Inside an Archival Box: Yiddish Theater

This spring, the YIVO Learning and Media Center (YLMC) debuted a new entry in its ongoing series of Archival Box Lessons. Throughout the YLMC’s pilot phase and our first year of operation, the subject of the Yiddish theater has been a frequent topic for visiting school groups—whether for classes dedicated to theater, New York, or European history. To kickstart our new series dedicated to the Yiddish theater, we chose the namesake of our Theater Museum Collection, Esther-Rachel Kaminska, as our first subject. Using an excerpt from Kaminska’s memoirs, the YLMC has curated a lesson filled with reproductions from Record Group 8: Esther-Rachel Kaminska Theater Museum Collection. This lesson captures the exciting early days of the Yiddish theater using everything from photographs of the early Yiddish theatrical performances staged in the Polish countryside to fan letters addressed to Kaminska, delivering breathless praise to the “mother of the Yiddish theater.”

Here are a few documents featured in these new boxes:

Visitor Testimonials from Educators

I would like to thank you and your team for the fascinating visit to YIVO. Thank you for taking the time to host us and for providing such an inspiring glimpse into your remarkable collections and the extensive work being done at YIVO. The students were deeply impressed—not only by the richness of the archives and the institution's mission, but also by the dedication, professionalism, and passion of the staff members they met. The visit offered a meaningful perspective on the preservation and study of Jewish history and culture, and it left a lasting impression on our group. I am certain that many of our students will return in the coming years to conduct independent research and make use of the extraordinary resources that YIVO provides.

— CHAGIT HIRSCH (SHVARZMAN), Program Coordinator, Haifa University

Thank you so much for yet another wonderful visit. The students, as always, got so much out of it and had glowing things to say. This is even true of the students who visited previously with [my] Zionism course. The new presentation meant they were seeing a different side of the YIVO collection. Thank you so much for adapting each visit to the course so that this field trip could function both as an introduction to most of the students and as a meaningful step deeper for the handful who were there last semester or the semester before.

— BENJAMIN BERMAN-GLADSTONE, Fellow, Columbia University

We wanted to take a moment to thank you again for your superb presentation and workshop. The information you shared was so beautifully rich, and your immense expertise shone through. The students were engaged and invested in the material and no doubt came away from the lesson with much deeper knowledge about the lives of teenagers in Poland in the 1930s. We are so grateful for the time and care that you put into [our] visit. We hope to partner with you and YIVO again in the future.

— SAMANTHA FLEETER, English Teacher, The Dalton School

Are you interested in bringing a class to visit the YIVO Learning and Media Center? Contact Susannah Trubman to schedule your visit today!