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  • Good Goy, Bad Goy: The Portrayal of Gentiles in Sketches from the London Yiddish Press

    Good Goy, Bad Goy: The Portrayal of Gentiles in Sketches from the London Yiddish Press
    Jul 1 2026
    Gentiles often appeared in the news sections of the London Yiddish press, and sometimes they also appeared in the regular “feuilleton” section in character sketches and fiction, stories and scenes from immigrant East-End Jewish life. Many of these portrayals were humorous local scenarios and imagined tales. This talk will look at a broad section of how and where Gentile characters appear and their relationship to the Jewish immigrant. Gentiles fix cars and do physical chores for the hapless immigrant. The wily immigrant hoodwinks the Gentile recruiting officers during the First World War. The stern Gentile gatekeeper of British government politics, refuses access to the naïve immigrant wanting to help. The paternalistic English police officer gives directions to parts of London never before visited by an East-End immigrant. A proud fascist blackshirt is confused when he sees his respected Jewish neighbors in a strident communist counter-demonstration. Yet the word goy is also used by Jews describing each other: skipping the bus fare, not sharing their Yiddish newspaper, or being rude to their neighbor. This lecture originally took place on January 26, 2023.
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    1 Std. und 1 Min.
  • The 'Tsenerene': The Most Popular Yiddish Book in History

    The 'Tsenerene': The Most Popular Yiddish Book in History
    Jun 29 2026
    Arguably the most popular book in the history of Yiddish literature, the Tsenerene (alternative Romanization: Ze’enah U-Re’enah) has been reprinted, both in Yiddish and in translation, 273 times since its appearance in the early seventeenth century. Arranged according to the weekly Torah portion, the book employs fragments of biblical verses in Hebrew to open sections of Yiddish text that may include direct translations, midrashic stories, commentaries, and – less often – interpretations original to the author, Yankev ben Yitskhok Ashkenazi of Janów. In this talk about the Tsenerene, Dr. Avi Blitz will show how the work’s anthological style accommodates curious combinations of commentary and folklore and he will discuss what the book teaches us about the folk beliefs of early modern Ashkenazi society. Using different editions of the work, he will talk about textual variances and diverse paratextual elements that hint at the various ways the book was read throughout its 400-year history. Finally, he will discuss the idea of the book as a “women’s Bible.” This lecture originally took place on July 18, 2023.
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    58 Min.
  • The Jewish Press Today

    The Jewish Press Today
    Jun 25 2026
    In 1897 when the Forverts was founded, the need for a Jewish newspaper—a Yiddish newspaper that is—was self-evident: millions of Yiddish speaking Jewish immigrants needed a reliable daily source of news in their own language. In the first few decades of the 20th century the Yiddish press blossomed in New York, peaking at five different daily papers and an estimated daily readership of approximately one million in New York City alone in the early 1920s. The major form of media for immigrant Jews and their offspring, the Yiddish press provided its readers with everything from international, national, and local news, to original and translated literature, both high and low, literary and theater criticism, politics, humor, advice columns, and more. Yiddish newspapers taught immigrants how to vote and even how to play baseball. Today, nearly 125 years after the first issue of the Forverts, the vast majority of American Jews speak and read English and can get their news from the mainstream English language press. And yet, the Jewish press—now mostly in English—remains an important journalistic outlet for topics of particular interest to the Jewish community. From Jewish TV shows, movies, books, music, and restaurants to the happenings of Jewish institutions and communities; from the Jewish angles and stories behind the news, to in-depth focus on topics such as Israel and antisemitism; Jewish publications fill the gaps of the mainstream press for a Jewish readership hungry for today's Jewish stories. Join us for a conversation with editors of today's major American Jewish publications about the role they play in the Jewish world. Moderated by Gal Beckerman (The New York Times Book Review) this panel will feature Alana Newhouse (Tablet Magazine), Jodi Rudoren (The Forward), and Philissa Cramer (Jewish Telegraphic Agency). This panel will explore questions including: Now that American Jews have so clearly assimilated into American society what is the need for a Jewish press? What audience do the editors of these publications target? How do they serve the American Jewish community as it grows diverse and diffuse? This panel was originally held on September 13, 2021.
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    1 Std. und 7 Min.
  • A Very Jewish Christmas: Jesus and Shabbtai Zvi, from Heretic to Hero

    A Very Jewish Christmas: Jesus and Shabbtai Zvi, from Heretic to Hero
    Jun 22 2026
    In Jewish memory, Jesus and Shabbtai Zvi were heretics, false messiahs who rebelled against the rabbis and against normative Judaism. But a funny thing happened in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: modern Jewish writers and artists reclaimed these heretics and gave them an honored place in Jewish history. In doing so, they transformed the historical figures, Jesus and Shabbtai Zvi, into heroes, projecting on to them these thinkers own modern dilemmas. This lecture originally took place on December 22, 2022.
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    1 Std. und 4 Min.
  • Hidden Heretics: Jewish Doubt in the Digital Age

    Hidden Heretics: Jewish Doubt in the Digital Age
    Jun 20 2026
    In her recent publication, Hidden Heretics: Jewish Doubt in the Digital Age, scholar Ayala Fader tells the fascinating, often heart-wrenching stories of married ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and women in twenty-first-century New York who lead “double lives” in order to protect those they love. Drawing on five years of fieldwork with those living double lives and the rabbis, life coaches, and religious therapists who minister to, advise, and sometimes excommunicate them, Fader investigates religious doubt and social change in the digital age. In following those living double lives, who range from the religiously observant but open-minded on one end to atheists on the other, Fader delves into universal quandaries of faith and skepticism, the ways digital media can change us, and family frictions that arise when a person radically transforms who they are and what they believe. Join YIVO for a discussion of this recent publication featuring Fader in conversation with Josh Lambert, professor and director of the Jewish Studies Program at Wellesley College. Buy the book: here This book talk originally took place on September 22, 2022.
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    59 Min.
  • European Jews in the 21st Century

    European Jews in the 21st Century
    Jun 18 2026
    What is the status of Jews in Europe in the 21st century? How do they maintain vital communities? Do they desire to remain in Europe? To remain Jewish? Where are the trendlines headed? A mere 0.1% of Europe's population is Jewish. Proportionally, this figure is at its lowest since the turn of the first millennium. European Jews' numbers have continued to decline even after the Holocaust. Once a major center of world Jewry, Europe often goes largely unmentioned in conversations about the global Jewish community. 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. The magazine is devoted to reporting from and fostering dialogue across all the various communities of European Jewry. Daniel Solomon, the English-language editor of K. will lead a discussion with members of the editorial board of K.: Stéphane Bou (Editor of chief of K., European Jewish Review), Macha Fogel (Author at K., European Jewish Review), and Danny Trom (Senior Researcher, EHESS). This panel discussion originally took place on October 12, 2021.
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    1 Std. und 2 Min.
  • Jewish Identity in Lithuania Today

    Jewish Identity in Lithuania Today
    Jun 16 2026
    Join YIVO for a conversation about the resurgence of interest in Jewish identity and history in Lithuania today. Jonathan Brent will moderate a conversation among Miglė Anušauskaitė, a Lithuanian cartoonist and archivist working on the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections Project, Anna Avidan, Managing Director of LitvakWorld, Kęstas Pikūnas, publisher of Passport, and former Lithuanian Minister of Culture, Mindaugas Kvietkauskas. Together they will explore topics such as the historical and social realities of Jewish-Lithuanian relations, and the challenges of building a multi-cultural, democratic society in Lithuania today. This panel originally took place on December 7, 2021
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    1 Std. und 8 Min.
  • The Yiddish Historians and the Struggle for a Jewish History of the Holocaust

    The Yiddish Historians and the Struggle for a Jewish History of the Holocaust
    Jun 14 2026
    Historians began writing the history of the Holocaust in Yiddish from a distinctly Jewish perspective in the years immediately after World War II. These Yiddish historians 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. Above all, they redefined “resistance” to include the many ways Jews struggled to remain alive under Nazi occupation. Mark Smith chronicles and contextualizes this largely overlooked yet significant set of scholars in his recently published work, The Yiddish Historians and the Struggle for a Jewish History of the Holocaust. This book talk originally took place on October 29, 2021.
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    55 Min.