Beba Epstein: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Girl

Panel Discussion Admission: Free Watch the video

The YIVO Bruce and Francesca Cernia Slovin Online Museum's inaugural exhibition, Beba Epstein: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Girl, uses the true story of Beba Epstein, a girl born in Vilna in 1922 who survived the Holocaust, to explore East European Jewish life in the 20th century. The museum's innovative, interactive storytelling contextualizes over two hundred artifacts from the YIVO Archives.

Join us for a discussion celebrating this exhibition featuring Beba Epstein's son, Michael Leventhal, scholar Antony Polonsky, museum chief curator Karolina Ziulkoski, and YIVO's Executive Director and CEO Jonathan Brent. The discussion will be moderated by Gal Beckerman (The New York Times Book Review).

About the Participants

Gal Beckerman is a writer and editor at The New York Times Book Review. He has regularly contributed to many publications, including the New Republic and The Wall Street Journal. His first book, the award-winning When They Come for Us, We’ll Be Gone, was chosen as a book of the year by The Washington Post and the New Yorker.

Antony Polonsky is emeritus Professor of Holocaust Studies at Brandeis University and Chief Historian of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw. Until 1991, he was Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is chair of the editorial board of Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, author of Politics in Independent Poland (1972), The Little Dictators (1975), The Great Powers and the Polish Question (1976), co-author of A History of Modern Poland (1980) and The Beginnings of Communist Rule in Poland (1981) and co-editor of Contemporary Jewish writing in Poland: an anthology (2001) and The neighbors respond: the controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland (2004). His most recent work is The Jews in Poland and Russia volume 1, 1350 to 1881; volume 2, 1881 to 1914; volume 3, 1914 to 2008 (Oxford, 2010. 2012), published in 2013 in an abridged version The Jews in Poland and Russia. A Short History.

Michael Leventhal is a lawyer specializing in providing corporate, intellectual property and business transactional services for media/entertainment and technology companies, as well as general businesses. He has represented hundreds of startups and every type of client from individuals to Fortune 500 companies. Michael has been a partner in a large national firm, a co-owner of several boutique law firms and a business consultancy, a solo practitioner and a senior executive at a high flying technology company. Most recently, he served as chief legal office and vice president at Magic Leap, Inc., the well-known augmented/mixed reality venture. He is a frequent speaker and writer on XR, tech, and startups.

Jonathan Brent is the Executive Director of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City. From 1991 to 2009 he was Editorial Director and Associate Director of Yale Press. He is the founder of the world acclaimed Annals of Communism series, which he established at Yale Press in 1991. Brent is the co-author of Stalin’s Last Crime: The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors, 1948-1953 (Harper-Collins, 2003) and Inside the Stalin Archives (Atlas Books, 2008). He is now working on a biography of the Soviet-Jewish writer Isaac Babel. Brent teaches history and literature at Bard College.

Karolina Ziulkoski is a new media artist and designer. She holds a Master's degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU and bachelor's degrees in Architecture (UFRGS, summa cum laude) and Advertising (PUCRS, Outstanding Student Award). Ms. Ziulkoski is currently the Chief Curator of the YIVO Bruce and Francesca Cernia Slovin Online Museum. Before that, she developed interactive exhibitions for the American Museum of Natural History. She is a principal creator of Daemo, a Self Governed Crowdsourcing Marketplace, a project of the Stanford Crowd Research Collective, and served as an adjunct professor at Rutgers University Visual Arts-Design program. Ms. Ziulkoski is the recipient of numerous awards, including an Inovapps award from the Brazilian Ministry of Communications, a Communication Arts Interactive Award,  the 2017 Shortlist for the Fashion & Beauty Clio Awards, and recognition as a Professional Notable at the Core77 Awards. As a partner at Bolota she develops installations, apps and exhibitions with cultural purposes, including the Museum of Municipalities, currently under construction in Brasília, Brazil, where Ms. Ziulkoski is the creative director. She was a member and a mentor at NEW INC, the New Museum's incubator for art, technology, and design in New York City.