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Through our programs, YIVO makes discoveries and treasures from our collections accessible and fosters the creation of contemporary Jewish culture. Explore our upcoming events and join us at YIVO soon.
To do our part to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus, YIVO is temporarily closed until further notice. In place of our regularly scheduled in-person programs during this time we are offering live and pre-recorded programs online. Find out about our upcoming online programs below and be sure to follow us on Facebook, where we are hosting Live check-ins and mini-lectures throughout each week.
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Travel with YIVO this summer.
Join us on our exclusive study tours of Eastern Europe! Learn more »
Instilling Yiddishkayt into Zionism
Dina Porat discusses WWII partisan, poet, and intellectual Abba Kovner's attempts to preserve East European Jewish culture by creating a new kind of community at Kibbutz Ein HaHoresh.
Desires by Celia Dropkin
Join YIVO for a discussion about Anita Norich’s new translation of Celia Dropkin's Desires, with Norich in conversation with Yiddish Book Center’s Director of Publishing and Public Programs, Lisa Newman.
Testimonies in Responsa and What They Tell Us about the Development of Spoken Yiddish
Moshe Taube explores the syntax, morphology, and the lexicon of testimonies written in "Loshn Ashkenaz" (Yiddish and German) to learn about the the development of spoken and written Yiddish. Delivered in Yiddish.
Libes briv (18th C.): Isaac Wetzlar’s Call for Reform of Jewish Society and Education
Marion Aptroot explores Isaac Wetzlar's ideas for reforming Jewish education in Ashkenaz in the mid-18th century. Delivered in Yiddish.
Musical Pripetshik: Lyrics and Melodies of Traditional Yiddish Folksongs
Michael Lukin explores little-known Eastern Yiddish musical folklore, which was an integral part of Jewish culture and evolved in meaning and function over time. Delivered in English.
Ethnographers between Yiddish and Polish: a Study in Intellectual History
Karolina Szymaniak presents the roles Chaim Chajes and Daniel Fajnsztejn played in shaping modern ethnography, and what could have become a new field of study if not for the outbreak of World War II and the Holocaust. Delivered in Yiddish.
My Life as a Jew
Join YIVO for a discussion with Michael Gawenda about his new autobiography, My Life as a Jew, led by editor-in-chief of the New York Jewish Week Andrew Silow-Carroll.
After Orthodoxy: Cultural Creativity and the Break with Tradition
Join YIVO for the first conference and festival organized by and featuring formerly Orthodox Jewish scholars, activists, performers, and artists, as we explore the cultural achievements that emerged from this break with tradition.
2024 Study Tour of Northern Italy
Join YIVO on a fascinating journey of discovery across northern Italy from Torino, Genova via Firenze, Parma, Modena, Ferrara, Padua to Trieste and Venezia, discovering the fabled Jewish history, unfamiliar to most of us.
Yiddish on the Move: Yiddish Writing and Publishing after the Holocaust
Rachelle Grossman, Matt Johnson, Harriet Murav, and Christin Zühlke, in a panel discussion moderated by Erin McGlothlin, delve into the elaborate dynamics of Yiddish writing and publishing across transnational literary networks after the Holocaust.
Joseph Brodsky: Epitaph for a Centaur, Six Years Later
Join YIVO for a screening of a short film exploring the poet Joseph Brodsky’s Jewish identity, his legacy, and the political undertones of his writing.
Burning Off the Page
Join YIVO for the New York premiere of a documentary about Yiddish poet and fiction writer Celia Dropkin, followed by a discussion with filmmaker Eli Gorn and poet Edward Hirsch.