Blog

Bak­er explores the career of Abra­ham S. Frei­dus, a reclu­sive, pio­neer­ing, and Yid­dish-the­ater-lov­ing Judaica librar­i­an. His research reveals the tight nexus that exist­ed a cen­tu­ry ago between a small coterie of East­ern Euro­pean-born Judaica librar­i­ans in the Unit­ed States; their phil­an­thropic patrons of Cen­tral Euro­pean back­ground; and the large­ly male, Yid­dish-speak­ing read­ers who fre­quent­ed the impor­tant Jew­ish libraries of that era. 

Mar 07, 2021

Ele­na Hof­fern­berg inter­views Ger­ben Zaags­ma about his path to study­ing Yid­dish in the Span­ish Civ­il War; the poten­cy and the frus­tra­tions of dig­i­tal research; and the future of dig­i­tal stud­ies and Yiddish.

Feb 25, 2020

Sholem Asch’s arrival at the small house at 50 Arlozorov Street in the coastal town of Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv, was to be his final move in over two decades of trav­els. Six decades lat­er, the house has been care­ful­ly restored and reopened as a museum.

Feb 16, 2020

We are inter­est­ed in pieces that place the recent events at YIVO in the con­text of dis­ci­pline-wide trends, his­tor­i­cal, eco­nom­ic, schol­ar­ly and oth­er­wise, and that help us think through the broad­er forces that pro­duced this moment and its pos­si­ble ramifications. 

Feb 09, 2020

Saulė Val­iū­naitė offers a glimpse into the sto­ried Velfke’s restau­rant, a gath­er­ing place for Yid­dish writ­ers, actors, and artists in inter­war Vilne.

Jan 21, 2020

Our new Briv funem arkhiv sec­tion will fea­ture short pieces about inter­est­ing, sig­nif­i­cant, fun­ny, or sur­pris­ing archival finds. 

Sep 22, 2019

An inter­view with Nao­mi Sei­d­man, Chan­cel­lor Jack­man Pro­fes­sor of the Human­i­ties at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, and Basya Schechter, musi­cian and founder of Pharoah’s Daugh­ter, who are work­ing on their com­pelling project called The Bais Yaakov project.

Jun 05, 2019

David Shneer inter­views Rob Adler Peck­er­ar and Alexx Shilling about their project to bring embod­ied artis­tic inter­pre­ta­tion to bear on a lin­guis­tic archive. 

May 20, 2019

On tak­ing revenge against neg­li­gent edi­tors in the archive. 

Dec 05, 2018

Feb 12, 2018