Isaiah Trunk on the Lodz Ghetto (1964)

On December 20, 1964, historian Isaiah Trunk, a YIVO Research Associate and co-editor of the journals YIVO Annual and YIVO bleter, gave this interview to Sheftl Zak, host of YIVO’s radio program on WEVD, about his work researching the Lodz Ghetto and his book, Lodzher geto: a historishe un sotsyologishe shtudye (Ghetto Lodz: A Historical and Sociological Study) (1962).

There are two separate collections of Trunk's Papers in the YIVO Archives: RG 483 and RG 1453.

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].