YIVO’s 40th Anniversary/25th Anniversary of Relocation to New York (1965)

Today’s episode was original heard on January 17, 1965. On the 40th anniversary of the founding of YIVO and the 25th anniversary of its relocation to New York, host Sheftl Zak talks about the annual YIVO conference which had begun the night before. As the February 1965 edition of Yedies would go on to report,

The elements conspired savagely against the opening session. A heavy snow, accompanied by winds of nearly gale velocity, fell continuously upon the city for nearly 24 hours before the opening. The Weather Bureau and the municipal traffic authorities broadcast warnings to the people to keep off the roads and streets as much as possible. Nevertheless some 400 devoted YIVO friends made their way to Hunter College Assembly Hall, where the opening session took place, under the chairmanship of Dr. Nathan Reich. 

The program begins by listing the founders of YIVO in America and how they made their way to America and ends with a question from a listener about the word pinkes (community register).

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].