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Past Events

2016

Thursday
Dec 22
6:30pm

YIVO, Liberalism, and the Jewish Response to Fascism

Join us for a panel discussion with Paul Berman, Cecile Kuznitz, and Richard Wolin, moderated by Jonathan Brent, YIVO’s Executive Director, as we consider the diverse responses to the emergence of Fascism throughout the 20th century—and on into the present.

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Wednesday
Dec 21
7:00pm

Yuval Waldman 70th Birthday Concert Celebration

On the occasion of his 70th birthday, violinist and champion of Jewish music Yuval Waldman will play a recital-lecture of works by Jewish composers which he commissioned or gave the premiere performance of.

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Wednesday
Dec 14
7:00pm

Klezmer: Music, History & Memory

This talk and round table discussion with author Dr. Walter Zev Feldman and James Loeffler celebrates the recent publication of the first comprehensive study of both the musical structure and the social history of klezmer.

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Tuesday
Dec 13
3:00pm

The Yiddish Theater in America and Poland Between the Two World Wars

Alyssa Quint explores the fates of the two modern Yiddish theater museums that opened in 1926—the Yiddish Theater Museum in New York and the Esther Rokhl Kaminska Theater Museum in Warsaw.

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Thursday
Dec 8
7:00pm

Yiddish Open Mic

We want your talent in Yiddish! Join our celebrated hosts, entertainers Shane Baker and Miryem-Khaye Seigel, and special guests for a fun, intimate night of Yiddish performance.

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Monday
Dec 5
7:00pm

Have I Got a Story for You

In Have I Got a Story for You: More Than a Century of Fiction from the Forward, 42 Yiddish-language stories are translated for the first time. Ezra Glinter, Dara Horn, and the translators read from the stories, give us a taste of the Yiddish originals, and engage in a discussion of the work.

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Thursday
Dec 1
6:00pm

Lucky Jews? Contested Objects in Poland's Heritage Industries

Anthropologist Erica Lehrer discusses Polish-made figurines depicting Jews, a controversial phenomenon with diverse historical precedents and a new popularity today. Located at Fordham School of Law, Lincoln Center Campus.

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Tuesday
Nov 29
6:30pm

The Intellectual and Mystical Isaac Bashevis Singer

This talk explores Singer's philosophical and spiritual development through his unpublished essays, depicting a different image than is commonly recognized.

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Tuesday
Nov 22
6:30pm

Norman Manea Celebration

With the occasion of his 80th Anniversary, YIVO organizes a festive celebration of Norman Manea, holocaust survivor and one of the most important contemporary Jewish-Romanian-American writers.

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Thursday
Nov 17
7:00pm

The Ted Rosenthal Trio Presents: The Great Jewish American Songbook

The Great Jewish American Songbook program will offer Jazz interpretations of famous Jewish composers including George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern.

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Wednesday
Nov 16
6:30pm

Out of the Ghetto: Struggle, Resistance and the Human Spirit

Actively involved with the Ringelblum Archive Publication Project since 2004, Dr. Eleonora Bergman has been working to carry out the wishes and dreams of the creators of the secret Warsaw Ghetto Oyneg Shabes Archive – to make the Archive available to the public.

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Sunday
Nov 13
6:00pm

Celebration of the New Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary

Come celebrate the first English-Yiddish dictionary in nearly fifty years. Now you can say almost anything you want in Yiddish!

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Wednesday
Nov 2
7:00pm

Young Jewish American Composers

A concert featuring new classical works by young and emerging Jewish composers, featuring various combinations of piano, string quartet, and singer. A post-concert conversation with the composers will explore the question of how Jewish history and identity informs the creation of new works of art.  

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Thursday
Oct 27
3:00pm

Yiddish Writers Do the Holy Land: Yehoash, Tsivyon and Opatoshu's Travels to Palestine

Many Yiddish writers traveled to Palestine in the first half of the 20th century and published their impression in newspaper articles or books. The encounters of Yiddish writers with the Holy Land and the Zionist Yishuv opens the door to fascinating contemplations on the nature of modern Jewish identity.

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Thursday
Oct 20
7:00pm

Arguing With the Storm: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers

This meeting of the 16th Street Book Club’s Reading Women series will discuss Arguing With the Storm: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers edited by Rhea Tregebov.

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Class starts Oct 13 6:30pm-8:30pm

Masterpieces of Yiddish Literature in Translation

Join us for a survey of the greatest Yiddish literary works written in the late 19th and early 20th century, open to students of all levels.

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Sunday
Oct 9
9:30am

The Blood Libel Then and Now: The Enduring Impact of an Imaginary Event

The blood libel accusation of Jews committing ritual murder has been the basis for some of the most hateful examples of organized antisemitism around the world since its fabrication in the Middle Ages. This conference explores the impact of the blood libel over the centuries in a wide variety of geographic regions with a focus on how cultural memory was created, elaborated, and transmitted.

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Thursday
Sep 29
6:30pm

Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece

How did the Jews of Salonica, once known as the Jerusalem of the Balkans, fashion a new identity as Greek Jews after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire?

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Tuesday
Sep 20
12:00pm

Where the Jews Aren’t – A Book Talk with Masha Gessen

Where the Jews Aren't explores the previously untold story of Birobidzhan, the Soviet “Jewish Autonomous Region.” Author Masha Gessen will discuss this complex, strange, and heart-wrenching story, and read an excerpt from her new book.

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Thursday
Sep 8
7:00pm

Thirteen Ways of Looking at Sholem Aleichem: Notes from a Yiddish Writer's Biographer

Come hear Jeremy Dauber, author of the first comprehensive biography of Sholem Aleichem, talk about Aleichem's life, his work, and his legacy – and the struggle to encapsulate all of that between two hard covers.

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Sunday
Aug 28
1:00pm

Nusakh Vilne Memorial: Revelations from the Archives and the Significance of History

Join us in commemorating the Jewish community of Vilna through poetry, music, and presentation.

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Wednesday
Aug 3
7:00pm

Alicia Svigals & Lauren Brody: A Zumer Concert

Violinist/vocalist/composer Alicia Svigals and accordionist Lauren Brody will perform a program of Yiddish songs old and new and of euphoric klezmer fiddle music, in their first concert reunion since the days of their 1990's all-women band Mikveh.

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Wednesday
Jul 13
6:00pm

Translation in Pre-Zionist Jewish Literature

Some of the most creative pathways in Jewish writing include translations from German into Yiddish and Hebrew, from Hebrew into Yiddish, and from Yiddish into Hebrew and English. Ken Frieden shows the importance of translations, focusing on the Yiddish/Hebrew tales told by Nahman of Bratslav and the German/Yiddish/Hebrew sea narrative Oniya so`ara.

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Thursday
Jul 7
1:00pm

Women, the City, and the Yiddish Theater

Scholars, librarians, and archivists present on modern Yiddish theater and performance. Participants will assess the newest digital archival resources for research in the field and consider women's experiences.

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Monday
Jun 27
3:00pm

The Yingl Who Would be Pope: A Study in Jewish Cultural Plasticity

Miriam Udel considers the recurrent fantasia of a Jew who ascends to a status "more Catholic than the Pope." Dating back to the early modern period in Yiddish (and far earlier in Hebrew), the most persistent instantiation of this fantasy is the narrative of the Catholic pope of Jewish origin.

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Trip starts Jun 22

2016 Mission to Lithuania and Poland

YIVO and The Forward hosted an enlightening journey to Lithuania and Poland in June of 2016.

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Wednesday
Jun 8
7:00pm

The Last Days of Stalin

In his new book The Last Days of Stalin, Joshua Rubenstein presents a fresh, riveting account of the dictator’s final active months, the vigil at his deathbed, and the unfolding of Soviet and international events that followed.

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Mon/Tue Jun 6+7 6:00pm

The New Land Film Festival

Two evenings of documentaries depicting the era of the Russian cultural migration and the people who defined it. Presented in collaboration with Russian American Foundation.

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Sunday
May 22
3:00pm

A Tribute to Sholem Aleichem

In honor of Sholem Aleichem’s hundredth yortsayt, YIVO presents an afternoon of discussion and dramatic performances that will kick off an exhibition of the Sholem Aleichem Family Archive and other related materials from the YIVO Archives.

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Wednesday
May 18
7:00pm

John Zorn’s score for Filmworks XX: Sholem Aleichem

John Zorn and his ensemble will be featured in the first-ever live performance of music Zorn wrote to accompany the documentary film Sholem Aleichem, Laughing in the Darkness. Drawing on and departing from traditions of Jewish music such as Klezmer, Zorn’s score is filled with lyricism, color, and a keen sense of irony and dark humor.

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Monday
May 16
6:30pm

A Forgotten Genocide: The Pogroms in Ukraine, 1918-1919

In this discussion, scholars of Russian Jewry and genocide studies present new research rethinking the legacy of the pogroms of the Russian Civil War.

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Thursday
May 12
3:00pm

Survivors and Holocaust Memory in the United States

In this talk, David Slucki traces the development of Holocaust survivor organizations, through which survivors negotiated their understandings of who was a survivor, what was the Holocaust, and how it should be memorialized.

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Thursday
May 5
3:00pm

Figures Beauvoiresques in Exile: Rokhl Korn and Kadia Molodowsky

In this presentation, Chantal Ringuet delves into the North American careers and to the works of Yiddish poets Rokhl Korn and Kadia Molodowsky.

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Wednesday
May 4
6:30pm

“Persona Non Grata” Private Film Screening for the YIVO and CJH Community

“Persona Non Grata” is a Japanese film depicting the life of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara who saved the lives of 6,000 Jewish refugees during World War II by issuing transit visas for them to Japan.

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Tuesday
May 3
6:00pm

Moral, Political, and Historical Considerations in the Post-World War II Exhibit at POLIN

Stanislaw Krajewski discusses what is and what is not presented in the post WWII section of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw and why.

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Wednesday
Apr 27
6:30pm

A Musical Journey from Russia

In 1908, a group of young musicians—with the encouragement of their teacher, composer Rimsky-Korsakov—organized the Society for Jewish Folk Music to create a modern national style of Jewish concert music. This program highlights their music and follows their journey from Russia to Europe, Palestine, and the United States.

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Tuesday
Apr 19
3:00pm

Jacob Ben Ami and Post-Holocaust Yiddish Theater in Argentina

Buenos Aires was once famous for Yiddish theater – crowds would leave the shows past midnight and retire to the Bar Internacional to compare notes until four. In this talk, Amy Kerner suggests a framework for understanding how Yiddish theater traveled from Europe to Buenos Aires and what was new about it after WWII.

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Thursday
Apr 14
3:00pm

Jewish Relief Crossing Borders: Lithuanian Famine Case Study, 1860s-1870s

This lecture considers the extensive transnational relief networks forged by two border committees of the French Alliance Israélite Universelle: Isaac Rülf’s Memel Committee for Aid to Russian Jews and Isaac Bamberger’s Königsberg Committee.

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Class starts Apr 7 7:00pm-8:30pm

Songs of Semer: Yidishe Lider in Berlin, 1933-38

YIVO sound archivist Lorin Sklamberg provides a window into the Yiddish music recorded in Berlin in 1933-38.

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Thursday
Mar 31
7:00pm

Nosh with YIVO NextGen

The YIVO Institute is re-launching its NextGen program and we want you to be part of our maiden event. For one night only, The Gefilteria’s innovative co-founders, Liz Alpern and Jeffrey Yoskowitz are bringing the best-selling Vilna Vegetarian Cookbook back to life in an exclusive, all-vegetarian cooking demonstration and tasting.

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Monday
Mar 28
6:30pm

Watching the Moon at Night

This powerful and timely documentary inspired by the historian Walter Laqueur explores the causes and consequences of terrorism and anti-Semitism around the globe.

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Wednesday
Mar 23
3:00pm

Mixed-Sex Dancing in Yiddish Culture and the YIVO Archives

Drawing upon a variety of materials from the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and other Center for Jewish History partners, Sonia Gollance discusses the social and literary significance of the mixed-dance trope in Jewish literature and the documentary evidence for this controversial cultural practice.

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Wednesday
Mar 16
3:00pm

Yiddish Culture and Interwar Paris: The 1937 World's Fair & The Modern Jewish Culture Pavilion

Based on what is the first cultural history of the immigrant Jewish community in Paris, this talk will discuss the Modern Jewish Culture Pavilion at the 1937 World's Fair - a virtually unknown exhibition of global Yiddish culture.

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Monday
Mar 14
5:30pm

How To Tell The Story: Jewish Museums, Jewish History, Jewish Metahistory

A talk by Professor Moshe Rosman about how contemporary Jewish museums by interpreting history designed to convey a message. Located at Fordham School of Law, Lincoln Center Campus.

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Tuesday
Mar 8
7:00pm

Reclaiming the Cultural and Musical Heritage of the Karliner Hasidim

Prof. Yitzhak Y. Melamed provides an overview of the Karliner hasidic community’s search for its plundered and lost cultural and musical heritage, with music samples performed by violinist Jonathan Rothman.

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Monday
Feb 29
6:00pm

Professional Jokers: Exhibition Opening

This panel discussion on Jews and comedy features comedian Robert Klein, comedy writer Alan Zweibel, artist Drew Friedman, author Kliph Nesteroff, Jewish popular culture scholar Eddy Portnoy, and a special guest. Moderated by comedy writer Frank Santopadre.

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Class starts Feb 23 7:00pm-9:00pm

[WP2016] Life Writing in Modern Jewish Literature

Agnieszka Legutko’s course explores the borderlands between memoir, autobiography, and fiction in Jewish life writing through the lens of the East European experience.

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Wednesday
Feb 17
6:30pm

Marc Chagall: Reflections of a Granddaughter

In this program, Marc Chagall’s granddaughter Bella Meyer interweaves images of Chagall’s artwork and personal letters to reflect on his life, passion for Yiddish and dedication to perpetuating Jewish heritage and culture. 

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Class starts Feb 11 6:30pm-8:30pm

Yiddish Culture in Wartime, 1939-1945

Samuel Kassow, YIVO’s Jacob Kronhill Visiting Scholar in East European Jewish History, considers Jewish cultural resistance through literature during the Holocaust. 

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Class starts Feb 9 6:30pm-8:00pm

[WP2016] Lithuania's Jews and the Holocaust

Saulius Sužiedėlis examines the history of Lithuania‘s Jews in the 20th century, including the destruction of 90% of the region‘s Jews during the Holocaust.

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Class starts Feb 8 10:00am-1:00pm

[WP2016] "More Catholic than the Pope"

By way of Bashevis Singer, Yiddish young adult fiction, folklore, and more, Miriam Udel unravels the mystery of our fascination with the idea of the Jewish Pope.

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Class starts Jan 28 6:30pm-8:30pm

[WP2016] Heidegger and the Jews

Given Heidegger’s well-documented anti-Semitism, does he still deserve a place in the philosophical canon? Professor Richard Wolin complicates the debate by turning to Heidegger’s Jewish students.

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Class starts Jan 27 7:00pm-9:00pm

[WP2016] Jews, Communism, and Espionage

Harvey Klehr explores the factors that drew American Jews to the Communist Party in the 20th century, the atmosphere of suspicion that defined the McCarthy era, and what about the Party ultimately disillusioned many Jews.

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Sunday
Jan 10
2:00pm

Jewish Museums in the 21st Century

Join culture critics, scholars, and museum practitioners to discuss the state of Jewish mu­seums in both Europe and the U.S. and why they matter.

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Class starts Jan 6 6:30pm-8:30pm

[WP2016] Stalin's Doctors' Plot and the Fate of Soviet Jewry

YIVO’s own Jonathan Brent illumines Stalin’s final campaign against the Jews and subsequent death, examining evidence from the KGB and Stalin archives.

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Class starts Jan 5 1:30pm-4:00pm

[WP2016] European Nationalisms and the Writing of Jewish History

Magda Teter looks at the emergence of Jewish history as a discipline against the backdrop of nationalism and national identity in Europe.

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Monday
Jan 4
7:00pm

In Those Nightmarish Days: Ghetto Reportage and Holocaust Witnessing

Professor Samuel Kassow explains why reportage in the Warsaw and Lodz ghettos was so important.

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