YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

TOMORROW: A community reading led by Mikhl Yashinsky brings to life Jonas Kreppel’s unforgettable detective Max Spitzkopf, whose daring exploits unfold in the final years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire through the rhythms of the original Yiddish text.

Community Read: The Yiddish Sherlock Holmes

“It’s a powerful way to ensure that these stories are never forgotten. Students become witnesses to the witnesses, and that experience stays with them.”

Staten Island students document Holocaust survivors in new film project Students in the program interviewed Holocaust survivors Arnold Aronowitz, Thomas Karfunkel and Sonia Lam, capturing testimonies that reflec persecution and survival.

Eager to begin or continue your Yiddish learning or take a seminar this summer without the full-time commitment of the YIVO-Bard Summer Program? YIVO is offering Yiddish classes at multiple levels of proficiency, as well as seminars in Jewish history, literature, and culture.

Summer Semester

Drawing on multilingual archival discoveries, Rebecca Kobrin uncovers how Jewish lenders enabled migration and entrepreneurship when formal institutions failed, in conversation with Annie Polland.

Eastern European Jewish Immigrant Bankers and the Shaping of American Finance, 1873–1930

Enjoyed today's program and want to know more about Malka Owsiany's story? Buy Malka Owsiany Recounts: A Chronicle of Our Time to read more!

Elissa Sampson, Jennifer Young, and Felicia Bevel, in a conversation moderated by Kate Rosenblatt, trace how the International Workers Order built an ambitious vision of in*******al solidarity among working-class communities in the United States.

The In*******al Left and the International Workers Order, 1930–1954

"For decades, the family of Abraham Adelsberger, a Jewish toy manufacturer who fled Germany to escape N**i persecution, has sought the return of a landscape painting he owned that was attributed by some to Peter Paul Rubens."

In This N**i-Era Restitution Dispute, the Focus Turns to a Missing Cow A family is vying for the return of a painting it thought was by Rubens. But an expert says it’s a copy because it does not include the artist’s depiction of a peeing cow.

TOMORROW: Written in the immediate aftermath of World War II, Malka Owsiany’s account offers a rare window into both destruction and rebuilding, explored in a conversation with Sandra Chiritescu and Malena Chinski, led by Rachelle Grossman.

Malka Owsiany Recounts by Mark Turkow