The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research Podcast

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research Podcast

episodes

A podcast from the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research featuring talks, lectures, and cultural programming on Jewish history, language, and culture. Learn more at www.yivo.org

"My Heart is in the East": How Yiddish Speakers Moved to the East

May 19, 2026

"My Heart is in the East"

Shaul Stampfer
Hosted by YIVO Institute

The question of origins is often difficult to study because originators do not always leave a paper trail. Therefore, uncovering origins can be challe…

In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918-1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust

May 18, 2026

In the Midst of Civilized Europe

Jeffrey Veidlinger in conversation with Steven Zipperstein
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Between 1918 and 1921, over a hundred thousand Jews were murdered in Ukraine by peasants, townsmen, and soldiers who blamed the Jews for the turmoil o…

Under the Tenement Rooftops: Immigrant and Migrant Families in New York

May 16, 2026

Under the Tenement Rooftops

Annie Polland
Hosted by YIVO Institute

The Tenement Museum preserves and interprets the personal stories of residents of two buildings on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Ninety-seven Orch…

The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos

May 13, 2026

The Light of Days

Judy Batalion
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Witnesses to the brutal murder of their families and neighbors and the violent destruction of their communities, a cadre of Jewish women in Poland—som…

The YIVO Sound Archive at 40: A Celebration

May 11, 2026

The YIVO Sound Archive at 40

Hankus Netsky, Henry Sapoznik, Lorin Sklamberg, Eléonore Biezunski, and Jenny Romaine
Hosted by YIVO Institute

The YIVO Sound Archive houses over 20,000 recordings (including 78, 45, and 33rpm discs, open-reel and cassette tapes, piano rolls, and compact discs …

Nazi-Looted Art and Archives: Recovering and Preserving Jewish Culture

May 10, 2026

Nazi-Looted Art and Archives

Jonathan Brent and Howard Spiegler
Hosted by YIVO Institute

The ravages of the Holocaust and post-World War II led to the theft and disappearance of art, archives, and personal assets. Join Jonathan Brent and H…

Jewish Anarchist Women 1920–1950: The Politics of Sexuality

May 8, 2026

Jewish Anarchist Women 1920–1950

Hosted by YIVO Institute

Anarchist theory includes the belief in freedom for all - that no one person, nor group of people, should have power over any others; that individuals…

Yiddish: Biography of a Language

May 6, 2026

Yiddish: Biography of a Language

Jeffrey Shandler
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Jeffrey Shandler’s new book, Yiddish: Biography of a Language (Oxford UP, 2020), presents the story of Yiddish, the defining vernacular of Ashkenazi J…

The Lost World of African American Cantors 1915–1953

April 28, 2026

The Lost World of African American Cantors 1915–1953

Henry Sapoznik
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Histories of Black-Jewish cultural interaction often focus on how Jews adopted and adapted Black vernacular music—ragtime, jazz, swing, R&B, blues—as …

Am Yisrael High: The Story of Jews and Cannabis

April 20, 2026

Am Yisrael High

Ed Rosenthal, Adriana Kertzer, Rabbi/Dr. Yosef Glassman, and Madison Margolin
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Mentioned in the Bible and discussed in numerous traditional texts, cannabis has long been a part of Jewish life. For millennia, Jews have been buying…

From the Vilna Ghetto to Nuremberg: Memoir and Testimony

April 19, 2026

From the Vilna Ghetto to Nuremberg

Justin Cammy
Hosted by YIVO Institute

After escaping the Vilna Ghetto and surviving winter in the forest among partisan fighters, Avrom Sutzkever was airlifted to Moscow in 1944. The renow…

Dybbuks, Golems, S. An-ski, and Jewish Legends in Times of Fear

April 18, 2026

Dybbuks, Golems, S. An-ski, and Jewish Legends in Times of Fear

Gabriella Safran
Hosted by YIVO Institute

S. An-ski’s play The Dybbuk, a story of possession set in a shtetl (think The Exorcist meets Fiddler on the Roof), is the foundation of modern Jewish …

The Barton Brothers, Mickey Katz, and Others: Yiddish-English Bilingual Parody Songs

April 16, 2026

The Barton Brothers, Mickey Katz, and Others

Hosted by YIVO Institute

In the years immediately following the Second World War, the Barton Brothers, an anarchic Catskill comedy duo, began recording humorous macaronic (tha…

Fermenting and Foraging: Resourcefulness in the Historical and Contemporary Kitchen

April 12, 2026

Fermenting and Foraging

Jane Ziegelman, Ari Miller, and Jeremy Umansky
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Today, techniques such as fermenting and foraging are increasingly appealing to those seeking to create economical, nourishing, waste-free meals. This…

Avrom Sutzkever: Ten Poems

April 10, 2026

Avrom Sutzkever

Hosted by YIVO Institute

In 2017, a cache of Jewish materials was discovered in the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. The discovery included a manuscript of “Ts…

Yiddish Children’s Literature and Jewish Modernity: A Conversation with Miriam Udel

April 6, 2026

Yiddish Children’s Literature and Jewish Modernity

Miriam Udel
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Scholars are only beginning to consider the corpus of nearly one thousand extant books, as well as several periodicals, that constitute the Yiddish ch…

Rethinking Kishinev: How a Riot Changed 20th Century Jewish History

April 2, 2026

Rethinking Kishinev

Hosted by YIVO Institute

Kishinev's 1903 pogrom was the first event in Russian Jewish life to receive international attention. The riot, leaving 49 dead in an obscure border t…

Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese Food

March 30, 2026

Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese Food

Andrew Coe
Hosted by YIVO Institute

For many Ashkenazi Jews in the United States, Christmastime sparks memories of egg rolls and General Tso's chicken. How did the affinity for Chinese f…

Yiddish in Israel: A History

March 27, 2026

Yiddish in Israel

Rachel Rojanski
Hosted by YIVO Institute

The new book Yiddish in Israel: A History (Indiana UP, 2020) challenges the commonly held view that Yiddish was suppressed or even banned by Israeli a…

The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of Sholem Aleichem

March 24, 2026

The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of Sholem Aleichem

Jeremy Dauber and Adam Kirsch
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Novelist, playwright, journalist, essayist, and editor, Sholem Aleichem was one of the founding giants of modern Yiddish literature. The creator of a …