“And now I have to read in Jewish something”: Yiddish Performances by Holocaust Survivors
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The Annual Naomi Prawer Kadar Memorial Lecture
5:30pm ReceptionSponsored by the Naomi Prawer Kadar Foundation, Inc. Admission: Free |
The USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive—the largest collection of videotaped interviews with Holocaust survivors—includes hundreds of interviews conducted entirely or partially in Yiddish. During dozens of these recordings, survivors sing songs or recite poems in Yiddish. Jeffrey Shandler (Rutgers University) presents excerpts of these performances and discusses why these survivors choose to demonstrate their creativity in Yiddish while recalling widespread destruction.
All clips shown in this lecture are © USC Shoah Foundation.
About the Speaker
Jeffrey Shandler is Professor of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. His books include While America Watches: Televising the Holocaust (Oxford University Press), Adventures in Yiddishland: Postvernacular Language and Culture (University of California Press), and Shtetl: A Vernacular Intellectual History (Rutgers University Press). Among other titles, Shandler is the editor of Awakening Lives: Autobiographies of Jewish Youth in Poland before the Holocaust (Yale University Press/YIVO Institute).
Naomi Prawer Kadar Foundation, Inc.
The Annual Naomi Prawer Kadar Memorial Lecture at the YIVO Institute provides an opportunity for the public to explore topics of Yiddish language and linguistics, the history of Yiddish, Yiddish children’s literature and education. The lecture is supported by the Naomi Prawer Kadar Foundation, Inc., which is dedicated to reimagining education. As an extension of Naomi Prawer Kadar's life’s work, the foundation's goal is to empower educators and promote leadership in education in order to inspire and nurture the next generation. Through entrepreneurial and established channels and together with their partners and grantees, the Naomi Foundation drives innovation to create meaningful and lasting impact. The Naomi Foundation champions Yiddish, Naomi’s lifelong passion, as a vibrant, rich, and contemporary language. The Naomi Foundation advances the teaching and learning of Yiddish, particularly in academic and scholarly settings.
