Gennady Estraikh Appointed YIVO's First Albert B. Ratner Visiting Scholar

(NEW YORK, July 8, 2014) – The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Gennady Estraikh as the first Albert B. Ratner Visiting Scholar in East European Jewish Literature. Dr. Estraikh will be in residence for the fall semester 2014. The Albert B. Ratner Visiting Scholar in East European Jewish Literature is made possible with the generous support of the Seedlings Foundation.

Dr. Estraikh is an internationally recognized authority on Yiddish language and literature and Eastern European Jewish history. As the Albert B. Ratner Visiting Scholar, he will teach the course “Modernism in Yiddish Literature,” give public presentations on the American Jewish novelist Howard Fast and chair a symposium on Ukranian literary figure Taras Shevchenko. In addition, Estraikh will mentor YIVO fellows, conduct research and participate in the academic life of the YIVO Institute.

“We are thrilled that Professor Estraikh will come to teach at YIVO. As an eminent scholar, he brings wide and deep knowledge of Yiddish literature and language, East European Jewish history and the Soviet Jewish experience. As a gifted teacher and brilliant lecturer, Professor Estraikh will significantly enhance YIVO’s place in both scholarship and public education.”
—Jonathan Brent, YIVO Executive Director

Born in Ukraine, Dr. Estraikh received his doctorate from Oxford University in 1996. He worked at the Oxford Institute of Yiddish Studies and the London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies. He is currently the Clinical Associate Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and Rauch Associate Professor of Yiddish Studies at New York University.

Dr. Estraikh’s publications include Soviet Yiddish: Language Planning and Linguistic Development (1996); In Harness: Yiddish Writers’ Romance with Communism (2005); Yiddish in the Cold War (2008); and In Yiddish Literary Life in Moscow (in Russian, forthcoming). He is also the co-editor of Dovid Bergelson: From Modernism to Socialist Realism (2007); The Captive of the Dawn: The Life and Work of Peretz Markish (2011); Translating Sholem Aleichem: History, Politics and Art (2012); 1929: Mapping the Jewish World (2013, National Jewish Book Award); Uncovering the Hidden: The Works and Life of Der Nister (2014); and Soviet Jews in World War II: Fighting, Witnessing, Remembering (2014), among many other publications. He is presently on the editorial boards of several serials and periodicals, including East European Jewish Affairs, and writes a weekly column for the Yiddish Forverts.

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