symposium
Translating Jewishness: Conversations on Culture and Civilization – In-Person Event
Translating Jewishness: Conversations on Culture and Civilization draws on the collection of the Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization to engage two key modes of Jewish expression: anthologies and translations. Throughout the centuries, Jews have gathered selections from the storehouse of Jewish culture and civilization into more widely accessible anthologies. In addition, for as long as Jews have lived dispersed across the globe, they have translated their sacred texts into their current vernaculars. As Jews settled in more places and began to speak more languages, the choice of what to translate and make more readily available for contemporary audiences became more complicated. Translation accompanied anthologizing. This symposium explores the dynamics of translating and dimensions of the Jewish anthological imagination.
The symposium is presented in partnership with the Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization. It is also supported by the American Jewish Historical Society, the Leo Baeck Institute, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. It is organized with support from the David Berg Foundation & NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. The symposium is the sixth installment in a larger series of public symposia sponsored by the Center for Jewish History’s Jewish Public History Forum.
Related exhibition opening:
At 12:00 pm, we will host the opening of Translating Jewishness: Culture and Civilization in the Posen Library. Between 1880 and 1918, around the globe, regimes collapsed, migration and imperialism remade the lives of millions, nationalism and secularization transformed selves and collectives, utopias beckoned, and new kinds of social conflict threatened. Few communities experienced the pressures and possibilities of the era more profoundly than the world’s Jews.
This exhibit focuses on the range of Jewish expression—from mystical visions to political thought, cookbooks to literary criticism, modernist poetry to vaudeville—in English translations in Volume 7 of the Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, edited by Israel Bartal and Kenneth B. Moss. It features examples from seven languages drawn from sources at the Center for Jewish History.
Jewish secularism and the resurgence of traditionalism, the remaking of Jews as a modern nation, cultural assimilation and integration, the triumphs of Zionism and its discontents—all have their roots in this era. This exhibit offers an engaging starting point for anyone wishing to understand the divided Jewish present.
Ticket Info: Pay what you wish; click below to register (all proceeds go to the Center for Jewish History)
Presented by:
symposium
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
lecture
Family History Today: How German Jews Got their Surnames – Live on Zoom
In most cases, European Jews took on surnames in the late 18th and early 19th centuries after it was mandated by central authorities like the Hapsburg Emperor, the Czar, or Napoleon. In Germany, which consisted of dozens of more-or-less independent states, and where some Jews had used surnames for centuries, the story is more complicated. In this talk, Roger Lustig, a professional genealogist specializing in Prussian Jewish records, will discuss the many different ways and reasons German Jews chose, or were required to choose, surnames. Mr. Lustig is also the project guru of JewishGen’s Germany Research Division and the project coordinator of JRI-Poland’s Prussian Poland Research Area.
Ticket Info: Pay what you wish; register here
Presented by:
lecture
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 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
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
lecture
Family History Today: Restoring Roots - A Practical Guide to Applying for Heritage Citizenship in the E.U. - Live on Zoom
Genealogist Caitlin Hollander-Waas will explore how second, third, and even fourth-generation descendants of European Jewish immigrants can reclaim citizenship within the European Union. Focusing on Poland, Germany, and Hungary, Caitlin will share practical insights and advice drawn from her personal and professional experience. Participants will learn how to locate and retrieve necessary documentation, avoid common pitfalls, and navigate the application process.
Ticket Info: Pay what you wish; register here
Presented by:
lecture
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
concert
Timeless Triad: A Night of Bach, Beethoven & Brahms, performed by Phoenix Chamber Ensemble – In-Person & Live on YouTube
Join Phoenix Chamber Ensemble pianists Vassa Shevel and Inessa Zaretsky with guest artists Anna Elashvili on violin and Joshua Halpernon cello.
Program:
Johann Sebastian Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 566, arranged for piano 4 hands
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Trio in G Major, Op.1, No.2
Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Sonata No.9, Op. 47 (Kreutzer)
Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dances No.1-5, Arranged by F. Hermann for Piano 4 hands, violin and cello
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: $10 general; $9 senior/student; $8 member; click here to register
YouTube: Pay what you wish; click here to register
Presented by:
concert
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
book talk
Hollywood's Unofficial Film Corps: American Jewish Moviemakers and the War Effort – In-person Event
Join the American Jewish Historical Society for a book talk on Hollywood’s Unofficial Film Corps: American Jewish Moviemakers and the War Effort with author Michael Berkowitz.
It has long been known that Hollywood was actively involved in shaping US public opinion during World War II. Less well documented are the ways in which Washington sought to work behind the scenes, subtly obliterating the boundaries between “studio” and “government” films. Michael Berkowitz studies the contributions of humorist and best-selling author Leo Rosten (The Joys of Yiddish, The Education of H*Y*M*A*N* K*A*P*L*A*N) and writer, producer, and screenwriter Budd Schulberg (On the Waterfront, A Face in the Crowd) in order to examine the elusive story of Jewish Hollywood’s role in World War II.
Hollywood’s Unofficial Film Corps shows that Rosten, Schulberg, and others—including Garson Kanin, George Cukor, Stanley Kramer, and Jules Buck—created movies that were both entertaining and politically expeditious for US war aims. At the same time, in an effort to unify the American public, they avoided focusing on the fate of European Jews, even while addressing racism and antisemitism in the United States. Jewish themes were often downplayed, and Jewish directors, writers, and other contributors frequently went uncredited. As Berkowitz writes, “Rosten’s cohort changed feature films forever.” Thanks to his research, we now have a better understanding of how and why.
Ticket Info: General Admission $10, Students $5
Presented by:
book talk
book talk
The Civil War Diary of Emma Mordecai – In-person Event and Live on YouTube
Join us in person and online for a book talk on The Civil War Diary of Emma Mordecai with co-author Melissa R. Klapper and moderator Zev Eleff. The Civil War Diary of Emma Mordecai was edited by Dianne Ashton z”l and Melissa R. Klapper and is available from NYU Press.
Emma Mordecai lived an unusual life. She was Jewish when Jews comprised less than 1 percent of the population of the Old South, and unmarried in a culture that offered women few options other than marriage. She was American born when most American Jews were immigrants. She affirmed and maintained her dedication to Jewish religious practice and Jewish faith while many family members embraced Christianity. Yet she also lived well within the social parameters established for Southern white women, espoused Southern values, and owned enslaved African Americans.
The Civil War Diary of Emma Mordecai is one of the few surviving Civil War diaries by a Jewish woman in the antebellum South. It charts her daily life and her evolving perspective on Confederate nationalism and Southern identity, Jewishness, women’s roles in wartime, gendered domestic roles in slave-owning households, and the centrality of family relationships. While never losing sight of the racist social and political structures that shaped Emma Mordecai’s world, the book chronicles her experiences with dislocation and the loss of her home.
Bringing to life the hospital visits, food shortages, local sociability, Jewish observances, sounds and sights of nearby battles, and the very personal ramifications of emancipation and its aftermath for her household and family, The Civil War Diary of Emma Mordecai offers a valuable and distinct look at a unique historical figure from the waning years of the Civil War South.
Ticket Info: General Admission $10, Students $5
Presented by:
book talk
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