lecture
Life Under the Tsars: Registration, Residence, and Exit Routes
To help trace our families before their departure from the Russian Empire, genealogist Alan Shuchat will discuss the system of registration and residence permits under the Tsars, the different social estates, and the process of obtaining steamship tickets and travel from the shtetls to the ports.
Ticket Info: $5 at the door; free for JGS members
Presented by:
lecture
book talk
Sarah Schenirer and Bais Yaakov: A Revolution in the Name of Tradition
This program will explore the emergence of the Bais Yaakov schools in interwar Poland, when it grew from a one-room school in Sarah Schenirer's living quarters to a school system with over 200 schools, 36,000 students, and an international reach.
Ticket Info: Free; reservations required at yivo.org/Bais-Yaakov or 917-606-8290
Presented by:
book talk
film screening and discussion
RBG
Born in 1933, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg developed a lengthy legal legacy while becoming an unexpected pop culture icon. But her unique, personal journey to a seat on the nation’s highest court was largely unknown, even to some of her biggest fans – until now. The Oscar nominated film, RBG explores Ginsberg’s fascinating life and brilliant career – from the young legal scholar who was shunned by law firms because of her gender, to the masterful appellate litigator who successfully argued before the Supreme Court for women’s rights, to the U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
Join MALA and the Center for Jewish History for a special screening and panel discussion of this critically acclaimed, award-winning documentary. Following the film, RBG Director/Producer Julie Cohen and Associate Producer Nadine Natour discuss their own fascinating journeys chronicling the life and career of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
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 general; $7 senior; $5 CJH/MALA member at Eventbrite
About the Speakers:
Julie Cohen has directed and produced nine feature documentaries, including RBG (Magnolia, Participant, CNN Films), The Sturgeon Queens (7th Art Releasing/PBS); and American Veteran (Freestyle). She has won a duPont Columbia Award, two Gracie Awards, three New York Emmy Awards and the 2017 Panavision Showcase Award for best New York filmmaker. Before she started making documentaries, Julie was a staff producer for Dateline NBC and the creator and producer of Supreme Court Watch on Court TV. She holds a B.A. from Colgate and masters’ degrees from Columbia Journalism School and Yale Law School.
The associate producer of RBG, Nadine Natour has shot, field produced, and edited a feature-length doc, American Veteran (Freestyle Releasing; Winner of the G.I. Film Festival Founders Award and the Panavision Showcase Award), and co-edited The Sturgeon Queens (PBS: 2015 Berlinale Official Selection). She is a 2009 graduate of the University of Virginia and a 2012 graduate of the Columbia Journalism School and a 2012 – 2013 News Associate at NBC.
Paul M. Barrett (program moderator) joined the NYU Center for Business and Human Rights as deputy director in September 2017 after spending more than three decades as a journalist and author focusing on the intersection of business, law, and society. Most recently, Paul worked for 12 years for Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, and from 1986 to 2005, he wrote for The Wall Street Journal, serving as the newspaper’s Supreme Court correspondent and later as the page one special projects editor. He is the author of four critically acclaimed nonfiction books, the most recent of which are GLOCK: The Rise of America’s Gun (2012), a New York Times Bestseller, and Law of the Jungle: The $19 Billion Legal Battle Over Oil in the Rain Forest and the Lawyer Who’d Stop at Nothing to Win (2014). Both of those books have been optioned for Hollywood movies. An adjunct professor at New York University School of Law since 2008, Paul is married to RBG director Julie Cohen.
Presented by:
film screening and discussion
lecture
Bukharian Jews
At the Crossroads of Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Russian-Speaking Worlds: A Three-Part Learning and Cultural Series on the Greater Sephardic Communities of the Former Soviet Union
Back by popular demand, the American Sephardi Federation’s Young Sephardi Scholars Series is excited to once again host a 3-part learning and cultural series about the Russian-speaking Jewish (RSJ) communities of the Greater Sephardic world. The cultures and histories of Bukharian, Georgian, and Kavkazi (Mountain) Jews are situated at the fascinating, yet lesser known, intersection of RSJ, Sephardic and Mizrahi life. Led by Ruben Shimonov, this multimedia learning series will provide a unique opportunity to explore the multilayered and rich stories of the three communities.
Co-sponsored by JDC Entwine. This project was created as part of the COJECO BluePrint Fellowship, supported by COJECO and Genesis Philanthropy Group.
Light dinner reflecting the cuisine of Bukharian Jews will be served.
Ticket Info: $18 general; $36 for all 3 lectures at brownpapertickets.com/event/4064109 or 800-838-3006
Presented by:
lecture
curator's talk
Lost & Found – A Family Photo Album
Join curator Jacob Wisse on a tour of Lost & Found, exploring the remarkable story of a pre-war family photo album that was owned by a woman who was deported from the Kovno Ghetto in 1943. Prior to her deportation, she smuggled the album to a non-Jewish Lithuanian family for safekeeping. After the album’s fortuitous discovery in 2013, it was reunited with the original owner’s descendants.
Ticket Info: $10 general; $5 seniors, students; free for YUM members, YU students, faculty, staff; registration required at fcurator.brownpapertickets.com or 800-838-3006
Presented by:
curator's talk
book launch
Avrom Goldfaden and the Rise of the Modern Yiddish Theater
The Rise of the Modern Yiddish Theater examines its origins, from roughly 1876 to 1883, through the works of one of its best-known and most colorful figures, Avrom Goldfaden. Join us for the launch of this book with a discussion of this rich theatrical tradition as well as the broader social life that its study sheds light on.
Ticket Info: Free; reservations required at yivo.org/Avrom-Goldfaden or 917-606-8290
Presented by:
book launch
curator's tour
Kindertransport – Rescuing Children on the Brink of War
Join curator Ilona Moradof on a tour of Kindertransport – Rescuing Children on the Brink of War, illuminating the organized rescue efforts that brought thousands of children from Nazi Europe to Great Britain in the late 1930s. Explore the children’s difficult and often heartbreaking journeys through personal stories, artifacts and engaging media.
Ticket Info: $10 general; $5 seniors, students; free for YUM members, YU students, faculty, staff at ktcurator.brownpapertickets.com or 800-838-3006
Presented by:
curator's tour
book talk
First Person: Jason Stanley in Conversation with Peter Beinart
As a professor of philosophy at Yale, a scholar of propaganda, and the child of World War II Jewish Refugees, Jason Stanley understands how democratic societies can be vulnerable to fascism. Alarmed by the pervasive rise of fascist tactics both at home and around the globe, Stanley set out to analyze the language and beliefs that separate people into an “us” and a “them.” In his new book, How Fascism Works, The Politics of Us and Them, Stanley knits together reflections on history, philosophy, sociology, and critical race theory with stories from contemporary Hungary, Poland, India, Myanmar, and the United States, among other nations. In a fascinating First Person conversation, Stanley speaks with journalist Peter Beinart about the ten pillars of fascist politics, the recurring patterns he sees, and how his own family history influences his world view today.
A reception, book sale and signing follow the program.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Ticket Info: $15 general; $12 seniors; $10 CJH/Partner members at jasonstanley.bpt.me
About the Speakers:
Jason Stanley is the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. He is the author of five books, including How Propaganda Works (Princeton, 2015), winner of the 2016 Prose Award in Philosophy from the Association of American Publishers, and How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them (Random House, 2018), called by historian Jan T. Gross a “must-read for all of us who take seriously our responsibility as citizens.” Stanley serves on the board of the Prison Policy Initiative, and writes frequently about propaganda, free speech, mass incarceration, democracy, and authoritarianism for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Boston Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Project Syndicate. http://www.jason-stanley.com/; @jasonintrator.
Peter Beinart is Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. He is currently a Contributor to The Atlantic, a Senior Columnist at the Forward, a CNN Political Commentator and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. Beinart has appeared on numerous television programs including Meet the Press and The Colbert Report and has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The Boston Globe, and Newsweek among other periodicals . Named Columnist of the Year by The Week Magazine in 2005, he is also author of three books: The Good Fight (HarperCollins, 2006); The Icarus Syndrome (HarperCollins, 2010); and The Crisis of Zionism, (Times Books, 2012). Editor of The New Republic from 1999-2006, Beinart graduated from Yale University and was a Rhodes Scholar.
Presented by:
book talk
book talk
A Rosenberg by Any Other Name: A History of Jewish Name Changing in America
Join author Kirsten Fermaglich in conversation with Jennifer Mendelsohn (Resistance Genealogy) to celebrate the publication of A Rosenberg by Any Other Name. A groundbreaking history of the practice of Jewish name changing in the 20th century, this book showcases just how much is in a name.
Ticket Info: $10 general; $5 AJHS/CJH members, seniors, students at bpt.me/4051795 or 800-838-3006; $12 at the door
Presented by:
book talk
book talk
Translating the Bible: A Conversation with Robert Alter
Award-winning biblical translator and acclaimed literary critic Robert Alter is the author of more than two dozen books including, most recently, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary. A masterpiece of deep learning and fine sensibility, Robert Alter’s translation of the Hebrew Bible, now complete, reanimates one of the formative works of our culture. Capturing its brilliantly compact poetry and finely wrought, purposeful prose, Alter renews the Old Testament as a source of literary power and spiritual inspiration.
In his brief new book The Art of Bible Translation, Alter offers a personal and passionate account of what he learned about the art of Bible translation over the two decades he spent completing his own English version of the Hebrew Bible. Alter provides an illuminating and accessible introduction to biblical style that also offers insights about the art of translation far beyond the Bible. Adam Gopnik of The New Yorker called the book “hugely entertaining and irreverent.”
Alter will appear in conversation with Dr. Adriane Leveen, senior lecturer in Hebrew Bible at the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion. Dr. Leveen received her Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from the University of California at Berkeley under the supervision of Robert Alter. Dr. Leveen is a trained psychotherapist and practiced for 17 years in both Israel and the United States before getting her doctorate in biblical studies.
A reception, book sale, and signing will follow the program.
About the Speakers:
Robert Alter is professor of the Graduate School and emeritus professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of more than two dozen books, including The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (Norton). He is the recipient of the Robert Kirsch Award for Lifetime Contribution to American Letters, among other awards, and lives in Berkeley, California.
Adriane Leveen is Senior Lecturer in Hebrew Bible at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, having previously taught at Stanford University. Her books include Biblical Narratives of Israelites and their Neighbors: Strangers at the Gate (2017) and Memory and Tradition in the Book of Numbers (2008). She has contributed to edited collections including The Oxford Handbook to Biblical Narrative (2016) and Torah in the Book of Numbers (2013).
Presented by:
book talk
lecture
Carnegie Hall’s Migrations Festival Comes to YIVO: The Musical Legacy of Eastern European Jews
Mark Slobin, acclaimed scholar of East European and American Jewish music, will discuss Carnegie Hall’s April 15th musical program, From Shtetl to Stage. He will use images and recordings and cover a range of Yiddish theater songs, novelty numbers, concert music and songs of social movements.
Ticket Info: $15 general; $10 YIVO members, students at yivo.org/Migrations-Festival or 917-606-8290
Presented by:
lecture
lecture
From Macy's to the Titanic – The Straus Family Legacy
Department store historian Michael Lisicky discusses how the Straus family rose from German-Jewish peddlers to merchant princes and major philanthropists before Isidor Straus's untimely death on the RMS Titanic.
Pop-up exhibition of Titanic memorabilia from the collections of the Straus Historical Society open from 5 pm.
Ticket Info: $10 general; $5 LBI/CJH/Partner members at straus-historical-society.bpt.me or 800-838-3006
Presented by:
lecture
lecture
Georgian Jews
At the Crossroads of Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Russian-Speaking Worlds: A Three-Part Learning and Cultural Series on the Greater Sephardic Communities of the Former Soviet Union
Back by popular demand, the American Sephardi Federation’s Young Sephardi Scholars Series is excited to once again host a 3-part learning and cultural series about the Russian-speaking Jewish (RSJ) communities of the Greater Sephardic world. The cultures and histories of Bukharian, Georgian, and Kavkazi (Mountain) Jews are situated at the fascinating, yet lesser known, intersection of RSJ, Sephardic and Mizrahi life. Led by Ruben Shimonov, this multimedia learning series will provide a unique opportunity to explore the multilayered and rich stories of the three communities.
Co-sponsored by JDC Entwine. This project was created as part of the COJECO BluePrint Fellowship, supported by COJECO and Genesis Philanthropy Group.
Light dinner reflecting the cuisine of Georgian Jews will be served
Ticket Info: $18 general; $36 for all 3 lectures at brownpapertickets.com/event/4064109 or 800-838-3006
Presented by:
lecture
panel discussion
Iranian Jews Between Iran, Zion, and America
This talk with Leah Mirakhor (Yale University), Lior Sternfeld (Penn State University) and moderator Atina Grossman (Cooper Union) celebrates the new groundbreaking work of two social historians on Iranian Jewish life and community in the 20th century between immigrations and diasporas in Iran, Israel, and the U.S. The speakers will pay tribute to the work of HIAS in helping Jews immigrate and resettle in the U.S. in the years post the 1979 revolution in Iran.
Ticket Info: $10 general; $5 AJHS/ASF/CJH members, seniors, students at bpt.me/4051807 or 800-838-3006; $12 at the door
About the Speakers:
Leah Mirakhor is Lecturer in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration (ER&M) and the Program in American Studies at Yale University. Mirakhor’s writing has appeared in The Yale Review, The Los Angeles Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, African American Review, The James Baldwin Review, and Studies in American Jewish Literature. Mirakhor is the author of “After the Revolution to the War on Terror: Iranian Jewish American Literature in the United States,” which appeared in Studies in American Jewish Literature 35.1 (2016).
Lior Sternfeld is a social historian of the modern Middle East with particular interests in Jewish (and other minorities’) histories of the region. Sternfeld teaches at the Jewish Studies Program at Penn State University. Sternfeld’s new book, Between Iran and Zion: Jewish Histories of Twentieth Century Iran, examines the integration of the Jewish communities in Iran into the nation-building projects of the twentieth century. This book examines the development of the Iranian Jewish communities vis-à-vis ideologies and institutions such as Iranian nationalism, Zionism, and constitutionalism, among others.
Presented by:
panel discussion
film and discussion
From Swastika to Jim Crow
The recent uptick in antisemitic, anti-immigrant, and racist rhetoric have created a burst of new interest in the acclaimed documentary, From Swastika to Jim Crow. Based on the book by Gabrielle Simon Edgcomb, the film tells the little-known story of two very different cultures, sharing a common burden of oppression. In the 1930s, German universities were some of the first targets of Nazi activity. Jewish professors and intellectuals who were able to immigrate to the United States faced an uncertain future. Confronted with antisemitism at American universities and a public distrust of foreigners, a surprising number sought refuge in a most unlikely place – the traditionally black colleges in the then- segregated South. Securing teaching positions, these scholars came to form lasting relationships with their students, and went on to significantly impact the communities in which they lived and worked.
Nineteen years after the film was originally released, the filmmakers, Steven Fischler and Joel Sucher, feel its message –that more binds us together than separates us - must be heard. They passionately believe that as long as racism and inequality exist in our society, there will be a compelling need to bring From Swastika to Jim Crow to a wider audience. One-hour screening followed by Q&A with the filmmakers and historian Charles L. Chavis, Jr.
Center for Jewish History, American Jewish Historical Society and Leo Baeck Institute are grateful to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture for its support as a promotional partner for this program..
Ticket Info: $10 general;$7 seniors; $5 LBI/CJH/AJHS members at bpt.me/4100610 or 800-838-3006
About the Speakers:
Steven FischlerSteven Fischler and Joel Sucher founded Pacific Street Films in 1971, and they have produced and directed documentary films for venues as diverse as the United Nations, the BBC and commercial and public television in the United States. These include portraits of Hollywood artists like Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone and Jessica Lange, as well as investigations of police surveillance and misconduct. They are the recipients of numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in Film, Emmy Awards, Cine Golden Eagles, and the John Grierson Award for Social Documentaries. Both the Museum of Modern Art and the Harvard Film Archives have honored Pacific Street Films with career retrospective programs.
Steven Fischler was the director of the 2007 PBS-broadcast documentary, “Beyond Wiseguys: Italian Americans & The Movies” and the producer of “Dressing America: Tales From The Garment Center,” broadcast in 2014. Fischler wrote and directed the documentary, “Five Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History,” which had its broadcast premiere on Thirteen/WNET in March of 2017.
Joe SucherIn addition to his work with Pacific Street Films, Joel Sucher has written and blogged for a number of platforms including American Banker, In These Times, Huffington Post, Observer. com and medium.com/@joelsucher
Charles L. Chavis, Jr. is Assistant Professor of Conflict Analysis and Resolution and History and Director of the Program for History, Justice and Racial Reconciliation, at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. Before joining the S-CAR, he served as the Museum Coordinator for the Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Chavis’s work focuses on the history of racial violence and civil rights activism and Black and Jewish relations in the American South. His areas of specialization include Civil Rights oral history, historical consciousness, and racial violence and reconciliation. He has received numerous grants, awards and fellowships and is the author of the upcoming book, “‘Maryland, My Maryland’: The Lynching of Matthew Williams and the Politics of Racism in the Free State” and editor of For the Sake of Peace: Africana Perspectives on Racism, Justice, and Peace in America (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019).
Presented by:
film and discussion
lecture
Using FamilySearch.org for Jewish Research
An overview of effective methods for locating records of Jewish ancestors on FamilySearch.org, a leading website for free international genealogical records. Presented by W. Todd Knowles, FamilySearch’s Deputy Chief Genealogical Officer.
Tours of the Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute, a FamilySearch affiliate library, will begin at 12:30 pm.
Ticket Info: Free; no reservations required
Presented by:
lecture
book launch
A Jewish Refugee in New York
Join Anita Norich in conversation with Joseph Berger about Jewish refugees in America, female authors, Yiddish novels, translation and more to celebrate the launch of Professor Norich’s translation of Kadya Molodovsky’s novel.
Rivke Zilberg, a 20-year-old Jewish woman, arrives in New York shortly after the Nazi invasion of Poland, her home country. In this fictionalized journal originally published in Yiddish, author Kadya Molodovsky provides keen insight into the day-to-day activities of the large immigrant Jewish community of New York. By depicting one woman's struggles as a Jewish refugee in the US during WWII, Molodovsky points readers to the social, political, and cultural tensions of that time and place. A copy of the book is included with admission. A reception and book signing will follow the program.
A limited number of seats are available for this event; reservations are required.
This event is generously supported by the Covenant Foundation.
Ticket Info: Free; reservations required at booklaunch.bpt.me or 800-838-3006
About the Speakers:
Anita Norich is Collegiate Professor Emerita of English and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, and currently the National Endowment for the Humanities Senior Scholar at the Center for Jewish History. Her recent publications include Writing in Tongues: Yiddish Translation in the 20th Century and Discovering Exile: Yiddish and Jewish American Literature in America During the Holocaust.
Joseph Berger is a renowned journalist, author, and speaker. For many years he was a staff reporter of The New York Times. His books include Displaced Persons: Growing Up American After the Holocaust, and The World in a City: Traveling the Globe through the Neighborhoods of the New York.
Presented by:
book launch
lecture
WHAT"S IN A NAME? A case study of (Re)Discovering Jewish Identity on (and off) an Unlikely African Archipelago
From Poland to Brazil to New Mexico, individuals, families and communities around the world are discovering that they have Jewish ancestors who renounced and/or suppressed their religious identity. What happens when Christians today learn that some of their long-ago relatives were Jewish? The West African nation of Cabo Verde offers an especially compelling place from which to explore this intriguing process because of the unexpected convergence of Jews and Africans on a remote archipelago in the North Atlantic.
Professor Alma Gottlieb, an award-winning cultural anthropologist , will discuss her research with the Cabo Verdeans who are reconnecting with their Jewish heritage.
Ticket Info: $5 at the door; free for JGS and ASF members
Presented by:
lecture
conversation
First Person: Fred Guttenberg - A Dad’s Mission after Parkland
On February 14, 2018, Fred Guttenberg’s 14-year-old daughter Jaime was murdered at school by a gunman with a semiautomatic rifle. Jaime was one of 17 students killed that day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Grieving, Fred found himself unable to stand still. The day after the murder, he attended a vigil and while there was asked to speak. That was the start of a new public life for Fred. Channeling his anger into action, he is now devoting his life to advocating for public safety.
ASL interpretation will be provided at this event.
Ticket Info: $15 general; $12 seniors; $10 CJH/Partner members at bpt.me/4103496
About the Speaker:
A native of Long Island, Fred says his Jewish upbringing instilled him with a commitment to family, service, and standing up for others - values he imparted to his own children. Join Fred for a conversation about speaking out, fighting back, and challenging elected officials to do more.
Presented by:
conversation
lecture
Death Records for Genealogical Research
Speaker: Phyllis Kramer
Records generated when a person dies are a great resource for the family genealogist. This presentation will cover in depth each type of record beginning with the death certificate and continuing with cemeteries, landsmanshaftn, gravestones, Social Security records, medical records, undertakers, newspaper obituaries and probate.
Phyllis Kramer is a practicing genealogist with primary interest in Eastern European Jewish research. As Vice President of Education at JewishGen.org, Phyllis created the Education Program and teaches courses and maintains 15 Kehilalinks for her ancestral shtetls.
Ticket Info: $5 at the door; free for JGS members
Presented by:
lecture
