lecture
Systemic Yiddish Teaching in the Lodz Ghetto: Successes and Failures – Live on Zoom
The educational system in the Lodz Ghetto has already been described and analyzed more than once. Relevant chapters in canonical monographs have been devoted to this issue by Wolf Jasny, Yeshaya Trunk, and Yitzhak Rubin. In a series of exhaustive articles, Danuta Dabrowska wrote on this subject in the 1960s. Additionally, drawing both on the work of their illustrious predecessors and on new findings of their own, the functioning of this branch of the ghetto administration has been recounted by researchers of the younger generation such as Andrea Löw and Adam Sitarek. All of the above-mentioned publications considered the theme of the systematic teaching of Yiddish, which was implemented as a language of instruction in the ghetto in the autumn of 1940. However, the issue of Yiddish language instruction in the ghetto has not been discussed at any length anywhere and remains an important cultural. In this lecture, Monika Polit will consider the surviving documentation left by the Ghetto School Department and other texts produced by the administration of the Lodz Ghetto in order to elucidate the phenomenon of Yiddish as a language of instruction in the ghetto school system.
About the Speaker
Monika Polit is a professor and literary scholar who teaches Yiddish language and literature in the Department of Jewish History and Culture at the Faculty of History of the University of Warsaw. She is the author of numerous translations from Yiddish and studies of scholarly editions of sources. She has published, among others: Encyclopedia of the Ghetto. The Unfinished Project of the Lodz Ghetto Archivists (2014, compiled with Krystyna Radziszewska, Ewa Wiatr, Adam Sitarek, and Jacek Walicki); The Writings of Peretz Opoczynski (Ringelblum Archive, vol. 31, 2017); Jozef Zelkowicz, “The writer of these words is an employee of a ghetto institution...” From the Diary and Other Writings from the Lodz Ghetto (2019), The Ringelblum Archive: Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, vol. 7 (2022, compiled with Eleonora Bergman and Ewa Wiatr).
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required
Presented by:
lecture
symposium
The End of an Era? Jews and Elite Universities (Keynote Session 4) – In-Person Program and Live on Zoom
Join Bill Ackman, CEO, Pershing Square Capital Management; Ambassador Deborah E. Lipstadt, Emory University, and Leon Wieseltier, Editor, Liberties, for a discussion of the future of Jews and elite universities.
Please note: Tickets to this program include the three panels in “The End of an Era?” symposium from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.
Special thanks to Adam Bellow, Ben Kravitz, and Melanie Notkin for their help in planning this symposium.
Ticket Info:
In person: $54 general admission; click here to register
Zoom: Pay what you wish; click here to register
Presented by:
symposium
film screening and discussion
The Holocaust, 80 Years On – In-Person Program
In the year marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the death camps, renowned historian Sir Simon Schama confronts the history of the Holocaust as not just a Nazi obsession, but as a Europe-wide crime. Schama visits mass killing sites in Lithuania, the home of his mother's family. He travels to the Netherlands, a nation famed for its long history of tolerance and where he lived and worked as a young historian, to answer the question of why fewer Jews survived here than in any other Western occupied country. The film also captures the emotional toll of Schama's first-ever visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Join us for a screening of the documentary film and a discussion and Q&A with Simon Schama and Tina Brown.
Part of the Center’s film series Holocaust History on Film: Anne Frank and Beyond in connection with Anne Frank The Exhibition. Purchase your tickets to the exhibition here.
Thank you to Ancestry, the Center for Jewish History’s Family History sponsor
Simon Schama: The Holocaust, 80 Years On is part of The WNET Group’s Holocaust Days of Remembrance exploring antisemitism through the history and personal stories of the Holocaust. Thirteen.org/remembrance.
Ticket Info: Pay what you wish; register here
Presented by:
film screening and discussion
conversation
At Lunch with David Denby – Live on Zoom
Julie Salamon (New York Times bestselling author) sits down with writer David Denby to discuss his latest book, Eminent Jews: Bernstein, Brooks, Friedan, Mailer. David Denby is the New York Times bestselling author of Great Books. His other books include American Sucker and Lit Up. He was a film critic for New York magazine and The New Yorker, where he is now a staff writer. His essays have appeared in The New Republic and The Atlantic. He lives in New York City with his wife, novelist Susan Rieger.
Ticket Info: Free; register online for a Zoom link
Presented by:
conversation
book talk
The New Jewish School in Music (1908-1938) as Part of the Jewish Cultural Renaissance – Live on Zoom
The history of the “New Jewish School of Music” began when several music students from the St. Petersburg Conservatory founded the Society for Jewish Folk Music in St. Petersburg in 1908. The end of this movement came with the 1938 invasion of Austria by Germany and the dissolution of the Viennese Society for the Promotion of Jewish Music that same year. The fascinating and dramatic history of the New Jewish School is the subject of From St. Petersburg to Vienna: The New Jewish School in Music (1908-1938) As Part of the Jewish Cultural Renaissance by Jascha Nemtsov. While many other national "schools" of music—such as the Russian, Czech, and Hungarian—were able to develop freely and establish themselves in an environment of cultural transparency, the Jewish school was violently suppressed. From St. Petersburg to Vienna was first published in 2004 in German, focusing on the reconstruction of the Jewish school’s historical development in Russia and, after 1917, increasingly in other Eastern and Central European countries.
Join YIVO for a discussion with Nemtsov about this recently-revised and translated edition of the book, led by YIVO Director of Public Programs Alex Weiser.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required
Presented by:
book talk
lecture
Family History Today: Interpreting Your DNA Test Results for Ashkenazi Jews - Live on Zoom
Whether you've tested your DNA with the Center for Jewish History's AncestryDNA Reunion Project or taken a DNA test on your own, this program is here to help you sort through your DNA matches. Do you really have 150,000 new relatives? What is endogamy? How do you figure out who you're actually related to, when all you feel is overwhelmed? Come for the DNA science and stay for the tips and tricks that can help you make sense of it all. Presented by Jenny Rappaport, Head Genealogist at the Center for Jewish History.
About the Speaker
Jenny Rappaport is the Head Genealogist at the Center for Jewish History, where she helps patrons research their family history at the Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute.
Ticket Info: Pay what you wish with a minimum donation of $5 per ticket; register here
Presented by:
lecture
panel discussion
New Trends in YIVO Scholarship – Live on Zoom
Since 1925, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research has been a pioneer in the field of Jewish studies. At the core of YIVO since its founding was its commitment to scholarship which supported the Jewish “folk.” This manifested in a variety of initiatives, including youth autobiography contests and a youth research division (yugfor), an Economic-Statistical section (ekstat), and the establishment of various YIVO branches. These YIVO's activities continue to pique the interests of scholars, who have recently produced new scholarship analyzing these initiatives through the lens of new pioneering research methods.
Join YIVO for a panel discussion sharing new research on these historic YIVO initiatives featuring presentations by William Pimlott, Kamil Kijek, and Nicolas Vallois, followed by a conversation led by Jessica Kirzane.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Ticket Info: Free; registration is required.
Presented by:
panel discussion
