Past Events
2024
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[FALL2024] Advanced Topics in Yiddish Literature & Grammar: Autobiographical Writing in Yiddish
This twice-weekly class enhances listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Intensive Advanced II Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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Singing with Ghosts: Hauntology and Musical-Culinary Remembrance in Iraqi Jewish Biographical Songs
This program explores the secretive practices of biographical Arabic song-making among Iraqi Jews living in Israel. Liliana Carrizo considers how these musical-culinary remembrances relate to theories of ghosting and hauntology, and brings them into a conversation with the burgeoning field of gastromusicology.
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The Bashevis Singers
Join YIVO for the first US performance by The Bashevis Singers, a band with songs that span centuries of Yiddish and have brought to life classic 20th century folksongs and new compositions based on mystical poetry written by legends of Jewish culture.
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Ethnographers between Yiddish and Polish: a Study in Intellectual History
Karolina Szymaniak presents the roles Chaim Chajes and Daniel Fajnsztejn played in shaping modern ethnography, and what could have become a new field of study if not for the outbreak of World War II and the Holocaust. Delivered in Yiddish.
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Musical Pripetshik: Lyrics and Melodies of Traditional Yiddish Folksongs
Michael Lukin explores little-known Eastern Yiddish musical folklore, which was an integral part of Jewish culture and evolved in meaning and function over time. Delivered in English.
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Libes briv (18th C.): Isaac Wetzlar’s Call for Reform of Jewish Society and Education
Marion Aptroot explores Isaac Wetzlar's ideas for reforming Jewish education in Ashkenaz in the mid-18th century. Delivered in Yiddish.
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Testimonies in Responsa and What They Tell Us about the Development of Spoken Yiddish
Moshe Taube explores the syntax, morphology, and the lexicon of testimonies written in "Loshn Ashkenaz" (Yiddish and German) to learn about the the development of spoken and written Yiddish. Delivered in Yiddish.
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Desires by Celia Dropkin
Join YIVO for a discussion about Anita Norich’s new translation of Celia Dropkin's Desires, with Norich in conversation with Yiddish Book Center’s Director of Publishing and Public Programs, Lisa Newman.
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Instilling Yiddishkayt into Zionism
Dina Porat discusses WWII partisan, poet, and intellectual Abba Kovner's attempts to preserve East European Jewish culture by creating a new kind of community at Kibbutz Ein HaHoresh.
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2024 Study Tour of Imperial Cities in Central Europe
Come and see Vienna, Prague, and Budapest: cities of Habsburg glory and Jewish memory. This tour will visit beautiful synagogues, unrivaled museums, and landmarks of Jewish religious life and secular genius.
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Jewish Resistance during the Pogroms in Ukraine in 1918-1921
Elissa Bemporad explores the different forms of Jewish resistance to the wave of unprecedented violence that devastated the Jewish communities of Ukraine in 1918-1921. Delivered in Yiddish.
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Memories of Morris Katz
Join YIVO to celebrate the legacy of the prolific painter Morris Katz by sharing your Morris Katz story.
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Leo Rosten and the Translation of Yiddish Joy
Sunny Yudkoff examines the frequently mentioned but little read The Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten to explore Rosten's vision of Yiddish joy. Delivered in English.
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Homes of the Past
Jeffrey Shandler, in conversation with Deborah Dash Moore, explores the Museum of the Homes of the Past, an abandoned YIVO project that intended to document the European Jewish lives, places, and ways of living that were destroyed during the Holocaust.
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Runaway Husbands, Desperate Families: The Story of the National Desertion Bureau
Co-presented by YIVO and The Jewish Board, join us for the opening of this new exhibition which traces the history of the National Desertion Bureau and includes never before seen records, documents, and photographs from the organization’s voluminous archives.
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2024 Study Tour of Lithuania & Poland
Join YIVO for an enlightening journey to Lithuania and Poland. Examine the life that was lived as you reconnect with your own heritage. Discover the remarkable treasures of old Warsaw, Kraków, Vilnius, and Białowieża.
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Psychoanalysis and Jewish Languages
Naomi Seidman, in conversation with Ken Frieden, explores the academic interest in aiming to detect Jewish influences on Sigmund Freud, his own feelings about being Jewish, and suppressed traces of Jewishness in his thought.
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Celia Dropkin as a Translingual Writer
In this talk, Jakub Zygmunt will present a linguistic biography of Celia Dropkin, discuss selected translingual practices found in her work, and demonstrate what the translingual framework can tell us new about Dropkin’s work in particular and Yiddish literature in general.
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Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism
Spencer Sunshine discusses a new wave of aspiring neo-Nazi terrorists and the inspiration they draw from James Mason’s Siege, which praises terrorism, serial killers, and Charles Manson.
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Passing in Print: (Non)Jewish News in the Mainstream Press during the Holocaust
Nathan Lucky traces the strategic decisions made by key figures in the Jewish journalistic world during a time of crisis that fundamentally reshaped how news was categorized, gathered, circulated, and consumed.
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Gebirtig's Notebooks
Join Lorin Sklamberg for his first-ever concert of the ballads of the beloved legendary Yiddish bard of Krakow, Mordkhe Gebirtig, focusing on the lyrics contained in Gebiritg's hand-written notebooks housed in the YIVO Archives.
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Self-Government between the Shtetl and the Village: Rural Leaders and Jewish-Polish Relations in the Lublin Countryside before World War II
Considering an array of sources, including prewar memoirs, religious and secular self-government records, and court files, Miranda Brethour will describe how rural leadership was an important site of interaction between Jews and Christians in the Lublin countryside leading up to German occupation.
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The Instant Art of Morris Katz
Join YIVO to celebrate the launch of our newest exhibition, The Instant Art of Morris Katz, with a reception catered by The Challah Fairy and exhibit tours offered by YIVO Senior Academic Advisor & Director of Exhibitions, Eddy Portnoy.
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Jewish Songs and Dances for Piano: Jacob Weinberg’s "Ten Jewish Songs" (1933)
Join YIVO for a performance of Jacob Weinberg’s Ten Jewish Songs (1933), a collection of Jewish folksongs, holiday songs, dances, and Hasidic nigunim, performed by Thomas Kotcheff. Famous for writing the first Hebrew language opera, The Pioneers (Hechalutz), Weinberg was a prolific composer with many songs, choral works, chamber compositions, and oratorios to his name.
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Jewish Self-Defense in the Russian Empire 1903-1905
Netta Ehrlich explores the history of Jewish resistance to pogroms in the Russian Empire before and during the failed 1905 revolution.
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Yiddish and Hebrew Song in the Weimar Republic
Join YIVO for a concert exploring Yiddish and Hebrew songs of the Weimar Republic.
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Der oytser formen baym moler: Ryback's Formal Approach to Jewish Art
Noa Tsaushu analyzes the works of Jewish Ukrainian artist Issachar Ber Ryback (1897-1935).
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How to Do Research at YIVO: Reading a Finding Aid
This workshop, led by YIVO’s Reference and Outreach Archivist Ruby Landau-Pincus, will cover what information researchers can expect to discover in a finding aid and will provide an overview of a range of finding aid formats, from digital finding aids to legacy finding aids and other resources available for navigating collections in the YIVO Archives.
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Commemoration of the 81st Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising at Der Shteyn
The Congress for Jewish Culture, Friends of the Bund, the Jewish Labor Committee, Workers Circle, and YIVO join together to commemorate and remember the bravery of the partisans of the Warsaw Ghetto. This event takes place in Warsaw Ghetto Memorial Plaza in Riverside Park, NYC.
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Miryeml
Tea Arciszewska's Miryeml was heralded as a powerful memorial to the million children murdered in the Holocaust. This nearly-forgotten modernist masterpiece is now available in English translation for the first time.
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Opera and Democracy: Songs from Exile | Music by Geiger-Kullmann, Aron, Toch
This concert introduces two German-Jewish composers in American exile: Paul Aron and Rosy Geiger-Kullmann. Part of the series “Opera and Democracy: Listening to Exile.”
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Responses To October 7th
Historian Jeffrey Herf will lead a panel featuring scholars Meir Litvak, Norman Goda, Karin Stögner, and David Hirsh exploring responses to Hamas’ October 7th massacres and to the state of Israel’s subsequent military response.
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String Trio, Los Angeles 1946
Join us for a 150-year celebration of Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), one of the 20th century’s most important and influential composers.
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"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in Court: The Bern Trial (1933-1935) and the "Antisemitic International"
In this lecture, Michael Hagemeister uses the Bern trial as a case study of Jewish legal self-defense in order to shed light on both the widely disseminated antisemitic publication, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and the concerted efforts against the “Antisemitic International” in the 1930s, which have received little attention from historians.
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“Juden, Baptized and Unbaptized”: Jewishness and Ferdinand Hiller’s 'Israel’s Siegesgesang'
Amanda Ruppenthal-Stein examines performances of Ferdinand Hiller's Israel’s Siegesgesang, showing how Hiller clearly recognized his Jewish heritage and was acknowledged as a member of the broader Jewish community, regardless of his baptismal status.
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The Lodz Ghetto and the Kriminalpolizei: Jews, Neighbors, and Perpetrators in the Holocaust
In this talk, Winson Chu focuses on how police records in Poland and survivor sources at YIVO enable a better understanding of prewar connections with wartime perpetrators.
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Drew Friedman: Vermeer of the Borscht Belt
Join YIVO for a screening of a documentary about comics artist Drew Friedman's evolution from underground comics to the cover of The New Yorker, complete with interviews with his friends and colleagues.
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in a dark blue night
Join YIVO for the album launch concert of in a dark blue night, a new album by Pulitzer Prize nominated composer Alex Weiser, comprising two song cycles that explore Jewish immigrant New York City.
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Yiddish and Hebrew Little Magazines in the Weimar Republic
Barbara Mann explores the publishing history of Yiddish and Hebrew little magazines, their content, physical features, and readership.
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Colonialism, Racism, and the Arab Israeli War of 1948
Historians Benny Morris and Jeffrey Herf discuss the international politics surrounding Israel’s establishment, the causes and nature of the war of 1948, and the controversies of how this history is understood in contemporary discourse.
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Is Anything Okay? The History of Jews and Comedy in America
Celebrate the launch of our newest online course about Jewish comedy, which delves into the history of Jewish comedy and its development in the United States.
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An Original Klezmer Purimspiel
Join us in celebrating Purim this year with a dramatic and festive telling of the story of Esther, Mordechai, Haman, and King Ahasuerus, punctuated by thrilling performances of klezmer music.
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Reimagining the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Join YIVO for a discussion with Marwan Muasher, Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former Jordanian foreign minister and deputy prime minister, about Muasher's views on “the day after” in Gaza.
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Jewish Songs and Dances for Piano: Joel Engel’s “Five Piano Pieces” Op. 19 (1923)
Join YIVO for a performance of Joel Engel’s Five Piano Pieces (1923): a collection of Jewish folksongs, dances, and Hasidic nigunim in virtuosic piano arrangements, performed by pianist Thomas Kotcheff.
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[SPR2024] Intermediate II Yiddish (Friday)
This weekly standard class enhances listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Intermediate I Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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Wild Burning Rage and Song: Replies to Scottsboro
Join us for a concert-lecture exploring the Yiddish intelligentsia's response to the Scottsboro Trials, one of the most renowned miscarriages of justice in the history of American jurisprudence.
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Hasidism in Poland on the Eve of the Holocaust
Glenn Dynner examines the Hasidic revival in Poland on the eve of the Holocaust, disproving notions of late Hasidic decadence and decline and transforming our understanding of Polish Jewry during its final hour. A performance of Hasidic niggunim by Lorin Sklamberg will follow the presentation.
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[SPR2024] Advanced Readings in Yiddish Prose
In this class students will read, listen to, and discuss 20th century Yiddish short stories in a variety of forms and styles. It is appropriate for students at the higher intermediate and advanced levels.
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Jewish Reading Habits in the Russian Empire
In a discussion led by Eddy Portnoy, Nathan Cohen explores Jewish reading practices alongside the rise of Yiddish by delving into publishing policies of Yiddish books and newspapers, popular literary genres of the time, the development of Jewish public libraries, as well as personal reflections of reading experiences.
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[SPR2024] Beginner IV Yiddish (Thursday)
This weekly standard class develops listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Beginner III Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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Music, Gender, and Jewish Orthodoxy in North America
Join YIVO for a conversation with Jeremiah Lockwood and Jessica Roda in celebration of their new books that offer insights into the masculine and feminine art worlds of Hasidic and Litvish-Yeshivish Jews today. The program will conclude with performances from Cantor Yoel Kohn and actress Malky Goldman.
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[SPR2024] Continuing Conversational Yiddish for Heritage Learners
This weekly conversational class is for students who already have some experience speaking in Yiddish, can hold a basic conversation, and want to take their self-expression to the next level.
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[SPR2024] Continuing Conversational Yiddish for Heritage Learners
This weekly conversational class is for students who already have some experience speaking in Yiddish, can hold a basic conversation, and want to take their self-expression to the next level.
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[SPR2024] Beginner Conversational Yiddish for Heritage Learners
This weekly conversational class covers grammar, vocabulary, and conversational basics. It is for students with some basic familiarity with spoken Yiddish.
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[SPR2024] The Jewish Lower East Side
Through the prism of New York’s Lower East Side, Elissa Sampson examines the historical interactions seen in Jewish urban immigration, United States industrialization, and processes of social and geographical mobility.
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[SPR2024] Globetrotting Yiddish Writers: Exploring the Work of Perets Hirshbeyn and H.-D. Nomberg
Abraham Lichtenbaum explores the work of Yiddish writers Perets Hirshbeyn and H.-D. Nomberg, who sought to capture their era and a picture of life across the Americas and Israel in their writing.
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[SPR2024] Globetrotting Yiddish Writers: Exploring the Work of Perets Hirshbeyn and H.-D. Nomberg
Abraham Lichtenbaum explores the work of Yiddish writers Perets Hirshbeyn and H.-D. Nomberg, who sought to capture their era and a picture of life across the Americas and Israel in their writing.
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[SPR2024] Beginner III Yiddish (Monday)
This weekly standard class develops listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Beginner II Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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[SPR2024] Intensive Intermediate I&II Yiddish
This twice-weekly intensive class enhances listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Intensive Beginner III&IV Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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[SPR2024] New York Jewish Radicalism: Political and Artistic Experiments
M. Syd Rosen explores what it means to be a Jewish radical and whether Jewish culture radicalized New York — or if it was New York that radicalized Jewish culture.
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[SPR2024] 'Erets-Yisroel' as a Region of “Yiddishland”: Travels of Yiddish Writers to Palestine 1907-1937
Yaad Biran examines key Yiddish writers who visited Palestine to understand their ideological points of view, appreciate the literary aspects of their writings, and attempt to recreate their vision of “Yidishland.”
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[SPR2024] Psychics and the Occult in Modern Jewish Culture
Samuel Glauber examines Jewish engagement with modern occultism, with a focus on eastern European Jewry and its diaspora.
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Firebird
Alissa Valles, in conversation with Jonathan Brent, discusses her translations of rediscovered Polish writer Zuzanna Ginczanka’s sole published book and uncollected poems.
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East European Jewish Women in Their Quest for a Dowry in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
Aleksandra Jakubczak illuminates the link between the changing economy and Jewish courtship and marriage in Eastern Europe.
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[SPR2024] Beginner III Yiddish (In-person)
This weekly standard class develops listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Beginner II Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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[SPR2024] Beginner II Yiddish (In-person)
This weekly standard class develops listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Beginner I Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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[SPR2024] Advanced I Yiddish
This weekly standard class enhances listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Intermediate IV Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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Hamas and the Origins of Islamic Antisemitism
Historians Matthias Küntzel and Jeffrey Herf discuss the origins of Hamas, the history of Islamic antisemitism, and Islamic antisemitism's causal significance in the war of 1947-1948.
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[SPR2024] Intermediate IV Yiddish (Monday)
This weekly standard class enhances listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Intermediate III Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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[SPR2024] Intermediate III Yiddish
This weekly standard class enhances listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Intermediate II Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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[SPR2024] Intermediate I Yiddish (Sunday)
This weekly standard class enhances listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Beginner IV Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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[SPR2024] Intermediate IV Yiddish (Sunday)
This weekly standard class enhances listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Intermediate III Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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[SPR2024] Beginner II Yiddish (Sunday)
This weekly standard class develops listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Beginner I Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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2024 Summer Program Information Session - Advanced Levels
Are you thinking of returning to the Summer Program to continue your advanced studies? Join Summer Program faculty and staff for a brief information session about YIVO’s advanced levels.
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[SPR2024] Beginner I Yiddish (Sunday)
This weekly standard class covers the alef-beys and grammar, vocabulary, and conversational basics. It is for those who are new to the Yiddish language or would like a review.
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[SPR2024] Beginner IV Yiddish (Sunday)
This weekly standard class develops listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Beginner III Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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[SPR2024] Intermediate II Yiddish (Sunday)
This weekly standard class enhances listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Intermediate I Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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[SPR2024] Beginner I Yiddish (Thursday)
This weekly standard class covers the alef-beys and grammar, vocabulary, and conversational basics. It is for those who are new to the Yiddish language or would like a review.
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[SPR2024] Intensive Beginner I&II Yiddish
This twice-weekly intensive class covers the alef-beys and grammar, vocabulary, and conversational basics. It is for students who are new to the Yiddish language or would like a review.
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[SPR2024] Intensive Intermediate III&IV Yiddish
This twice-weekly intensive class enhances listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Intensive Intermediate I&II Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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[SPR2024] Intensive Advanced III&IV Yiddish
This twice-weekly intensive class further enhances listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Intensive Advanced I&II Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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[SPR2024] Intensive Beginner III&IV Yiddish
This twice-weekly intensive class enhances listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Intensive Beginner I&II Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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[SPR2024] Beginner I Yiddish (In-person)
This weekly standard class covers the alef-beys and grammar, vocabulary, and conversational basics. It is for those who are new to the Yiddish language or would like a review.
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[SPR2024] Beginner II Yiddish (Wednesday)
This weekly standard class develops listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Beginner I Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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The Reality of Myth for Yiddish Writers in Weimar Germany
Marc Caplan examines the historical significance and legendary allure of Weimar culture by considering three of its most significant Yiddish writers: Moyshe Kulbak, Dovid Bergelson, and Der Nister.
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[SPR2024] Intensive Advanced V&VI Yiddish
This twice-weekly intensive class further enhances listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Intensive Advanced III&IV Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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[SPR2024] Advanced Topics in Yiddish Literature & Grammar: Autobiographical Writing in Yiddish
This twice-weekly intensive class enhances listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Intensive Advanced V&VI Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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[SPR2024] Intermediate I Yiddish (Tuesday)
This weekly standard class enhances listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Beginner IV Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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[SPR2024] Beginner III Yiddish (Tuesday)
This weekly standard class develops listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Beginner II Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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[SPR2024] Intermediate I Yiddish (Monday)
This weekly standard class enhances listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for students who have completed Beginner IV Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
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A Scrolls-Based Reading of Jewish Text, Voice and Exile
Ilana Webster-Kogen will consider ethnographic material from across North African ritual, proposing a reading of exile that centers mystical and postcolonial thought, Jewish-Muslim intimacies, and the power of giving voice to text.
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[SPR2024] Beginner I Reading Yiddish
This weekly reading class covers grammar and how to read Yiddish texts with the help of a dictionary. It is for students new to Yiddish, especially those interested in obtaining reading proficiency for academic or archival research.
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Horizons Blossom, Borders Vanish: Anarchism and Yiddish Literature
Anna Elena Torres, in conversation with Amelia Glaser, discusses her newly published book examining Yiddish poetry to offer an original literary study of the Jewish anarchist movement.
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Community Read: "Ven ikh bin Roytshild"
Join YIVO and the International Association of Yiddish Clubs for a "community read" of Sholem Aleichem's “Ven ikh bin Roytshild,” led by Dr. Raphael (Refoyl) Finkel.
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2024 Summer Program Information Session
Have you always wanted to study Yiddish at YIVO’s Summer Program? Are you wondering what it would be like to take the program online or in person? Join faculty and staff of YIVO's Summer Program for a brief information session.
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2024 Summer Program Information Session
Have you always wanted to study Yiddish at YIVO’s Summer Program? Are you wondering what it would be like to take the program online or in person? Join faculty and staff of YIVO's Summer Program for a brief information session.
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What Do We Know? Exploring the Human Experience through Jewish Texts and Music
Join us for a concert centered on exploring the human experience through Jewish texts and music.
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Shotns/Shadows: A New Album from the Fortunoff Archive
Join YIVO for a performance of the Yale Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies' newest album, Shotns/Shadows, based on poems and songs from interviews with Holocaust survivors recorded by the Fortunoff Archive.
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2024 Summer Program Information Session
Have you always wanted to study Yiddish at YIVO’s Summer Program? Are you wondering what it would be like to take the program online or in person? Join faculty and staff of YIVO's Summer Program for a brief information session.
![](thumb/w/400//cimages/img_20231218125629.jpg)
“Thousands of Stories to Tell”: Broadway Musicals, New York City, and the Making of Jewish Americans
Incorporating showtunes, lesser-known songs, storytelling, and scholarship, this cabaret invites audience members to consider the historical narratives of musicals in addition to enjoying the pleasure they provide.
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[WY2024] Shmerke Kaczerginski: Partisan Poet and Collector of Holocaust Songs
Malena Chinski examines Shmerke Kaczerginski’s postwar life and work, from Vilna through Lodz and Paris to Buenos Aires, and his research and song collecting activities throughout this period.
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A Medium for the Masses: The Yiddish Press and the Shaping of American Jewish Culture
Look back on more than 150 years of the Yiddish press in the United States, examining its role as a vehicle of acculturation, a forum for political and ideological debates, and a seedbed for the growth of a mass culture among Jews worldwide.
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[WY2024] The Classicists as Intellectuals, Critics, and Ideologues of their Times
Abraham Lichtenbaum explores the modernizing project of classical Yiddish writers Mendel Moykher-Sforim, I.L. Peretz, and Sholem Aleichem.
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[WY2024] The New Yiddish Cinema: A Renaissance
Dr. Eric Goldman explores why Yiddish has resurfaced on the screen in Europe, North America, and Israel, what has drawn creative artists to making Yiddish-language work, and the themes that they have chosen for their works.
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[WP2024] Conquering the Space: Symbolic Topography of the Former Warsaw Ghetto
The former Warsaw Ghetto site is both a symbol and a place of history. Elżbieta Janicka outlines the history of the site, examines the narratives conveyed by its design, and considers how it relates to 21st century politics of Poland.
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[WP2024] Two Visions: Stalingrad and the Human World
Through readings of Vasily Grossman's Stalingrad and the diary of Yitskhok Rudashevski, Jonathan Brent explores two different visions of victory over the anti-human Nazi ideology and violence.
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[WP2024] American Hasidism
Using books, Hasidic websites, social media, newspapers, and pashkeviln (“broadsides”), Nathaniel Deutsch examines the history of Hasidism in America, dating back to the massive waves of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe.
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[WP2024] The Final Draft – A Creative Writing Workshop
Irena Klepfisz focuses on creating a final draft – the process of completing a poem and understanding when we should stop working on it.
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[WP2024] Yiddish Culture in the Ghettos and Camps
Samuel Kassow explores Jewish reactions to Nazi persecution in poetry, song, and writing from the Warsaw, Lodz, and Vilna ghettos.
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[WP2024] The Jews of Argentina
Ilan Stavans explores the history and culture of the Jews of Argentina, from the immigration to the agricultural colonies at the end of the 19th century, to the terrorist attack against the AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina), and beyond.
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[WP2024] Jews and American Radicalism in the 20th Century
Tony Michels explores the long history of Jews and the American left from the late 19th century through the era of the New Left and beyond.
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[WP2024] Jews in Pop and Rock Music
Jonathan Karp examines the extraordinary role Jews played in the development of American popular music, particularly the Rock ‘n’ Roll and classic Rock eras of the ‘50s and ‘60s.
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[WP2024] The Food Culture of Ashkenaz: On Two Sides of the Atlantic
Hasia Diner explores how foodways, including ingredients, dishes, and ideas about eating, functioned both before migration to the United States and afterwards.
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[WP2024] Masters of Yiddish Prose
Curt Leviant examines the works of seven major early 19th to mid-20th century Yiddish writers to illuminate the life and culture of Jews in Eastern Europe.
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Holocaust Distortion in Poland and Beyond
For the 2024 Winter Program Keynote Lecture, Jan Grabowski sheds light on the origins of the current political situation in Poland as well as its impact on Holocaust memory and Holocaust education in Poland, Europe, and beyond.
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[WY2024] “A Tale of a Bear with no Tail”: An Introduction to Children's Literature in Yiddish
Vicky Ash-Shifriss examines the world of Yiddish children's literature through the motif of bears and bear cubs.
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Challenging the Theater of Memory: Yiddish Song beyond Kitsch and Stereotype
Yiddish musicians and researchers Isabel Frey and Benjy Fox-Rosen present a thought-provoking concert-lecture on Holocaust memory and cultural expectations. Followed by a Q&A with the performers, moderated by Samantha Cooper and Gordon Dale.
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[WY2024] The Recipe: A Yiddish Literary Genre
Eve Jochnowitz follows the development of the Yiddish recipe in written form with special attention to the tastes and culinary practices of the Yiddish world.
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[WY2024] The Art of Yiddish Translation
Rose Waldman explores the task of a translator, how they make stylistic and connotative decisions, and the particular challenges of translating from Yiddish to English.