The Virtual Archive: Imagining I.N. Steinberg’s Jewish Refuge in the Kimberley

Ruth Gay Seminar in Jewish Studies Inaugurated in 2008 thanks to a major gift from the family of Ruth Gay, the Ruth Gay Seminar in Jewish Studies was established in honor of Ruth Gay (1922-2006), the noted American Jewish historian and writer. This series is given by scholars who use the YIVO Archives and wish to share their research with the public. Admission: Free

This presentation reviews an exciting collaborative project that constructs a virtual world to image and imagine I. N. Steinberg’s plans for a Jewish refugee settlement in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. This virtual world takes shape by mobilizing thousands of digitized documents from the Steinberg collection at the YIVO archives in an innovative and informative way. I.N. Steinberg was the charismatic leader of the Freeland League who lived in Australia from 1939-1943 and who sought a refuge for the persecuted Jews of Europe against the backdrop of World War II and the Holocaust. The presentation will feature a Unity gaming demo that illustrates how the archival documents are used to texture the architectural models in the virtual world. This five-year digital art and humanities project is funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

About the Speakers

Melissa Shiff is Research Associate at the Sensorium Research Centre for Digital Art and Technology at York University in Toronto. She is a digital media artist whose current work utilizes virtual reality to engage with Jewish cultural memory. Melissa Shiff’s highly acclaimed projects have been exhibited internationally at such institutions as The Jewish Museum New York, The Jewish Museum in Prague, The Contemporary Jewish Museum San Francisco, and The Israeli Center for Digital Art. She is the artistic director of “The Imaginary Jewish Homelands of I.N. Steinberg.”

Louis Kaplan is Professor of History and Theory of Photography and New Media at the University of Toronto and he is affiliated faculty at its Centre for Jewish Studies. He is the author of numerous books including most recently Photography and Humour (Reaktion Books/University of Chicago Press, 2016). Professor Kaplan was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Jewish History during the 2013-2014 academic year. He serves as the chief historian and theorist on “The Imaginary Jewish Homelands of I.N. Steinberg.”