Yiddish Civilization Lecture Series 2024
This summer’s Yiddish Civilization Lecture Series takes place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from June 25 to July 25. Featuring some of the field’s leading scholars, it will cover topics ranging from Jewish history and the Yiddish language to literature, music, and culture.
Tuesday lectures are in English and Thursday lectures are in Yiddish. |
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| JULY LECTURES |
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Tuesday, July 9 | 2:00pm (ET) INSTILLING YIDDISHKAYT INTO ZIONISM On Zoom | Delivered in English Dina Porat discusses WWII partisan, poet, and intellectual Abba Kovner’s attempts to preserve East European Jewish culture by creating a new kind of community at Kibbutz Ein HaHoresh. (In English)
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Thursday, July 11 | 2:00pm (ET) TESTIMONIES IN RESPONSA AND WHAT THEY TELL US ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPOKEN YIDDISH On Zoom | Delivered in Yiddish Moshe Taube explores the syntax, morphology, and the lexicon of testimonies written in “Loshn Ashkenaz” (Yiddish and German) to learn about the the development of spoken and written Yiddish. (In Yiddish)
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Thursday, July 18 | 2:00pm (ET) LIBES BRIV (18TH C.): ISAAC WETZLAR’S CALL FOR REFORM OF JEWISH SOCIETY AND EDUCATION On Zoom | Delivered in Yiddish Marion Aptroot explores Isaac Wetzlar’s ideas for reforming Jewish education in Ashkenaz in the mid-18th century. (In Yiddish)
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Tuesday, July 23 | 2:00pm (ET) MUSICAL PRIPETSHIK: LYRICS AND MELODIES OF TRADITIONAL YIDDISH FOLKSONGS On Zoom | Delivered in English Michael Lukin explores little-known Eastern Yiddish musical folklore, which was an integral part of Jewish culture and evolved in meaning and function over time. (In English)
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Thursday, July 25 | 2:00pm (ET) ETHNOGRAPHERS BETWEEN YIDDISH AND POLISH: A STUDY IN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY On Zoom | Delivered in Yiddish Karolina Szymaniak presents the roles Chaim Chajes and Daniel Fajnsztejn played in shaping modern ethnography, and what could have become a new field of study if not for the outbreak of World War II and the Holocaust. (In Yiddish)
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