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Yiddish Civilization Lecture Series, Summer 2019
In 2019, YIVO launched a new lecture series introducing audiences to some of the breadth and depth of Yiddish civilization in Eastern Europe, New York, and around the world. Lectures occurred on Mondays and Thursdays from June 24th to July 29th, covering topics ranging from history and historiography to literature, poetry, folklore, and theater, and featuring some of the field’s leading scholars: Naomi Seidman, Eugene Orenstein, Anna Elena Torres, Itzik Gottesman, Steve Zipperstein, Cecile Kuznitz, Daniel Soyer, Edna Nahshon, Dovid Braun, and Sam Kassow.
Growing out of YIVO's 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 a broad public. Monday lectures were delivered in English and Thursday lectures in Yiddish.*
*Note: the lecture on July 8th was delivered in Yiddish, and the lecture on July 11th in English.
In the "Freud Laboratory": The Yiddish Translation and Reception of Psychoanalysis
Monday, June 24, 2019 | 4:00pm-5:30pm
Naomi Seidman | Delivered in English | Learn more »
A Birdseye View of the Development of Yiddish Literature and Culture
Thursday, June 27, 2019 | 4:00pm-5:30pm
Eugene Orenstein | Delivered in Yiddish | Learn more »
Praxis Poems: Radical Genealogies of Yiddish Poetry
Monday, July 1, 2019 | 4:00pm-5:30pm
Anna Elena Torres | Delivered in English | Learn more »
Thursday, July 4, 2019 | NO LECTURE
The Folklore of Ashkenaz
Monday, July 8, 2019 | 4:00pm-5:30pm
Itzik Gottesman | Delivered in Yiddish | Learn more »
Myth and History in the Russian Jewish Past
Thursday, July 11, 2019 | 4:00pm-5:30pm
Steven Zipperstein | Delivered in English | Learn more »
The Rise of Yiddish Scholarship and the History of YIVO
Monday, July 15, 2019 | 4:00pm-5:30pm
Cecile Kuznitz | Delivered in English | Learn more »
Yiddish New York
Thursday, July 18, 2019 | 4:00pm-5:30pm
Daniel Soyer | Delivered in Yiddish | Learn more »
Yiddish Theater in America – An Overview
Monday, July 22, 2019 | 4:00pm-5:30pm
Edna Nahshon | Delivered in English | Learn more »
What Yiddish is That?
Thursday, July 25, 2019 | 4:00pm-5:30pm
Dovid Braun | Delivered in Yiddish | Learn more »
The Keeper of the Flame: Rachel Auerbach and Holocaust Witnessing*
Monday, July 29, 2019 | 4:00pm-5:30pm
Samuel Kassow | Delivered in English | Learn more »
*Sadly Professor Kassow will not be able to join us on on the 29th as planned, but we are fortunate that esteemed Professor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett has agreed to give the final lecture of our Yiddish Civilization Lecture Series in his place.
Coming of Age: Jewish Youth in Poland between the Wars
Monday, July 29, 2019 | 4:00pm-5:30pm
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett| Delivered in English | Learn more »