Newsletter FALL 2019
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LOCATED IN THE CENTER FOR JEWISH HISTORY 15 West 16th Street New York, NY 10011-6301 yivo.org 212.246.6080 Newsletter FALL 2019 The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide. For nearly a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression. Our public programs and exhibitions, as well as online and on-site courses, extend our global outreach and enable us to share our vast resources. The YIVO Archives contains more than 23 million original items and YIVO’s Library has over 400,000 volumes—the single largest resource for such study in the world. Follow us @YIVOInstitute LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR Contact tel 212.246.6080 Dear Friends, fax 212.292.1892 yivo.org On July 6, 2019, I received an award from the president of General Inquiries [email protected] Lithuania for YIVO’s work in the preservation of the prewar Archival Inquiries Jewish archives of Lithuania through the Edward Blank YIVO [email protected] Photo/Film Archives | [email protected] Vilna Online Collections project. I was proud to accept this Sound Archives | [email protected] award because it acknowledged the excellent collaboration Library Inquiries between YIVO and our Lithuanian partners. Importantly, it recognizes the value [email protected] of this work in helping to recover Lithuania’s Jewish past that can provide a Travel Directions foundation for building the kind of multicultural, liberal, and democratic soci- The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is located in the Center for Jewish History at 15 West 16th Street between Fifth and ety that many in Lithuania wish for their country. Through this project and our Sixth Avenues, New York, NY 10011. numerous other projects and programs, YIVO is playing an increasingly visible by subway role in the contemporary world of furthering the values of tolerance, openness, 14 St / Union Sq. L N Q R W 4 5 6 and liberal democracy. At a time when the forces of darkness are building around 14 St + 6 Ave F L M PATH 18 St + 7 Ave 1 the world, this role is more important than ever. It is what political scientists 14 St + 7 Ave 1 2 3 14 St + 8 Ave A C E L call “soft power.” It is the power of culture based on knowledge and historical by bus truth. Preserving our traditions and our history preserves this power. Join YIVO as a member or donor and help us continue to be a force for good in the world. Hours [ CLOSED ON MAJOR FEDERAL AND JEWISH HOLIDAYS ] Gallery Hours Administrative Hours Sun 11:00am-5:00pm Mon–Thu 9:00am-5:00pm Mon+Wed 9:30am-8:00pm Fri 9:00am-4:00pm Jonathan Brent Tue+Thu 9:30am-5:00pm Fri 9:30am-3:00pm Library Hours Mon–Thu 9:30am-5:00pm Executive Director & CEO Sat CLOSED NEWS FROM YIVO REFLECTIONS ON YIVO’s sold-out Saints and Sinners Literary Tour of Ukraine visited numerous sites of major SAVE THE DATE — NOVEMBER 20, 2019 YIVO’s 2019 Jewish figures throughout Ukraine, among HONORING: Ukrainian them the good, the bad, and the ugly. Our YIVO’s Gala Award Dinner Jewish Literary intrepid scholar, Samuel Kassow, led the group Roberta Grossman, an award-winning filmmaker with a of 23 travelers, providing a unique perspective Tour passion for history and social justice, has written, directed, on the lives and works of important Jewish writ- and produced more than 45 hours of film and television. by EDDY PORTNOY ers in the very places they lived and worked. Her films tell stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things in the name of justice. Grossman wrote, produced, Starting in Kiev at the Sholem Aleichem Museum, we saw artifacts and and directed Who Will Write Our History. a presentation about the great Yiddish writer. We also visited the Ver- nadsky Library, home to one of the largest and most important collections Dr. Samuel Kassow, the Charles H. Northam Professor of of Judaica in the world. The library has hundreds of pinkasim (commu- History at Trinity College, is recognized as one of the world’s nal record books) and rare original recordings from Sh. An-ski’s 1912 leading scholars on the Holocaust and the Jews of Poland. ethnographic expedition. Just outside Kiev, we stopped at Babi Yar, He is widely known for his 2007 book, Who Will Write Our where approximately 33,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their History? Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Ukrainian henchmen over two days in September 1941. Oyneg Shabes Archive, and has won numerous awards. We visited the shtetlekh where Sholem Aleichem was born and raised— considered the birthplace of his literary craft—and the tombs of Hasidic WITH MASTER OF CEREMONIES: master, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak, the founder of the Hasidic movement, the Producer Nancy Spielberg grew up immersed in film- Ba’al Shem Tov, and Reb Nakhman of Bratslav. making and is an accomplished businesswoman and philanthropist. She is executive producer of Who Will Write In Odessa, once home to the third largest Jewish community in Europe, Our History, which tells the story of the secret buried archive we walked to the homes of writers Isaac Babel, Hayim Nahman Bialik, Vlad- of the Warsaw Ghetto. imir Jabotinsky, Mendele Moykher Sforim, and Sholem Aleichem, among For more information, please contact Elina Bloch: others. We discussed their lives and works and read from their writings. [email protected] 917.606.8287 Sam Kassow read Isaac Babel’s description of Benya Krik’s wedding in an Odessa courtyard – in the very courtyard in which it took place. Participants got a taste of the richness of Ukrainian Jewish culture—from the saints to the sinners—all where it took place, where the smells and the tastes of life are still the same. New Board Jon Richmond is the Trustee of The Shine Member: Trust, a philanthropic organization based READ MORE AT: yivo.org/LiteraryTour2019 in Los Angeles, California dedicated Jon Richmond to supporting numerous American and This June, travelers from the United States, Israeli organizations. When not focused REFLECTIONS ON Israel, and Australia joined YIVO’s fourth annual on philanthropic matters, Jon manages YIVO’s 2019 Lithuania and Poland Study Tour. Noted histo- investments for the principals of Wexford Lithuania & rian Dr. Samuel Kassow took the participants Capital based in Palm Beach, Florida and Poland Study on an unforgettable journey of historical and Greenwich, Connecticut. An attorney by personal discovery. Being exposed to our training, Jon spent many years as a senior Tour recent past and seeing the places where the executive at The Walt Disney Company, by ELINA BLOCH greatest tragedy in our history occurred was an Twentieth Century Fox, and Newscorp. unparalleled experience. Meeting the dynamic Jon also practiced investment banking young Jews rebuilding new communities and recognizing a past that we as a Managing Director at Houlihan Lokey in Los Angeles. Jon thought was obliterated was deeply moving. And hearing the voices of received his B.A. in Economics and English from the University of the Jewish Culture Festival, the largest Jewish festival in Europe, was a California at Berkeley and his J.D. from UCLA School of Law. He one-of-a kind cultural pleasure. resides in Los Angeles, California. In Lithuania, tour participants visited the National Library and the Central On July 6, 2019, the Cross of the Knight State Archives—YIVO’s partners in the landmark Edward Blank YIVO Vilna YIVO’s of the Order for Merits to Lithuania was Online Collections project, an international preservation and digitization Jonathan conferred upon YIVO Executive Director initiative to virtually reunite YIVO’s prewar library and archival collections Brent Receives and CEO Jonathan Brent by H.E. Dalia located in New York City and Vilnius. We also attended the unveiling Lithuanian Grybauskaitė, President of the Republic ceremony of the YIVO Commemorative Plaque at 18 Vivulskio Street, the State Award of Lithuania. The award was given to Mr. site where YIVO’s original building stood from 1933 until its destruction Brent in recognition of his work in pro- in 1944. In Poland, we discovered the remarkable treasures of Warsaw moting cooperation between Lithuania and YIVO and for the and Krakow, walked through the magical Białowieża Forest, and visited preservation of the prewar Jewish archives of Lithuania. historical sites at Łódź and Lublin. The award followed an unveiling ceremony on June 20, 2019 of a As Beryl Benderly, one of the tour participants, remarked: “They say that plaque at the site where the original YIVO building once stood, travel broadens, but I think that the trip we just shared did something dif- at 18 Vivulskio Street, Vilnius, Lithuania (then: Vilna, Poland). The ferent. It deepened—deepened my understanding of my shtetl ancestors YIVO building was at the center of the Jewish scholarly world from and my sense of connection to the world they lived in and how it shaped 1933 until its destruction in 1944, after being ransacked by the me and all Jews.” Nazis. The plaque was installed to honor YIVO’s contributions to READ MORE AT: yivo.org/StudyTour2019 both the Lithuanian and Jewish communities. YIVO Chief of In June, Shelly Freeman, YIVO’s Chief of Staff, Staff Attends attended the Smithsonian Affiliates Nation- al Conference in Washington, DC. As well as Smithsonian mixing with Smithsonian affiliates and learning Affiliates about the latest developments in museums Conference and institutions across the country, Shelly met in DC with several representatives from the National YIVO’s 2019 Museum of American History – one of the top Ukrainian Jewish three Smithsonian museums in DC.