YIVO-Bard Summer Program
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Yiddish Civilization Lecture Series

The 2025 Yiddish Civilization Lecture Series will be conducted digitally via Zoom.

This lecture series introduces audiences to some of the breadth and depth of Yiddish civilization in Eastern Europe, New York, and around the world.

Growing out of the YIVO-Bard Uriel Weinreich Yiddish Summer Program, a 6-week program which offers Yiddish language classes from beginner to advanced levels and a wide variety of cultural and enrichment activities, the lectures are part of the Summer Program curriculum, but are also open to the public. Tuesday lectures will be delivered in English and Thursday lectures in Yiddish.


A Turning Point in Remembrance: YIVO in the 1940s

Tuesday, June 24, 2025 | 2:00pm-3:00pm ET
Jeffrey Shandler | Delivered in English | Learn more »


The Poetry of Chaim Grade

Thursday, June 26, 2025 | 2:00pm-3:00pm ET
Joshua Price | Delivered in Yiddish| Learn more »


In the Shadow of the Shtetl: Yiddish Memories of Small-Town Jewish Life in Ukraine

Tuesday, July 1, 2025 | 2:00pm-3:00pm ET
Jeffrey Veidlinger | Delivered in English | Learn more »


Kine un kloglid – The Yiddish Art of Lamentation in Early Modern Ashkenaz

Thursday, July 3, 2025 | 2:00pm-3:00pm ET
Diana Matut | Delivered in Yiddish| Learn more »


“You had buried me, and I’ve come back!”: Manipulation, Lies, and the Archives of the Cinematic Dybbuk

Tuesday, July 8, 2025 | 2:00pm-3:00pm ET
Zehavit Stern | Delivered in English | Learn more »


Yiddish Warsaw on the Hudson

Thursday, July 10, 2025 | 2:00pm-3:00pm ET
Ofer Dynes | Delivered in Yiddish| Learn more »


The Red Jews: Intertextuality in a Yiddish Myth

Tuesday, July 15, 2025 | 2:00pm-3:00pm ET
Rebekka Voß | Delivered in English | Learn more »
Postponed until further notice


The Yiddish of Jerusalem: The Old Yishuv in the Research of Mordecai Kosover

Thursday, July 17, 2025 | 2:00pm-3:00pm ET
Yaad Biran | Delivered in Yiddish| Learn more »


The People’s Torah: Crowd-Sourcing Jewish Customs from An-ski to the Internet

Tuesday, July 22, 2025 | 2:00pm-3:00pm ET
Nathaniel Deutsch | Delivered in English | Learn more »


View past lectures in the series:

2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019