Nov 1, 2013

YIVO Executive Director Jonathan Brent's review of Seth Lipsky’s newly published biography of Abraham Cahan, founder of the Forward, was published in the latest issue of Moment Magazine.

On October 11, Jonathan traveled to Vilnius to participate in a meeting of the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania. The Commission is a member of the European Union’s Platform of European Memory and Conscience and is charged with researching the crimes of both the Nazi and the Soviet occupations of Lithuania beginning in 1940, with the aim of creating accurate historical narratives. As a member of the commission, Jonathan’s  specific role will be to work with the sub-group devoted to the crimes of Stalinism in Lithuania.

Several days later, Jonathan flew to Kiev (Kyiv), to participate in the International Conference on Anti-Semitism, organized by the Ukrainian Jewish Committee with the support of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He moderated two panels, one devoted to the Beilis Trial  and the other to the current state of antisemitism throughout Eastern Europe and Russia.

On October 7, Head Librarian Lyudmila Sholokhova appeared on a panel, "Archival Survival in Times of War and Armed Conflict" at the Disaster Symposium of the Archivists Roundtable of Metropolitan New York on the topic "The Paper Brigade and Saving the YIVO Collections." On October 20th, she delivered a lecture at the Harry G. Friedman Society at the Jewish Museum on the topic, "Soviet Propaganda in the Illustrated Yiddish Children's Books: From the Collections of the YIVO Library."

Lyudmila’s article "Yehiel Goyzman (Alter Chudnover, 1849-1913): A Klezmer Violinist in Transition from Folk Music to Classical Style Performance" has been published in Judische Musik als Dialog der Kulturen, in the Judische Musik series, Vol. 12 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2013), 43-57.

YIVO Academic Advisor Eddy Portnoy published "Superman is a Glatt Goy" in Marginalia.

The Arts: A Museum in the Void (Hadassah Magazine)
YIVO's partnership with The Museum of the History of Polish Jews is mentioned in this article by Ruth Ellen Gruber.

Erika Dreifus' blog feature "Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat" recommends YIVO's public program "The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of Sholem Aleichem," referring to Jonathan Brent, Jeremy Dauber, and Adam Kirsch as a "powerhouse intellectual trio."

"The Zhelonek song 'Harey At' is found under the name 'Ikh ganve in der nakht.'"
This article about Polish Jewish cabaret cites The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe.

An article on the Hackescher Markt in Berlin and the city's prewar role as a center of Yiddish culture mentions that YIVO had a branch office there in the 1920s-30s.