News & Features

http://michaelwex.com/ Witty and erudite observations on Yiddish and yidishkeyt by Michael Wex, author of Born to Kvetch, the bestselling book about Yiddish. http://rokhl.blogspot.com/ “Dynamic Yiddishkayt for the New Millennium.” Rokhl Kafrissen’s sharp and thoughtful reflections on Yiddish, Jewish identity, and more. http://inmolaraan.blogspot.com/ Eve Jochnowitz’s blog about food and Yiddish. http://yiddishsong.wordpress.com/ “The Yiddish Song of the Week,” edited by ...

On Sunday, October 6, 2013, YIVO and the Center for Jewish History will host a one-day conference, Hidden from History: The Pinkas of the Metz Rabbinic Court, 1771-1789, in conjunction with an exhibition and two other public programs celebrating the pinkas (register) of the bet din (rabbinic court) of the Jewish community of Metz, France, two leather-bound volumes preserved in the YIVO Archives. Brimming with details of commercial transactions involving Jews and non-Jews, family law, inheritance, modes of jurisprudence, and recourse to civil courts, the Pinkas is a monument to an extraordinary community and its remarkable rabbinical court.

• Visit the exhibition and symposium web site and buy tickets to the events.
• Attend the conference on October 6.
• Attend the lecture by Rabbi Moshe Arye Bamberger (Head of the Bet Din of the Metz Jewish Community, France) on October 7.

Professor Jay Berkovitz of the University of Massachusetts is the author of the upcoming book, Protocols of Justice: The Pinkas of the Metz Rabbinic Court 1771-1789 (Brill), a transcription and annotated translation of the 400,000-word document.

On September 9, he sat down with Yedies Editor Roberta Newman to talk about the pinkas. This interview is the first in a three-part series.

Jay Berkovitz talks about the significance of the Pinkas of Metz.

Steven Zipperstein YIVO is pleased to announce the appointment of the first Jacob Kronhill Visiting Scholar, Dr. Steven Zipperstein, Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History at Stanford University. The Jacob Kronhill Visiting Scholar will conduct a graduate-level seminar in East European Jewish history, lead a professional development workshop for ...

YIVO Executive Director Jonathan Brent and Max Weinreich Center Academic Advisor Eddy Portnoy were featured on the September 13 "Please Explain" segment of The Leonard Lopate Show (WNYC/NPR), discussing the history, roots and culture of Yiddish. Berlin's Svetlana Kundish Wows at Yiddish Songfest The Forward’s Shmooze reviewed the September 9th program, “Festival ...

Sixty-three years ago, YIVO honored historian Simon Dubnowwith this special postal mark. The caption explains that a year earlier, YIVO had created a mark to commemorate classic Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem.

(NEW YORK, September 17, 2013) – The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is pleased to announce the appointment of the first Jacob Kronhill Visiting Scholar, Dr. Steven Zipperstein, Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History at Stanford University. The Jacob Kronhill Visiting Scholar will conduct a graduate-level seminar in ...

On September 16, 2013, Jason Lustig, a Ph.D. candidate in the History Department at UCLA, will deliver a lecture at YIVO on his ongoing research on the emergence of modern Jewish archives from the turn of the twentieth century through the 1950s. Lustig is the recipient of the Max Weinreich Center's current Professor Bernard Choseed Memorial Fellowship and the Natalie and Mendel Racolin Memorial Fellowship.

Here is an excerpt of his interview with Yedies editor Roberta Newman.

Author Daniel Soyer talks about his book.

YIVO Fall Yiddish Classes
All classes will be held at the YIVO Institute, 15 W. 16th St., NYC, in the third floor conference room.

Elementary Yiddish
Eve Jochnowitz
THURSDAYS, OCTOBER 10TH THROUGH DECEMBER 19TH, 6:30 PM-8:30 PM (10 sessions)

Eve Jochnowitz is a Yiddish instructor, and lecturer in Jewish Culinary History at Living Traditions Klezkamp. She recently completed a doctoral dissertation on the subject of Jewish culinary ethnography at New York University. She blogs in English and Yiddish at inmolaraan.blogspot.com and is the co-host with Rukhl Schaechter Ejdelman of Est Gezunterheyt!, a cooking show in Yiddish. She is the translator, annotator, and adapter of the forthcoming YIVO publication, Fania Lewando’s Vegetarian Cookbook, originally published in Vilna in 1938.