Search results

On June 16, 2013, Elissa Bemporad spoke at YIVO about her new book, Becoming Soviet Jews: The Bolshevik Experiment in Minsk (Indiana University Press), a case study of the Sovietization of Jews in the former Pale of Settlement. The book reveals the ways in which Jews acculturated to Soviet society in the 1920s and 1930s. But Jews also remained committed to older patterns of Jewish identity, such as Yiddish culture and education, attachment to the traditions of the Jewish workers’ Bund, and religious practices such as circumcision and kosher slaughter. In fact, most Jews attempted to walk the fine line between accepted Soviet behavior and social norms and expressions of Jewish particularity.

Elissa Bemporad holds the Jerry and William Ungar Chair in Eastern European Jewish history, and is assistant professor of History at Queens College, City University of New York. She was trained in Russian studies at the University of Bologna, and in Jewish studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. She received her PhD in history from Stanford University. Becoming Soviet Jews: The Bolshevik Experiment in Minsk has been awarded the Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary history as an outstanding work in twentieth-century history.

She was recently interviewed by Yedies editor Roberta Newman.

In this broadcast from October 11, 1964, head librarian Dina Abramowicz talks about some of the highlights in the collections of the YIVO Library. The program also includes a discussion about a lunch at YIVO given in honor of a conference at the Leo Baeck Institute. From 1963-1976, YIVO had its ...

On January 15, 2014, at 7 pm, Yiddish musicianBenjy Fox-Rosen will release Two Worlds/ Tsvey Veltn (Golden Horn Records),a new song cycle based on the poetry of master Yiddish and Polish writer Mordechai Gebirtig (1877-1942) at a concert at  YIVO, co-presented with the American Society for Jewish Music and the Center for Traditional Music and Dance.

He was recently interviewed by Leah Falk.

Attend the event.

פֿון איציק גאָטעסמאַן

At the Association of Jewish Studies meeting in Boston, December 2013, Yiddish was part of the research of other disciplines beside literature. Professors and students from the fields of anthropology, linguistics and history also spoke on the subject. Itzik Gottesman writes on the newest research in his second of a two part series.

אויף דער קאָנפֿערענץ פֿון דער „אַסאָציאַציע פֿון ייִדישע שטודיעס" אין באָסטאָן, דעצעמבער 2013, האָבן די פּראָפֿעסאָרן און גראַדויִר־סטודענטן פֿון פֿאַרשיידענע אַקאַדעמישע פֿעלדער, נישט בלויז פֿון ליטעראַטור־קריטיק, אַרויסגעוויזן אַן אינטערעס צו ייִדיש און צו דער ייִדישער קולטור-געשיכטע.

אויף איין סעסיע פֿון פּויליש־ייִדישע היסטאָריקער האָט יהושע קאַרליפּ (ישיבֿה־אוניווערסיטעט) גערעדט וועגן דער שטרעבונג פֿון י. ל. פּרץ צונויפֿצוברענגען די ייִדישע און פּוילישע נאַציאָנאַליסטן אינעם ערשטן יאָרצענדלינג פֿונעם 20סטן יאָרהונדערט. דאָס איז געווען אַ שווערע עובֿדה, ווײַל אַ סך פּוילישע אינטעלעקטואַלן האָבן נישט געהאַט קיין צוטרוי צום ייִדישן נאַציאָנאַליזם, האָט פּרץ אָנגעשריבן אַ סעריע עסייען אויף דער טעמע.

In this episode of YIVO’s radio program, Moses (Moyshe) Kligsberg talks about YIVO’s Conference on Jewish Participation in Movements Devoted to the Cause of Social Progress, which took place in Carnegie Hall on September 10-13, 1964. Maida Feingold sings “Zamd un Shtern” (Sand and Stars) and “Brukh Shulman,” two songs ...