A Discussion About YIVO’s American Jewish Autobiography Collection (1965)

In this episode of YIVO’s radio program on WEVD, YIVO Chief Archivist Ezekiel Lifshutz joins host Sheftl Zak to talk about YIVO’s collection of American Jewish autobiographies, collected during the course of a 1942 essay contest on the theme “Why I left Europe and what I have accomplished in America.” Lifschutz had recently published an article about the collection in American Jewish Historical Quarterly.    

Some of the autobiographies have been translated and appear in the book My Future Is In America: Autobiographies Of Eastern European Jewish Immigrants.

From 1963-1976, YIVO had its own program on WEVD, the radio station established by the Socialist Party of America in 1927 (its call letters stand for the initials of American socialist leader Eugene V. Debs), which was purchased by the Jewish Daily Forward in 1932 and became a major venue from Yiddish programming.

YIVO used its spot on WEVD for Yiddish-language interviews and discussions with leading New York Yiddish cultural figures, as well as for reporting on its own scholarly and cultural work.

A new podcast of this program in the order in which it was originally broadcast will be posted here every two weeks.

Presentation of series curated by Matt Temkin, YIVO Sound Archives.

Listen to the program [in Yiddish].