YIVO Hosting Conference "Jews In and After the 1917 Russian Revolution"

When: Sunday and Monday, November 5th & 6th, 2017 | 9:00am-6:00pm

Where: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street • New York, NY 10011

Tickets are $20 for both days, Free for Members and Students
Reservations Available at: yivo.org/1917Conference or call (917) 606-8290
View the full conference program.

“The two defining moments of the last century were, arguably, the Holocaust and the Russian Revolution. The tragic role of Jews in the former is self-evident; their prominent – if also profoundly paradoxical – role in the latter is the subject of our path-breaking YIVO conference. The Russian Revolution liberated the largest Jewish community in the world. It also opened the floodgates for the greatest massacre of Jews before the Second World War amid the civil war and its aftermath in 1918-21. Once the Bolshevik rule was then consolidated, Jews entered into nearly every sphere of Russian life while, in time, much of the singular richness of Jewish cultural life in Russia was flattened, eventually obliterated.”

– Steven Zipperstein, Lead Academic Advisor

(New York, NY) –  The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research presents a two-day conference on Jews in and after the 1917 Russian Revolution. Professor Steven J. Zipperstein of Stanford is the lead academic advisor.

The first day of the conference opens with a keynote address from Professor Samuel Kassow, setting the social, economic, political, and cultural stage for the world in which the 1917 Revolution occurred. Panels that morning discuss this context further and explore the various immediate reactions to the Revolution during 1917. Panels that afternoon explore Jewish revolutionary leaders, as well as the Jewish community through the eyes of Russian writers.

The second day of the conference opens with a keynote address from Professor Elissa Bemporad discussing in broad strokes the world that emerged from the 1917 Revolution. Panels that morning discuss Jewish life in the Soviet Union, including Jewish involvement in the secret police, residual underground Jewish orthodoxy during the Soviet Union, and Jewish culture in the Soviet Union through talks on Literature and Music. A panel in the afternoon discusses the Revolution abroad through the lens of Jewish communism, Jews in espionage, Yiddish literature, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research’s own relationship to the Soviet Union.

A final keynote address from Professor Steven Zipperstein speaks on the lasting impact of the 1917 Revolution and some of the ways that it has shaped the Jewish world politically and culturally over the last hundred years. The conference then closes with a discussion panel on Jews in revolution. Led by Professor Zipperstein, the panel will include Mitchell Cohen, Sean McMeekin, and Deborah Lipstadt.

Co-sponsored by American Jewish Historical Society, Center for Jewish History, Fordham University, Genesis Philanthropy Group, Harriman Institute at Columbia University, The Pratt Foundation, and Russian American Foundation

Reception Sponsor: Mari Vanna

About YIVO

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide. For nearly a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression. Our public programs and exhibitions, as well as online and on-site courses, extend our outreach to a global community. The YIVO Archives contains 24 million unique items and YIVO’s Library has over 400,000 volumes—the single largest resource for the study of East European Jewish life in the world. yivo.org / yivo.org/the-whole-story