AT THE TURNING POINT, YIVO’s 2021 Winter Program on Ashkenazi Civilization, to Take Place Online

(New York, NY) – AT THE TURNING POINT, the 2021 YIVO-Bard Winter Program on Ashkenazi Civilization, to be held online this winter (January 5-22, 2021), offers its most stellar lineup of presenters to date, bringing together public intellectuals from Yale Historian Timothy Snyder to former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Grigory Yavlinsky, along with scholars from leading institutions across the globe, from the Bodleian Library (University of Oxford) to the Met Cloisters. The deadline for registration is December 28, 2021.

Held annually in January since 2012, the YIVO-Bard Winter Program on Ashkenazi Civilization delves into Ashkenazi Jewish life and culture throughout its thousand-year history in Eastern Europe and in the diaspora. The program fills a major lacuna in Jewish intellectual life, presenting an opportunity to engage with the Jewish experience through history, culture, politics, and art, with courses not typically found outside of the university setting.

A keynote lecture entitled “Modern Russia and the Putin System” will be delivered by Grigory Yavlinsky at 1:00pm ET on January 4, 2020. This year’s Winter Program will feature “Tyranny and Freedom,” a lecture course taught by Timothy Snyder as well as courses taught by Barbara Drake Boehm (The Met Cloisters), Richard Ovenden (Bodleian Library), Miriam Udel (Emory University), Anna Bikont (Polish journalist and author), Jonathan Brent (YIVO), and more.

AT THE TURNING POINT explores moments of critical transformation throughout the 20th century and beyond. It will consider key inflection points in the realms of politics and culture. It will cover topics ranging from Stalin’s seizure of power and the growth of tyranny throughout the world, to Yiddish children’s literature, the work of acclaimed Argentine writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges, Ashkenazi heritage at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the deliberate destruction of books across millennia. For the first time conducted via Zoom, the 2021 Winter Program features small class sizes, allowing students to work closely with instructors from the comfort of home.

“Bringing the Winter Program online gives us the chance to connect our world-class faculty with students around the world,” said Ben Kaplan, YIVO’s Director of Education. “Given the uncertainties of the current moment, I’m delighted we will be able to come together this January as a virtual community.”

Learn more about the Winter Program and register at https://yivo.org/Winter-Program.

This year’s Winter Program joins YIVO’s growing and robust line-up of digital offerings, including our Shine Online Educational Series, which is now being offered for free. The Shine Online series includes a new course, A Seat at the Table: A Journey into Jewish Food, as well as courses that delve into the evolution of Yiddish theater, the rich history of Jewish life in Eastern Europe, Ashkenazi folklore and much more.

Also follow our regular digital public programs taking place via Zoom, Facebook, and YouTube, and explore our free online resources, such as the YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe and the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections.

For any media inquiries please contact:
Shelly Freeman
Chief of Staff

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