NUMBER 206 SPRING 2010 Mickey Ross Gift Milstein Conference Marks Culmination Yields $4.5 Million Of Jewish Communal Archive Project For YIVO’s Mission Digitized resources will soon go on line YIVO learned in 2009 that it is among sev­ The daylong Milstein Conference on New eral Yiddish institutions that are the prin­ York and the American Jewish Experience cipal benefi ciaries of the estate of Michael took place on November 2, 2009, in the au­ (Mickey) Ross, an award­winning televi­ ditorium of the Center for Jewish History. sion writer who was the fi rst­generation Sponsored by YIVO in cooperation with son of Jewish immigrant parents. The ini­ the 92nd Street Y, The Educational Alli­ tial bequest, YIVO’s share of which may ance, F·E·G·S Health and Human Services reach $4.5 million, is the largest single gift System, NYANA, and Surprise Lake Camp, in YIVO’s history. It will be supplemented the highly successful and well­attended by periodic residual payments from the es­ conference featured more than 25 speakers tate. Sharing the estate with YIVO are the and marked the culmination of the Milstein National Yiddish Book Center and the Los Family Jewish Communal Archive Project, Angeles Jewish Foundation. carried out by YIVO since 2006 under a Jonathan Brent opening the conference “This bequest comes at a critical time for $225,000 grant from the Milstein Family us,” said Jonathan Brent, YIVO’s executive Foundation and the Howard and Abby director and CEO. “It will bolster our endow­ Milstein Foundation. of digitized documents and photographs ment and help ensure that YIVO will contin­ In light of fi nancial and administrative as well as essays, articles, and other educa­ ue its work of preserving the legacy of East challenges that threaten the ability of or­ tional resources. The web site also features European Jewish history and culture.” ganizations to maintain and protect their a special 18­minute doc umentary fi lm with Mickey Ross, born Isidore Rovinsky historic legacy for future generations, the interviews with New York Jewish commu­ in New York City in 1919, was an Emmy Milstein Project was developed in response nal leaders, providing a window into the Award–winning writer and part of the team to this growing concern for the survival history of Jewish New York as a whole. that created hit television shows, including of Jewish communal archives. In 2006 and YIVO Executive Director Jonathan Brent All in the Family (along with Norman Lear), 2007, the Milstein project team surveyed opened the morning session, expressing The Jeffersons, and Three’s Company, during the archives of the fi ve sponsoring agencies his thanks to the Milstein Family Founda­ the 1970s and 1980s. Among the other televi­ and created a website that summ a rizes the tion and the Howard and Abby Milstein sion shows he worked on were The Martha results of the survey. For the fi rst time, por­ Foundation for their generous support to Raye Show and The Gary Moore Show, both tions of the historic archives of the larger save and preserve the history of Jewish broadcast in the 1950s. During a 1992 inter­ New York Jewish community will be avai­ life in the New York area. Brent also voiced view with the New York Times, Ross respon­ lable to the public, with about 2,000 pages his appreciation to John Ruskay, CEO and ded to a question about his interest in Jewish executive vice president of the UJA Fe­ culture by saying, “I was born of immigrant deration of New York, for his leadership parents. I loved their attitude, their ways, role in getting the project launched. Brent their morals. I don’t want to see that lost.” Upcoming also recognized the work of the dedicated “This timely gift will enable us to plan Event! Milstein project team, including project ar­ more innovative programs and initiatives in chivists Francesca Pitaro and Donna Lewi, the near future, including scholarly confer­ YIVO to honor who carried out the archival survey and ences on topics ranging from ‘The History created the Milstein website, and project of the Shtetl,’ ‘The Jews and the Left,’ and Stanley Fischer at coordinator Ettie Goldwasser. ‘Eastern European Jewish Emigration to 85th Anniversary Dinner Evan Kingsley, executive director of the America,’ to ‘Sholem Aleichem and Other See page 10 American Jewish Historical Society, and Early Twentieth­Century Jewish Writers’ Hasia Diner, Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg and ‘The History of YIVO,’” Brent noted. continued on page 6 From the Chairman of the Board Founded in Vilna, Poland, and headquartered in New The Best Time Is Now York since 1940, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is devoted to the history, society, and culture of Ashkenazic I see an ongoing theme reflected in this issue Jewry and the influence of that culture as it has developed of the YIVO News/Yedies that can be sum­ in the Americas. YIVO is the preeminent center for the med up as a revived sense of purpose. Never study, dissemination, and preservation of the language, in two decades as chairman of this revered literature, and lives of Eastern European Jews and the organization have I seen our staff and sup­ American Jewish immigrant experience. porters so full of new ideas and renewed energy. Chairman of the Board. Bruce Slovin This fresh energy is embodied in YIVO’s new executive director and CEO, Jonathan Executive Director and CEO. Jonathan Brent Brent, whose background in publishing at Yale University Press—particularly his work Director of Development on The Annals of Communism series—so Bruce Slovin and External Affairs. Ella Levine closely matches YIVO’s own focus on our Eastern European roots and how they continue to touch our lives today. Jo­ Director of Finance nathan brings a wealth of ideas for innovative projects and programming, and Administration. Antonio R. Megino new contacts, and unique opportunities to forge partnerships with other Chief Archivist. Fruma Mohrer scholarly institutions. As you read this issue you will see on every page evidence of enthu­ Head Librarian. Aviva Astrinsky siasm and engagement throughout the organization. It has been a good year. First, we are proud that YIVO received a major bequest from the late Yedies /YIVO News Michael “Mickey” Ross, a pivotal television writer and producer who loved Editor in Chief and Yiddish (see article, front page). Such a tremendous gift—the largest sin­ Director of Publications. Jeffrey P. Edelstein gle gift in the history of YIVO—will stabilize our endowment and help us jump­start our plans for the future. With this firm foundation to support Yiddish Editor and Associate Dean, our work, we are again able to dream big. Max Weinreich Center. .Paul (Hershl) Glasser Our work—that of preserving and teaching about our history and culture—was highlighted during the all­day public conference “New York Editor and Senior Writer . Elise L. F. Fischer and the American Jewish Experience” (November 2, 2009) funded by the Contributors Milstein Family Foundation and the Howard and Abby Milstein Founda­ Naomi Gates-Monasch tion. The conference marked the completion of the intensive three­year Ettie Goldwasser Milstein Family Jewish Communal Archive Project and featured papers by Leo Greenbaum scholars on a wide variety of political, social, and cultural issues. YIVO led Lorri M. Greif the project, in collaboration with the 92nd Street Y, the Educational Alli­ Nadia Kahn ance, F·E·G·S Health and Human Service System, NYANA, and Surprise Lyudmila Sholokhova Lake Camp. Harold Steinblatt Under Jonathan Brent’s leadership, YIVO held the first Sidney Krum Young Artists Concert on January 31, 2010, featuring brilliant, classical Guest Contributors musicians from the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music Miriam-Khaye Seigal who played a variety of works from the YIVO Sound and Music Archives. Gosia Zaremba The passion for perfection shown by these young performers is also shown in YIVO’s daily work. Very soon you will be able to peruse the en­ tire online edition of The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe on your computer. This website augments the already rich content of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research printed work with sound and film clips. Additional images and digitized documents will make the site a portal to the vast and unparalleled collec­ 15 West 16th Street tions of the YIVO Archives. New York, NY 10011-6301 Phone : 212.246.6080 • Fax : 212.292.1892 These are good days at YIVO, and you can be proud of everything we www.yivo.org do. Thank you all for helping to support this great institution, and for mak­ [email protected] ing it possible for YIVO to begin its 86th year in excellent health. 2 YIVO NEWS From the Executive Director Continuing YIVO’s Noble Mission in the U.S. and in Eastern Europe I am pleased to be able to point to ernment in Ukraine, the emergence of Ukrainian ultranationalist many positive developments since and Nazi sympathizer Stepan Bandera as a popular hero, and the I became YIVO’s executive director encroachment of proto­fascistic groups in the ruling coalitions in last July—some of them from good several countries of Eastern Europe all point to the fragility of the luck and some from hard work. We values we often take for granted in the post–cold war world. have received two major bequests, Some years ago, Polish writer Adam Michnik said that in Po­ the first from the estate of Mickey land everybody loves democracy but nobody cares about freedom. Ross, which may total some $5 mil­ Freedom, democracy, and social justice are values intrinsic to lion when it is completely accounted, Jewish civilization.