Past Events

2021

Wednesday
Dec 22
7:00pm

A Very Jewish Christmas: Toledot Yeshu, A Jewish Anti-Gospel

While the “December Dilemma” is familiar to Jews today, it has its origins in antiquity when Jews first encountered Christian traditions and sought to distinguish their beliefs. One result was the ancient book, Toledot Yeshu, a satirical, anti-gospel. Join YIVO for a very Jewish Christmas celebration featuring a talk by Azzan Yadin-Israel on this fascinating book followed by an English-Yiddish bilingual reading of it by Shane Baker and Eleanor Reissa.

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Tuesday
Dec 14
1:00pm

Emotional Geography of Revenge: Polish Jews and the Search for Postwar Justice in the Polish Countryside

Katarzyna Person discusses how individual Jewish survivors in postwar Europe attempted to get both physical revenge and retribution, despite the very few opportunities available to them.

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Sunday
Dec 12
2:00pm

YIVO Yiddish Club: Yiddish and Hasidic Culture in Film, TV, and Theater Today with Lili Rosen

Yiddish enthusiasts the world over, join the YIVO Yiddish club to celebrate Mame-loshn. This session features actress, writer, and producer Lili Rosen for a discussion of Yiddish and Hasidic culture in film, TV, and theater today.

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Tuesday
Dec 7
11:00am

Jewish Identity in Lithuania Today

Join YIVO for a conversation about the resurgence of interest in Jewish identity in Lithuania, the historical and social realities of Jewish-Lithuanian relations, and the challenges of building a multi-cultural, democratic society in Lithuania today.

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Tuesday
Nov 30
1:00pm

In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918-1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust

Jeffrey Veidlinger and Steven Zipperstein discuss Veidlinger’s new book which draws upon long-neglected archival materials, including thousands of newly discovered witness testimonies, trial records, and official orders, showing for the first time how this wave of genocidal violence created the conditions for the Holocaust.

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Tuesday
Nov 23
3:00pm

“When I Grow Up” - A Graphic Novel Exploring Interwar Teenage Jewish Life

New Yorker cartoonist Ken Krimstein’s new graphic nonfiction book, When I Grow Up, shows readers the stories of six young men and women in illustrated narratives showcasing the humor, yearning, ambition, and angst of their teenage years. Their stories were among autobiographies of Eastern European Jewish teens collected by YIVO on the brink of WWII.

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Sunday
Nov 21
2:00pm

YIVO Yiddish Club: Yiddish Puppetry with Jenny Romaine

Yiddish enthusiasts the world over, join the YIVO Yiddish club to celebrate Mame-loshn. This session features director, designer and puppeteer Jenny Romaine, focusing on her work with Yiddish puppetry, in conversation with Eddy Portnoy.

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Wednesday
Nov 17
1:00pm

Nazism, Neo-Nazism and Music

This panel explores how German Nazis used music to help facilitate mass murder during the Holocaust, as well as how neo-Nazism became entangled with various music-based subcultural scenes and their connections with political organizations.

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Thursday
Nov 11
1:00pm

Man of the Futures: The Story of Leo Melamed

YIVO Board Member Leo Melamed, author of Man of the Futures, recounts his journey from Holocaust survivor to prominent leader in the world of finance, sharing behind-the-scenes reminiscences on the financial markets and his philanthropic work in the Jewish community.

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Wednesday
Nov 10
1:00pm

The Last Shtetl in Poland? The Jewish World, the Cold War and the Jewish Community of Dzierżoniów (1945-1950)

Using examples from archival, photographic other material from the YIVO and other archives, Kamil Kijek will show how a remarkable community of Polish Jews in formerly German Lower Silesia played an important role not only in Polish post-war history but also in Jewish global politics during the years 1945-1950.

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Tuesday
Nov 9
7:30pm

Kristallnacht and Its Aftermath: Remembering Terezín; A Tribute to the Artists who Perished in the Holocaust

Join us in commemoration of Kristallnacht for a tribute to artists who perished in the Holocaust.

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Tuesday
Nov 9
1:00pm

10 Yiddish Songs by Alexander Krein

Join us for a performance of Alexander Krein’s Ten Yiddish Songs Op. 49 (c. 1937). Performed by singer Lucy Fitz Gibbon with pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, these ten songs reimagine Yiddish folksong texts and melodies in rich and imaginative arrangements for piano and voice.

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Thursday
Nov 4
4:00pm

Are There New Ways of Reading the Bible in the 21st Century?

For two thousand years, Jews and Christians have been reading the Hebrew Bible. To uncover what's new in this ancient document, join the discussion with The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization Editor and Biblical Scholar Alison Joseph in conversation with Professor Deborah Dash Moore, Editor in Chief of The Posen Library.

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Friday
Oct 29
1:00pm

The Yiddish Historians and the Struggle for a Jewish History of the Holocaust

Mark Smith and Samuel Kassow discuss the largely overlooked yet significant set of scholars who studied the Holocaust from the perspective of its Jewish victims, rather than that of the Nazi perpetrators, examining daily life in the Ghettos and camps, and stressing the importance of survivor testimonies, eyewitness accounts, and memoirs.

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Thursday
Oct 21
4:00pm

Pogroms: A Documentary History

Pogroms: A Documentary History surveys the complex history of anti-Jewish violence by bringing together archival and published sources—many appearing for the first time in English translation.

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Tuesday
Oct 19
1:00pm

10 Hebrew Folk Songs and Folk Dances by Lazare Saminsky

Join us for a performance of Lazare Saminsky's Ten Hebrew Folk Songs and Folk Dances Op. 22 (c. 1924). This collection of ten works for solo piano, performed by pianist Thomas Kotcheff, features arrangements of Yiddish and Hebrew folk melodies, wordless nigunim, and instrumental dance melodies.

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Sunday
Oct 17
2:00pm

YIVO Yiddish Club: Yiddish Humor Today with YidLife Crisis

Yiddish enthusiasts the world over, join the YIVO Yiddish club to celebrate Mame-loshn. This session features co-stars of the Yiddish-language comedy web series YidLife Crisis, Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman.

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Tuesday
Oct 12
1:00pm

European Jews in the 21st Century

K., the European Jewish Review is a new magazine founded in March 2021 to document and analyze the current situation of the 1.3 million Jews living in Europe. Daniel Solomon, the English-language editor of K. will lead a discussion with members of K.’s editorial board, Stéphane Bou, Macha Fogel, and Danny Trom, on issues that loom over the Jewish future in Europe, including antisemitism, immigration, and integration.

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Class starts Oct 11 5:00pm-6:30pm

[FALL2021] Yiddish Literature Seminar: Reading Short Stories

This weekly seminar analyzes short stories by classic Yiddish writers and Americans. Conducted mainly in Yiddish, it is primarily for Giml and Daled Summer Program students.

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Class starts Oct 7 4:00pm-5:30pm

[FALL2021] Eastern European Jewish Women in an Age of Transition, 1870-1939 (Thursday)

This weekly seminar explores the social and cultural history of Eastern European Jewry from the perspective of women and through the lens of gender. It is open to curious minds and scholars alike.

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Thursday
Oct 7
1:00pm

Sholem Aleichem Rediscovered: The Newly Translated Moshkeleh Ganev

Sholem Aleichem's Moshkeleh Ganev was unique for its focus on the underclass and portrayal of Jews interacting with non-Jews in the Russian Pale of Settlement. Now, lauded Sholem Aleichem translator Curt Leviant has brought the text into the light with its first English translation. Leviant and Dvora Reich discuss Sholem Aleichem and this newly re-discovered novel.

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Class starts Oct 5 7:00pm-8:30pm

[FALL2021] “What I meant to say…”: A Creative Writing Workshop

This weekly workshop bridges the chasm between what a writer has in mind, and what ends up on the page. It is open to beginners and experienced writers alike.

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Class starts Oct 5 5:30pm-6:45pm

[FALL2021] לייענקרײַז Yiddish Reading Group (Tuesday)

This weekly reading circle reads prose works written in America. With texts in Yiddish and discussion partly in Yiddish, it is for those who can comfortably read Yiddish (aloud) or understand it when read aloud to them.

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Class starts Oct 5 2:30pm-4:00pm

[FALL2021] The Early Sutzkever and His Radical Poetic Change during the Khurbn

This weekly seminar analyzes Avrom Sutzkever’s early poetry and his writing from the Ghetto period. Conducted entirely in Yiddish, it is primary for Daled, Hey, and Vov Summer Program students.

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Class starts Oct 3 5:00pm-6:15pm

[FALL2021] לייענקרײַז Yiddish Reading Group (Sunday)

This weekly reading circle reads prose works written in America. With texts in Yiddish and discussion partly in Yiddish, it is for those who can comfortably read Yiddish (aloud) or understand it when read aloud to them.

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Class starts Oct 3 12:00pm-1:30pm

[FALL2021] Beginner III Conversational Yiddish for Heritage Learners (Afternoon)

This weekly conversational class introduces new grammatical skills and sets of vocabulary. It is primarily for Beginner II Conversational Yiddish for Heritage Learners students.

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Class starts Oct 3 11:00am-12:30pm

[FALL2021] Eastern European Jewish Women in an Age of Transition, 1870-1939 (Sunday)

This weekly seminar explores the social and cultural history of Eastern European Jewry from the perspective of women and through the lens of gender. It is open to curious minds and scholars alike.

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Class starts Oct 3 10:00am-11:30am

[FALL2021] Beginner III Conversational Yiddish for Heritage Learners (Morning)

This weekly conversational class introduces new grammatical skills and sets of vocabulary. It is primarily for Beginner II Conversational Yiddish for Heritage Learners students.

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Friday
Sep 24
1:00pm

Marek Web Memorial Event

Join the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research for a memorial event honoring our dear colleague, Marek Web. During his nearly 50-year tenure at YIVO, Marek Web played a central role in modernizing YIVO’s archives and eventually was appointed Chief Archivist, a post he held for many years.

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Class starts Sep 23 6:30pm-8:00pm

[FALL2021] Beginner I Conversational Yiddish for Heritage Learners

This weekly conversational class covers grammar, vocabulary, and conversational basics. It is for students who are new to the Yiddish language or have some exposure to Yiddish and would like a review.

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Class starts Sep 23 1:00pm-2:30pm

[FALL2021] Beginner I Reading Yiddish

This weekly reading class covers grammar and how to read Yiddish texts with the help of a dictionary. It is for students new to Yiddish, primarily those interested in obtaining reading proficiency for academic or archival research.

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Sunday
Sep 19
1:00pm

Nusakh Vilne Memorial

2021’s commemoration of the Jewish community of Vilna features a remembrance of Chayele Palevesky and a conversation reflecting on the overlooked agency of women as resistance fighters with a particular focus on Vilna and its Jewish and political culture.

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Monday
Sep 13
3:00pm

The Jewish Press Today

Alana Newhouse (Tablet Magazine), Jodi Rudoren (The Forward), and Philissa Cramer (Jewish Telegraphic Agency) discuss the role major American Jewish publications play in the Jewish world today in a conversation moderated by Gal Beckerman (The New York Times Book Review).

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Class starts Sep 13 11:00am-12:30pm

[FALL2021] Beginner III Yiddish (Monday)

This weekly standard class develops listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for spring Beginner II students and Summer Program Alef students looking for some review.

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Class starts Sep 12 3:00pm-4:30pm

[FALL2021] Beginner II Yiddish (Sunday)

This weekly standard class develops listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for spring Beginner I students.

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Class starts Sep 12 2:00pm-3:30pm

[FALL2021] Beginner III Yiddish (Sunday II)

This weekly standard class develops listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for spring Beginner II students and Summer Program Alef students looking for some review.

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Sunday
Sep 12
2:00pm

YIVO Yiddish Club: Ashkenazi High Holiday Foods with Liz Alpern and Jeffrey Yoskowitz

Yiddish enthusiasts the world over, join the YIVO Yiddish club to celebrate Mame-loshn. This session features co-founders of the Gefilteria Liz Alpern and Jeffrey Yoskowitz for a delectable discussion on Ashkenazi dishes traditionally eaten around the Jewish High Holidays.

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Class starts Sep 12 1:30pm-3:00pm

[FALL2021] Intermediate I Yiddish

This weekly standard class enhances listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for spring Beginner IV students and Summer Program Beys students looking for some review.

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Class starts Sep 12 12:30pm-2:00pm

[FALL2021] Beginner I Yiddish (Sunday)

This weekly standard class covers the alef-beys and grammar, vocabulary, and conversational basics. It is for students who are new to the Yiddish language or would like a review.

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Class starts Sep 12 12:00pm-1:30pm

[FALL2021] Intermediate III Yiddish

This weekly standard class concentrates on the phraseology that makes Yiddish such an expressive language. It is primarily for spring Intermediate II students and Summer Program Giml students looking for some review.

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Class starts Sep 12 12:00pm-1:30pm

[FALL2021] Beginner III Yiddish (Sunday I)

This weekly standard class develops listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for spring Beginner II students and Summer Program Alef students looking for some review.

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Class starts Sep 9 6:30pm-8:00pm

[FALL2021] Beginner I Yiddish (Thursday)

This weekly standard class covers the alef-beys and grammar, vocabulary, and conversational basics. It is for students who are new to the Yiddish language or would like a review.

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Class starts Sep 3 3:00pm-4:30pm

[FALL2021] Beginner I Yiddish (Friday)

This weekly standard class covers the alef-beys and grammar, vocabulary, and conversational basics. It is for students who are new to the Yiddish language or would like a review.

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Class starts Sep 2 6:30pm-8:00pm

[FALL2021] Intensive Beginner I&II Yiddish

This twice-weekly intensive class covers the alef-beys and grammar, vocabulary, and conversational basics. It is for students who are new to the Yiddish language or would like a review.

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Class starts Sep 2 6:00pm-7:30pm

[FALL2021] Intensive Advanced III&IV Yiddish

This twice-weekly intensive class expands vocabulary and sentence construction at the advanced level. It is primarily for Summer Program Vov and Hey students.

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Class starts Sep 2 6:00pm-7:30pm

[FALL2021] Intensive Intermediate I&II Yiddish

This twice-weekly intensive class expands listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for Summer Program Beys students and spring Beginner IV students.

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Class starts Sep 2 4:00pm-5:30pm

[FALL2021] Beginner II Yiddish (Thursday)

This weekly standard class develops listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for spring Beginner I students.

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Class starts Sep 2 2:30pm-4:00pm

[FALL2021] Intensive Advanced I&II Yiddish

This twice-weekly intensive class covers grammar and stylistic issues from selections of prose and poetry. It is primarily for Summer Program Daled students.

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Class starts Sep 2 9:00am-10:30am

[FALL2021] Intensive Beginner III&IV Yiddish

This twice-weekly intensive class develops listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for Summer Program Alef students and spring Beginner II students.

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Class starts Aug 31 6:00pm-7:30pm

[FALL2021] Intensive Intermediate III&IV Yiddish

This twice-weekly intensive class covers grammar and reads chapters from Dos mayse-bukh fun mayn lebn. It is primarily for Summer Program Giml students and spring Intermediate II students.

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Class starts Aug 31 6:00pm-7:30pm

[FALL2021] Intermediate II Yiddish

This weekly standard class expands vocabulary and sentence construction at the post-beginner level. It is primarily for spring Intermediate I students and Summer Program Beys students who have mastered the Beys material.

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Class starts Aug 31 12:00pm-1:30pm

[FALL2021] Beginner II Yiddish (Tuesday)

This weekly standard class develops listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for spring Beginner I students.

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Class starts Aug 30 6:30pm-8:00pm

[FALL2021] Beginner IV Yiddish

This weekly standard class enhances listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for spring Beginner III students and Summer Program Alef students who have mastered the Alef material.

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Class starts Aug 30 6:00pm-7:30pm

[FALL2021] Intermediate IV Yiddish

This weekly standard class covers grammar and literature. It is primarily for spring Intermediate III students and Summer Program Giml students who have mastered the Giml material.

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Class starts Aug 30 11:00am-12:30pm

[FALL2021] Beginner II Yiddish (Monday)

This weekly standard class develops listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. It is primarily for spring Beginner I students.

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Tuesday
Jul 27
2:00pm

Enroll your children in a secular Jewish school! The New Jewish School and Its Role in Educating a New Generation of Jews in Poland

Anna Szyba explores what was so special about Poland's TSYSHO schools and what impact they had on their students.

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Monday
Jul 26
4:30pm

Standardization in Contemporary Yiddish: Case Studies from Hasidic Jews and Yiddishists

Isaac Bleaman explores standardization in contemporary Yiddish, through two case studies in quantitative (variationist) sociolinguistics.

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Sunday
Jul 25
2:00pm

YIVO Yiddish Club: Yiddish Theater Music with Miryem-Khaye Seigel

Yiddish enthusiasts the world over, join the YIVO Yiddish club to celebrate Mame-loshn. This session features Yiddish singer, songwriter, actor, and researcher in the field of Yiddish culture Miryem-Khaye Seigel for a discussion of her cultural work with Yiddish, and research in Yiddish theater music.

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Thursday
Jul 22
4:30pm

"My Heart is in the East" - How Yiddish Speakers Moved to the East

Shaul Stampfer explores the origins of the Yiddish-speaking Jewish population of Eastern Europe.

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Thursday
Jul 22
1:30pm

Women Writers in Yiddish Literature

Scholars Anita Norich and Karolina Szymaniak will discuss works by women Yiddish writers and their reception.

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Monday
Jul 19
4:30pm

Yiddish Women Writers (Part 2)

Avraham Novershtern continues examining how Yiddish women poets struggled, whether openly or tacitly, with the expectation that their work be 'soft' and ‘intimate', dealing with love and, to a certain extent, with sex.

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Thursday
Jul 15
4:30pm

Yiddish & Zionism

Rachel Rojanski examines the dialectical tensions between the Hebrew ideology of Zionism and the reality that forced it to play a significant role in the development of Yiddish culture.

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Monday
Jul 12
4:30pm

Yiddish Women Writers (Part 1)

Avraham Novershtern looks at how Yiddish women poets struggled, whether openly or tacitly, with the expectation that their work be 'soft' and ‘intimate', dealing with love and, to a certain extent, with sex.

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Thursday
Jul 8
4:30pm

Yiddish Ethnography and An-ski

Gabriella Safran explores the connections between Sh. An-ski’s ethnographic work, his play, and the Russian politics of his era.

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Thursday
Jul 1
4:30pm

The Yiddish Folksong: A Survey

Mark Slobin situates the “Yiddish folksong” in the context of the general European folksong world as well as the world of the performed expressive culture of ‘Yiddishland’, from prayer through popular song.

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Monday
Jun 28
4:30pm

The Ashkenazi Jews of Mexico

Adina Cimet discusses the birth of the Jewish Ashkenazi community in Mexico in the 20th century; the community’s structural development and expansion; and the ideological variety, richness, and effervescence of its communal life.

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Sunday
Jun 27
2:00pm

YIVO Yiddish Club: Yiddish Duolingo and Learning Yiddish Today with Meena-Lifshe Viswanath, Isac Polasak, and Dovid Braun

Yiddish enthusiasts the world over, join the YIVO Yiddish club to celebrate Mame-loshn. This session features Yiddish Duolingo creators Meena-Lifshe Viswanath and Isac Polasak, and YIVO's Summer Program Academic Director, Dovid Braun, for a discussion about methods and resources for learning Yiddish today.

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Thursday
Jun 24
4:30pm

Under the Tenement Rooftops: Immigrant and Migrant Families in New York

Annie Polland traces how immigration law impacted the European immigrants who settled at 97 and 103 Orchard Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and how they carved out new lives once they arrived.

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Tuesday
Jun 22
1:00pm

Jewish Children's Literature in Russian and Yiddish

Join scholars, archivists, and curators to explore the rich world of Jewish children’s literature in pre-WWII Europe through the collections of YIVO and the Bodleian Library.

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Monday
Jun 21
4:30pm

The Oyneg Shabes Archive and the Ethos of YIVO

Samuel Kassow looks at the secret archive in the Warsaw Ghetto, the Oyneg Shabes Archives, which sought to ensure a Jewish record to tell Jewish history, even if its members did not live to see the Nazis defeated.

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Tuesday
Jun 15
1:00pm

The Lost World of African American Cantors 1915-1953

Award winning producer, author, and ethnomusicologist Henry Sapoznik looks at the phenomenon of African American musicians who performed Yiddish and cantorial music in and for the Jewish community.

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Thursday
Jun 10
1:00pm

Jewish Anarchist Women 1920-1950: The Politics of Sexuality

Elaine Leeder will discuss eight Jewish women who identified as anarchists, active during the 1920s to 1950s, and explore the complete sexual freedom that these women sought at a time when conventionality and conformity was the norm.

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Tuesday
Jun 8
1:00pm

Joel Engel: Jewish Folksongs Volume III

Join us for a performance of Joel Engel's Jewish Folksongs Volume III (c. 1920): 10 Jewish folksongs, dances, and Hasidic nigunim in virtuosic piano arrangements.

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Friday
May 28
3:30pm

The Future of Tulsa's Past: The Centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre and Beyond

Join YIVO and In Geveb for a panel discussion on contemporaneous Yiddish language archival sources which reflect on the Tulsa Race Massacre, as well as on racially motivated violence that erupted in America in the early twentieth century more broadly. This panel is part of the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation's 12th Annual Reconciliation in America National Symposium.

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Tuesday
May 25
1:00pm

Salomea Perl & Women Yiddish Prose Writers

Translator Ruth Murphy, Anna Fishman Gonshor, and Justin Cammy, in a discussion moderated by Rokhl Kafrissen, celebrate Murphy's new translation Salomea Perl’s writings and reflect on how previously ignored or lost female authors have been brought into the Yiddish canon.

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Wednesday
May 19
1:00pm

Embodying Liberty: American Jewish Attorneys and the Case for Humanizing Public Charge

In 1891, the U.S. Congress codified a host of physical and mental conditions that would close America’s gates to hopeful immigrants. Hannah Zaves-Greene examines the legal advocacy of Max Kohler and other American Jewish attorneys who marshalled their deep knowledge of American jurisprudence to defang the law.

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Wednesday
May 12
1:00pm

A Taste of Rome’s Historic Jewish Cuisine

Join celebrated cookbook author Leah Koenig for an online cooking demonstration highlighting some of Rome's best dishes.

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Wednesday
May 5
1:00pm

Information Hunters

Author Kathy Peiss and YIVO’s Eddy Portnoy discuss the unprecedented effort by an unlikely band of librarians, scholars, soldiers, and spies to acquire foreign publications and information in World War II Europe.

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Tuesday
May 4
1:00pm

Leftists on Left-Wing Antisemitism

This unique panel will bring together four scholars and activists on the Left who have a range of views to discuss conflicting notions of what Left antisemitism consists of, where different parts of the Left stand in relation to this issue, how the Left addresses or ignores the issue, and constructive ways this issue can be dealt with.

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Wednesday
Apr 28
1:00pm

Cry, My Heart, Cry: Songs from Testimonies in the Fortunoff Video Archive, Vol. 2

Join us in celebrating the release of Cry, My Heart, Cry: Songs from Testimonies in the Fortunoff Video Archive, Vol. 2, an album of songs drawn from Holocaust survivors’ testimonies in the Fortunoff Video Archive, with performances and a live digital discussion with the musicians behind this project.

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Tuesday
Apr 27
7:00pm

The Jewish Experience in Opera

Composers Ofer Ben-Amots, David Schiff, Bruce Adolphe, and Alex Weiser, and librettist Ben Kaplan discuss what qualifies as a "Jewish opera" and Jewish themes in music in this panel moderated by YIVO’s Anne E. Leibowitz Visiting Professor-in-Residence in Music Neil W. Levin.

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Postponed

The Dybbuk: Between Two Worlds – Opera by Ofer Ben-Amots

Join us for a Hebrew-language semi-staged concert performance of this chamber opera adaptation of The Dybbuk, created by Israeli-American composer Ofer Ben-Amots. This is the opera’s first time being performed in New York City.

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Thursday
Apr 22
1:00pm

Sutzkever Essential Prose

Join us in celebrating the publication of Sutzkever Essential Prose, which brings largely unknown prose of Avrom Sutzkever to English audiences, with translator Zackary Sholem Berger and scholars Miriam Trinh and Karolina Szymaniak, moderated by Justin Cammy.

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Wednesday
Apr 21
1:00pm

Continuing Evolution 2: Yiddish Folksong in Classical Music

Join us for a digital premiere performance of five new compositions commissioned by YIVO, performed alongside archival recordings of the Yiddish folksongs they engage with.

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Tuesday
Apr 20
1:00pm

The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos

Judy Batalion and Andrew Silow-Carroll (New York Jewish Week) discuss Batalion’s new book about the “ghetto girls” who helped transform Jewish youth groups into resistance cells to fight the Nazis.

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Tuesday
Apr 13
1:00pm

Glikl's Afterlives: On the Circulation and Reception of Glikl's Memoirs

Matthew Johnson explores the belated circulation and reception of Glikl's memoirs to answer the question, "How did Glikl become such an iconic and oft-cited figure in Ashkenazic cultural history?"

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Sunday
Apr 11
2:00pm

YIVO Yiddish Club: Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell & The Repertoire of Sidor Belarsky

Yiddish enthusiasts the world over, join the YIVO Yiddish club to celebrate Mame-loshn. This session features singer and composer Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell for a discussion of famed Yiddish singer Sidor Belarsky's repertoire and Yiddish folksong repertoire more broadly.

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Tuesday
Mar 23
11:00am

Nazi-Looted Art and Archives: Recovering and Preserving Jewish Culture

The ravages of the Holocaust and post-World War II led to the theft and disappearance of art, archives, and personal assets. Join Jonathan Brent and Howard Spiegler for a discussion on the quest to recover and preserve these cultural treasures.

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Class starts Mar 18 4:00pm-5:30pm

[SPR2021] Eastern Europe: A Portable Jewish Homeland

This course explores the social and cultural history of Eastern European Jewry in a transnational perspective, drawing upon primary, secondary, and digital sources. It will explore the transformation of Eastern European Jewry from a primarily traditional to a modern society and trace the transcontinental journey of their Eastern European heritage.

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Class starts Mar 16 12:00pm-1:30pm

[SPR2021] Victorian Jewish Literature

Victorian England’s reputation for buttoned-up Anglicanism masks a colorful world of Jewish culture. This course will dive into literature written by Jews in Victorian England, from Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli to first-generation immigrants in late-Victorian London, as a means to explore this period of Jewish history.

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Class starts Mar 14 3:00pm-4:30pm

[SPR2021] Beginner I Yiddish (Sunday)

Beginner I covers the alef-beys, and grammar, vocabulary, and conversational basics. It is for students who are new to the Yiddish language, or would like a review.

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Sunday
Mar 14
2:00pm

YIVO Yiddish Club: Rokhl Kafrissen & Contemporary Yiddish Culture

Yiddish enthusiasts the world over, join the YIVO Yiddish club to celebrate Mame-loshn. This session features playwright and Tablet Magazine columnist Rokhl Kafrissen for a discussion of contemporary Yiddish culture.  

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Class starts Mar 10 5:30pm-7:00pm

[SPR2021] Yiddish Modernism in Ukraine

This course provides a survey of Yiddish Modernism in Ukraine in 1920-30s. We will read and discuss selected prose, poetry, and press works representing eminent Soviet Yiddish poets and writers such as Perets Markish, Leyb Kvitko, and Dovid Bergelson. All texts will be given and discussed in English.

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Monday
Mar 8
1:00pm

Leaving Behind the Froyen-vinkl, or How Women Functioned in the Male World of Yiddish Literature

Joanna Lisek presents the strategies women used to break their way into the sphere of the printed Yiddish word when few avenues were available for them to make their voices heard.

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Class starts Mar 7 5:00pm-6:15pm

[SPR2021] קורצע דערצײלונגען לייענקרײַז Short Story Reading Group

This leyenkrayz will begin with a story by Y.L. Peretz and will continue with stories by both well-known and lesser-known writers, guided by student interest. All texts will be read in Yiddish.

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Class starts Mar 7 3:00pm-4:30pm

[SPR2021] Jewish Sentences: Strategies for Creative Writing

For seasoned writers and beginners, this class will combine opportunities to write fiction, poetry, and personal narrative, workshop the writing of fellow classmates, and hone reading and writing skills by examining some of the finest works of literature by Jewish authors.

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Sunday
Mar 7
11:00am

2021 Summer Program Info Session - Advanced Levels

Are you wondering what it would be like to take the Summer Program online, or are you thinking of returning to the program to continue your advanced studies? Join Dovid Braun (Summer Program Academic Director), Eliezer Niborski, and Ben Kaplan (Director of Education) for a brief information session about YIVO’s advanced levels, including its new sixth level offered for the first time this summer (2021).

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Class starts Mar 4 6:00pm-7:30pm

[SPR2021] Advanced Yiddish

Advanced will cover presentation of advanced grammar, points of usage, and vocabulary. It is for students who have previously at least three years of Yiddish.

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Class starts Mar 4 4:00pm-5:30pm

[SPR2021] Beginner I Yiddish (Thursday)

Beginner I covers the alef-beys, and grammar, vocabulary, and conversational basics. It is for students who are new to the Yiddish language, or would like a review.

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Class starts Mar 4 11:00am-12:30pm

[SPR2021] Beginner II Yiddish (Thursday)

Beginner II will enhance skills in listening, speaking, writing, and reading Yiddish. It is for students who have previously taken one semester of Yiddish.

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Class starts Mar 3 6:00pm-7:30pm

[SPR2021] Beginner IV Yiddish

Beginner IV will enhance skills in speaking, reading, writing, and listening for students comfortable reading and conversing in Yiddish. It is for students who have previously taken three semesters of Yiddish.

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Class starts Mar 2 7:00pm-8:30pm

[SPR2021] Beginner II Yiddish (Tuesday)

Beginner II will enhance skills in listening, speaking, writing, and reading Yiddish. It is for students who have previously taken one semester of Yiddish.

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Class starts Mar 2 6:00pm-7:30pm

[SPR2021] Intermediate II Yiddish

Intermediate II will use the text to continue to develop reading, conversation and writing skills. It is for students who have previously taken one semester of intermediate Yiddish.

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Class starts Mar 2 6:00pm-7:30pm

[SPR2021] Beginner I Yiddish (Tuesday Evening)

Beginner I covers the alef-beys, and grammar, vocabulary, and conversational basics. It is for students who are new to the Yiddish language, or would like a review.

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Tuesday
Mar 2
1:00pm

Beba Epstein: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Girl

Join us in celebrating our new online exhibition with Michael Leventhal, Antony Polonsky, Karolina Ziulkoski, and Jonathan Brent in a discussion moderated by Gal Beckerman.

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Sunday
Feb 28
2:00pm

YIVO Yiddish Club: Michael Wex & Yiddish Humor

Yiddish enthusiasts the world over, join the YIVO Yiddish club to celebrate Mame-loshn. Our first session will feature writer Michael Wex for a discussion of Yiddish comedy and Purim.  

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Class starts Feb 24 6:00pm-7:30pm

[SPR2021] Intermediate I Yiddish

Intermediate I will enhance skills in speaking, reading, writing, and listening for students comfortable reading and conversing in Yiddish. It is for students who have previously taken four semesters of Yiddish.

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Class starts Feb 23 6:00pm-7:30pm

[SPR2021] Intermediate III Yiddish

Intermediate III Yiddish will be a combination of grammar and literature. It is for students who have previously taken two intermediate Yiddish courses.

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Class starts Feb 23 11:00am-12:30pm

[SPR2021] Beginner I Yiddish (Tuesday Morning)

Beginner I covers the alef-beys, and grammar, vocabulary, and conversational basics. It is for students who are new to the Yiddish language, or would like a review.

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Class starts Feb 22 6:30pm-8:00pm

[SPR2021] Beginner III Yiddish

Beginner III will continue to expand listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. It is for students who have previously taken two semesters of Yiddish.

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Monday
Feb 22
1:00pm

The Picture and Price of Jewish Assimilation in Documentary & Feature Silent Film

Using documentaries and feature silent films, Professor Daniel Grinberg analyzes the changing character and perception of Jews in both the United States and Poland in the early twentieth century and the price of assimilation for Jewish communities of this period.

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Class starts Feb 22 11:00am-12:30pm

[SPR2021] Beginner II Yiddish (Monday II)

Beginner II will enhance skills in listening, speaking, writing, and reading Yiddish. It is for students who have previously taken one semester of Yiddish.

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Class starts Feb 22 11:00am-12:30pm

[SPR2021] Beginner I Yiddish (Monday)

Beginner I covers the alef-beys, and grammar, vocabulary, and conversational basics. It is for students who are new to the Yiddish language, or would like a review.

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Class starts Feb 22 8:30am-10:00am

[SPR2021] Beginner II Yiddish (Monday I)

Beginner II will enhance skills in listening, speaking, writing, and reading Yiddish. It is for students who have previously taken one semester of Yiddish.

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Friday
Feb 19
9:00am

2021 Summer Program Information Session

Have you always wanted to study Yiddish at YIVO’s Summer Program? Are you wondering what it would be like to take the program online? Join Ben Kaplan (Director of Education), Dovid Braun (Summer Program Academic Director), and Jane Tuszynski (Program Coordinator) for a brief information session.

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Thursday
Feb 18
6:00pm

[YIVO UK] Panel Discussion on ‘The Archives of East-European Jewry: Past, Present and Future Challenges and Opportunities’

Join Jonathan Brent, Aleksander Ivanov, and Karen Robson for a panel discussion about the challenges of archival research in a pandemic and questions related to the digitization and online access of collections.

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Wednesday
Feb 17
1:00pm

Yiddish: Biography of a Language

Join us for a conversation celebrating the publication of Jeffrey Shandler’s new book Yiddish: Biography of a Language, with Shandler, Anita Norich, and Ayala Fader, moderated by YIVO's Academic Advisor and Director of Exhibitions Eddy Portnoy.

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Tuesday
Feb 16
12:00pm

Holocaust Scholarship on Trial

Scholars Jan Grabowksi and Barbara Engelking were found guilty in Poland for their book documenting the range of Polish behavior towards Jews during the Holocaust. Prof. Grabowski, in conversation with journalist Masha Gessen, will discuss his response to the recent verdict as well as its political and scholarly implications.

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Friday
Feb 12
1:00pm

2021 Summer Program Information Session

Have you always wanted to study Yiddish at YIVO’s Summer Program? Are you wondering what it would be like to take the program online? Join Ben Kaplan (Director of Education), Dovid Braun (Summer Program Academic Director), and Jane Tuszynski (Program Coordinator) for a brief information session.

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Wednesday
Feb 10
6:00pm

2021 Summer Program Information Session

Have you always wanted to study Yiddish at YIVO’s Summer Program? Are you wondering what it would be like to take the program online? Join Ben Kaplan (Director of Education), Dovid Braun (Summer Program Academic Director), and Jane Tuszynski (Program Coordinator) for a brief information session.

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Class starts Feb 7 12:00pm-1:30pm

[SPR2021] Beginner II Conversational Yiddish for Heritage Learners (Afternoon)

This class will cover building blocks of Yiddish conversation and culture. It is a continuation of Beginner Conversational Yiddish for Heritage Learners, held by YIVO in fall 2020.

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Class starts Feb 7 10:00am-11:30am

[SPR2021] Beginner II Conversational Yiddish for Heritage Learners (Morning)

This class will cover building blocks of Yiddish conversation and culture. It is a continuation of Beginner Conversational Yiddish for Heritage Learners, held by YIVO in fall 2020.

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Class starts Jan 6 4:00pm-5:15pm

[WP2021] Tyranny and Freedom

This course asks first how an interpretation of the Holocaust might allow us to see the risks of the contemporary world differently, how to understand the history of the 2010s, and what can be done to coordinate an understanding of the past with a richer and broader view of freedom in the future.

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Class starts Jan 6 10:45am-12:00pm

[WP2021] The Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge, from Ancient Assyria to the Digital Age

This course will examine the history of deliberate destruction of organised bodies of knowledge, particularly libraries and archives, over the past 3,000 years.

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Class starts Jan 6 9:00am-10:15am

[WP2021] The Aftermath of Jedwabne

This class will explore the discussion over the past 20 years over Polish-Jewish relations during the Holocaust. and will consider the categorization of Poles and other nations of occupied Europe during the Holocaust.

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Class starts Jan 5 7:00pm-8:30pm

[WY2021] Winter Intensive Beginner II Yiddish

This course is for students who have previously taken one semester of Yiddish, and will cultivate skills for close reading, expressive writing, and unscripted conversation.

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Class starts Jan 5 6:30pm-8:00pm

[WY2021] Winter Intensive Beginner I Yiddish (Evening)

This course is for students who are new to the Yiddish language, and will cover the alphabet, elementary grammar, and conversational and reading basics.

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Class starts Jan 5 6:00pm-7:30pm

[WY2021] Winter Intensive Intermediate II Yiddish

This course is for students who have previously taken two years of Yiddish and will focus on reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

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Class starts Jan 5 6:00pm-7:15pm

[WP2021] Borges and the Jews

Throughout his life, Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina, 1899-1986), arguably the most important Latin American writer of the twentieth century, found inspiration in Jewish themes and motifs. Through in-depth analysis of a selection of Borges’s stories, essays, poetry, and lectures, this course examines his Judeophilia and the reaction it received from his contemporaries.

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Class starts Jan 5 4:00pm-5:15pm

[WP2021] Yinglish Popular Music: Mickey Katz, the Barton Brothers, and Allan Sherman

This course will do close readings of tracks by the Barton Brothers, and then focus particularly on Mickey Katz, before closing with an appreciative look at Allan Sherman’s work. For all these artists, we will consider their language, their music, their delivery, and what made them so influential and so very funny.

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Class starts Jan 5 3:00pm-4:30pm

[WY2021] Winter Intensive Beginner I Yiddish (Afternoon)

This course is for students who are new to the Yiddish language, and will cover the alphabet, elementary grammar, and conversational and reading basics.

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Class starts Jan 5 2:15pm-3:30pm

[WP2021] Yiddish Poetry and Politics

This course will reconsider the political content and context of a range of works and consider a range of questions, looking specifically at labor and protest, race relations, and the politics of places.

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Class starts Jan 5 12:30pm-1:45pm

[WP2021] Stalin and Power

This course will investigate Stalin’s rise and seizure of absolute power and the way his power was reflected and understood in literature, beginning in the 1920s after the death of Lenin and concluding with Stalin’s death in 1953.

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Class starts Jan 5 10:45am-12:00pm

[WP2021] Yiddish Children’s Literature

In this course, Miriam Udel, editor and translator of the new anthology Honey on the Page: A Treasury of Yiddish Children’s Literature, will examine the artistic and political prerogatives of this literature—opening a new window onto the Jewish confrontation with modernity.

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Class starts Jan 5 9:00am-10:15am

[WP2021] It’s Time We Met: Ashkenazi Heritage at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This seminar course will consider the artistic and cultural heritage of Ashkenaz as evidenced in the collections and exhibitions of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Class starts Jan 4 7:00pm-8:30pm

[WY2021] Winter Intensive Intermediate I Yiddish

This course is for students who have previously taken four semesters of Yiddish and will focus on reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

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Monday
Jan 4
1:00pm

Modern Russia and The Putin System

Join us for a discussion of the political system of modern Russia and its significance to the world by Russian politician and economist Grigory Yavlinsky.

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Class starts Jan 3 6:00pm-7:30pm

[WY2021] Winter Intensive Advanced Yiddish

This course is for students who have previously taken at least three years of Yiddish and will focus on reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

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Class starts Jan 3 6:00pm-7:30pm

[WY2021] Winter Intensive Beginner III Yiddish

This course is for students who have previously taken two or three semesters of Yiddish and will focus on reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

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Class starts Jan 3 11:00am-12:30pm

[WY2021] Winter Intensive Beginner I Yiddish (Morning II)

This course is for students who are new to the Yiddish language, and will cover the alphabet, elementary grammar, and conversational and reading basics.

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Class starts Jan 3 8:30am-10:00am

[WY2021] Winter Intensive Beginner I Yiddish (Morning I)

This course is for students who are new to the Yiddish language, and will cover the alphabet, elementary grammar, and conversational and reading basics.

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