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Video Oral Histories Highlight YIVO History and Yiddish Culture
Two of the over 300 Wexler Oral History videos recorded at the Yiddish Book Center over the past few years document the lives of people we have recently commemorated in Yedies. Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman (1920-2013) Chana Mlotek (1922-2013) Two interviews also explore the history of YIVO: Professor Cecile Kuznitz, author of a forthcoming book on ...
From the Pages of Yedies
by ROBERTA NEWMAN Six years into World War II, in September 1944, Yedies published excerpts from letters YIVO had recently received from young Jewish soldiers serving in Allied forces. The letters spoke about the destruction of Jewish communities in Europe, encountered as the American, British, and Russian armies penetrated further into ...
Rethinking Kishinev: How a Riot Changed 20th-Century Jewish History
Kishinev’s 1903 pogrom was the first event in Russian Jewish life to receive international attention. The riot, leaving 49 dead in an obscure border town, dominated the headlines of the western press for weeks, intruded on US-Russian relations, and had an impact on an astonishing array of institutions, such as ...
Max Weinreich on Jewish Participation in Movements for Social Progress
YIVO sometimes used its airtime on WEVD to broadcast recordings of its scholarly conferences. Here, Dr. Max Weinreich delivers the opening address at YIVO's Conference on Jewish Participation in Movements Devoted to the Cause of Social Progress, which took place in Carnegie Hall on September 10-13, 1964. From 1963-1976, YIVO had ...
From the Pages of Yedies
by ROBERTA NEWMAN In December 1935, Yedies reported on the initial activities of a new division at YIVO devoted to research on Jews and sports. The ambitious goals of the Sports Division were: The establishment of a central archive of materials on Jewish sports movements in Poland and elsewhere; The creation of a ...
Music Treasures of the American Yiddish Theater: Interview with Matt Temkin
On Sunday, December 15, 2013 at 3:00 pm, YIVO will celebrate the work of the most popular composers from the golden age of Yiddish American theater, otherwise known as the “big four of Second Avenue”: Abraham Ellstein, Alexander Olshanetsky, Sholom Secunda, and Joseph Rumshinsky. This concert features the composers’ hits ...
Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman: August 7, 1920 - November 28, 2013
YIVO mourns the loss of Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, who died last week at the age of 93. Beyle, one of the greatest contemporary writers of Yiddish song and poetry was an inspiration to younger generations interested in Yiddish culture. Her packed funeral on December 1 on the Upper West Side was ...
Jewish Literary Life in the Soviet Union: Interview with Gennady Estraikh
Gennady Estraikh Gennady Estraikh is an expert on Yiddish literary and intellectual history, particularly of the Soviet era. He teaches at New York University, where he is the Rauch Associate Professor of Yiddish Studies, in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. He received his doctorate from Oxford in 1996, ...
YIVO in the News/YIVO Staff Notes – November 2013
On November 15, YIVO Executive Director Jonathan Brent appeared on the Chicago podcast, The Milt Rosenberg Show, where he spoke about Yiddish and the renewal of Ashkenazic civilization. On December 2, Jonathan appeared on the Chicago public radio show, Worldview,to discuss his participation in the International Commission for the Evaluation ...
From the Pages of Yedies
by ROBERTA NEWMAN The YIVO Archives and Library contain many rare manuscripts and books. Some are from YIVO’s prewar collections, rescued from the Nazis by dedicated volunteers in Vilna (Wilno, Poland, present day Vilnius, Lithuania) or recovered with the help of the U.S. Army after the end of World War II. ...