YIVO Presents the First in a Series of Programs Held in Conjunction with Its Current Digitization Project of the Jewish Labor and Political Archives

(New York, NY) – On Wednesday, October 30, 2024, at 7:00pm (ET), the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research will host Two Revolutionary Jews: Leon Trotsky and Chaim Zhitlowsky¸ the first in a series of programs held in conjunction with YIVO’s current digitization project of the Jewish Labor and Political Archives (JLPA). The lecture will take place at YIVO, located in the Center for Jewish History building (15 West 16th Street, New York, NY). It will also be available to livestream on Zoom.

What role should Jews play in revolutionary movements? Should they act collectively or as indistinct individuals within majority populations in the interest of universalistic ideals? Or is this a false dichotomy? These questions have defined the basis of left-wing Jewish politics since the 19th century.

In his lecture, Tony Michels will discuss two different approaches to revolutionary Jewish politics, as defined by Leon Trotsky and Chaim Zhitlowsky. Both were Russian-born Jews who played seminal roles in the Russian revolutionary movement. Both also came to be seen as embodiments of the modern Jewish experience while giving radically different answers to the predicament of modern Jewry.

The largest archival digitization project in YIVO’s 100-year history, the JLPA consists of nearly 200 collections encompassing 3.5 million pages of archival documents that were collected by the Bund Archives and given to YIVO 1992. This eight-year, $8.5 million project will conserve, process, and digitize YIVO’s Jewish Labor and Political Archive which documents Jewish political, labor, and social movements in the United States and Europe from 1870 to 1992. The JLPA forms the world’s most comprehensive body of material pertaining to Jewish political activity in Europe and the United States. This project will make these materials available online free-of-charge to a global public for the first time.

What:            Two Revolutionary Jews: Leon Trotsky and Chaim Zhitlowsky
When:           Wednesday, October 30, 2024, 7:00pm (ET)
Where:          Taking place on Zoom and in person at YIVO, Located in the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011)
Cost:              Free
Reservations Available at:  yivo.org/Burning-Off-the-Page

This program is co-sponsored by the Carole Zabar Center for Film at the Marlene Myerson JCC Manhattan. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

For more information contact:
Shelly Freeman
Chief of Staff

About the Speaker

Tony Michels teaches American Jewish history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also serves as director of the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies. He is the author of A Fire in Their Hearts: Jewish Socialists in New York, editor of Jewish Radicals: A Documentary History, and co-editor of The Cambridge History of Judaism, Volume Eight: The Modern World, 1815-2000.

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