom link
Presented by:
conversation
book talk
Yiddish Language During the Holocaust - Live on Zoom
The Holocaust radically altered the way many East European Jews spoke Yiddish. Finding prewar language incapable of describing the imprisonment, death, and dehumanization of the Holocaust, prisoners added or reinvented thousands of Yiddish words and phrases to describe their new reality. These crass, witty, and sometimes beautiful Yiddish words – Khurbn Yiddish, or “Yiddish of the Holocaust” – puzzled and intrigued the East European Jews who were experiencing the metamorphosis of their own tongue in real time. Sensing that Khurbn Yiddish words harbored profound truths about what Jews endured during the Holocaust, some Yiddish speakers threw themselves into compiling dictionaries and glossaries to document and analyze these new words. Others incorporated Khurbn Yiddish into their poetry and prose. In Occupied Words: What the Holocaust Did to Yiddish, Hannah Pollin-Galay uses cultural history, philology, and literary interpretation to explore Khurbn Yiddish as a form of Holocaust memory and as a testament to the sensation of speech under genocidal conditions.
Join YIVO for a discussion with Pollin-Galay about this new book, led by historian Samuel Kassow.
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
book talk
Opening Doors: The Unlikely Alliance Between the Irish and the Jews in America - In-person Event and Live on Zoom
The American Jewish Historical Society with the Glucksman Ireland House and the Kansas City Irish Center present, Opening Doors: The Unlikely Alliance Between the Irish and the Jews in America with author Hasia R. Diner in conversation with Terry Golway.
Popular belief holds that the various ethnic groups that emigrated to the United States at the turn of the twentieth century regarded one another with open hostility, fiercely competing for limited resources and even coming to blows in the crowded neighborhoods of major cities. One of the most enduring stereotypes is that of rabidly anti-Semitic Irish Catholics, like Father Charles Coughlin of Boston and the sensationalized Gangs of New York trope of Irish street thugs attacking defenseless Jewish immigrants.
In Opening Doors, Hasia R. Diner, one of the world’s preeminent historians of immigration, tells a very different story; far from confrontational, the prevailing relationships between Jewish and Irish Americans were overwhelmingly cooperative, and the two groups were dependent upon one another to secure stable and upwardly mobile lives in their new home. The Irish had emigrated to American cities en masse a generation before the first major wave of Jewish immigrants arrived, and had already entrenched themselves in positions of influence in urban governments, public education, and the labor movement. Jewish newcomers recognized the value of aligning themselves with another group of religious outsiders who were able to stand up and demand rights and respect despite widespread discrimination from the Protestant establishment, and the Irish realized that they could protect their political influence by mentoring their new neighbors in the intricacies of American life.
Opening Doors draws from a deep well of historical sources to show how Irish and Jewish Americans became steadfast allies in classrooms, picket lines, and political machines, and ultimately helped one another become key power players in shaping America’s future. In the wake of rising anti-Semitism and xenophobia today, this informative and accessible work offers an inspiring look at a time when two very different groups were able to find common ground and work together to overcome bigotry, gain representation, and move the country in a more inclusive direction.
Ticket Info:
In Person: General Admission $10, Students $5, Admission + Book $35
Online: Free with RSVP
Presented by:
book talk
film screening
Proof of Identity - In-person Event
What does it mean to be a Polish Jew today? How do Polish Jews define their own identity at different stages of life? How do they define their identity when they’re religious or atheist? Writer, reporter and photographer Mikolaj Grynberg seeks answers to these and many more questions in his directorial debut, Proof of Identity.
The interviewees of this poignant documentary represent a variety of Jews residing in Poland today. By interviewing the generation that has had no direct contact with the Holocaust survivors in their families, this film encourages viewers to ponder how Holocaust memory has evolved in Poland. The conversations reveal a vast array of attitudes and experiences, as the protagonists come from both big cities and the Polish province. The audience learns not only about each interviewee's family history, but also about their modern-day encounter with antisemitism in Poland.
Join YIVO for the US premiere of the POLIN Museum's new documentary, followed by a discussion with Grynberg.
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:
film screening
film screening
Burning Off the Page - In-person Event
This documentary about Russian-born American Yiddish poet and fiction writer Celia Dropkin (1887–1956) celebrates her unabashed writing about the female body and sexual liberation. Considered radical during her lifetime, Dropkin shocked readers around the world with sexually explicit depictions of lust. Her work defied gender norms and complicated traditional narratives and boundaries. Her poems invoked violent and erotic imagery as well as Christian iconography to describe passion, yearning, and death.
Burning Off the Page includes powerful dramatic readings, archival footage, historic recordings, and dazzling animations to bring Dropkin’s pioneering poems to life. Along with her descendants, filmmaker Eli Gorn interviews stars of the Jewish artistic world including writers, Yiddish translators, and musicians.
Join YIVO for the New York premiere of this documentary followed by a discussion with Gorn and poet Edward Hirsch.
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: $10; YIVO members & students: $8; registration is required
Presented by:
film screening
conversation
At Lunch with Shaina Taub – Live on Zoom
Julie Salamon (New York Times best-selling author) sits down with Tony and Obie Award-winning songwriter/performer Shina Taub. Shaina is Artist-in-Residence at the Public Theater, where Suffs first premiered before moving to Broadway. She created and performed in musical adaptations of Twelfth Night and As You Like It at Shakespeare in the Park with the Public Works community that have since been produced by London’s National Theatre, the Young Vic, and hundreds more theaters and schools worldwide. Taub has won a Jonathan Larson Grant, Kleban Prize, and Fred Ebb Award. She performed Off-Broadway in Hadestown, Great Comet (Lortel nom), Bill Irwin and David Shiner’s Old Hats, which featured her songs, and played Emma Goldman in the Ragtime on Ellis Island concert. She wrote the lyrics for The Devil Wears Prada, with music by Sir Elton John, opening in the West End this year. Her three solo albums include Songs of the Great Hill on Atlantic Records. Television songwriting: “Sesame Street,” “Central Park,” “Julie’s Greenroom” starring Julie Andrews, and the Emmy-nominated opening number for the 2018 Tony Awards, co-written with Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban. She co-chairs the NYCLU’s Artist Ambassadors and received the organization’s Michael Friedman Freedom Award for activism.
Ticket Info: Free; register online for a Zoom link
Presented by:
conversation
lecture
A Very Jewish Christmas: Jewish Sitcom Characters Navigate December - In-person Event and Live on Zoom
Gertrude Berg, the woman widely credited with creating the first sit-com (The Goldbergs) appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1959 to talk about children wanting a Christmas tree for Hanukkah. This navigation of "The December Dilemma" has been a challenge for many American Jewish families, and as such has been plumbed for comedic effect throughout the history of television comedy.
Join YIVO for a very Jewish Christmas celebration featuring a talk by Jennifer Caplan on Jewish television characters managing (or not) to make it through the holidays. A kosher Chinese food dinner will follow the presentation.
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
Zoom Livestream: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
lecture
concert
Hanukkah Concert 2024 - The Andy Statman Trio - In-person Event
Andy Statman is the virtuoso klezmer clarinetist that violinist Itzhak Perlman chose to lead his klezmer album, In the Fiddler's House. Statman’s virtuosity is “stunning.” He considers himself lucky, as he is “from the last generation that had a chance to learn from the greats.” He is a disciple of the legendary master klezmer clarinetist Dave Taris, “the most successful immigrant-era Yiddish musician." Tarras, who died in 1989, bequeathed his clarinets to Andy, his greatest protégé – and made him the next link in the chain. Hence, Statman became known primarily as one of the key klezmer revivalists of the '70s and early '80s, among the musicians who launched a great wave to reclaim the music of the Old World.
Much more than a one-genre performer, Statman thinks of his own compositions and performances as "spontaneous personal, prayerful Hasidic music, American-roots music and by way of avant-garde jazz." He is a modest man that takes for granted that a performer might embody several worlds in his art and seems humbled by the fact that his music, like his own story, is extraordinary.
Join the American Society for Jewish Music and YIVO for this year's Hanukkah concert featuring The Andy Statman Trio.
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; YIVO & ASJM members: $12; Seniors & students: $9
Presented by:
concert