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

Russia’s Jews in World War I

August 8, 2026

Russia’s Jews in World War I

Polly Zavadivker
Hosted by YIVO Institute

When World War I began, the Russian Empire was home to more than 5.7 million Jews, the most densely settled Jewish population in the world. Thirty yea…

Hasidism in Poland on the Eve of the Holocaust

August 6, 2026

Hasidism in Poland on the Eve of the Holocaust

Glenn Dynner
Hosted by YIVO Institute

The Light of Learning (Oxford UP, 2024) tells the story of an unexpected Hasidic revival in Poland on the eve of the Holocaust. In the aftermath of Wo…

Yiddish Language During the Holocaust

August 5, 2026

Yiddish Language During the Holocaust

Hannah Pollin-Galay
Hosted by YIVO Institute

The Holocaust radically altered the way many East European Jews spoke Yiddish. Finding prewar language incapable of describing the imprisonment, death…

The YIVO Library in New York: Personal Reflections on Its History and Collections

July 31, 2026

The YIVO Library in New York

Zachary M. Baker
Hosted by YIVO Institute

In the mid-1930s a group of New York Yiddishist intellectuals established the Central Jewish Library and Press Archive, whose collections became the n…

Two Revolutionary Jews: Leon Trotsky and Chaim Zhitlowsky

July 29, 2026

Two Revolutionary Jews

Tony Michels
Hosted by YIVO Institute

When Jews plunged into the world of politics en masse at the beginning of the 20th century, a variety of new options were available to them. Two of th…

New Trends in YIVO Scholarship

July 27, 2026

New Trends in YIVO Scholarship

William Pimlott, Kamil Kijek, Nicolas Vallois and Jessica Kirzane
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Since 1925, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research has been a pioneer in the field of Jewish studies. At the core of YIVO since its founding was its c…

Jewish Folk Medicine in Eastern Europe

July 25, 2026

Jewish Folk Medicine in Eastern Europe

Marek Tuszewicki
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Jews have been active participants in shaping the healing practices of the communities of Eastern Europe. Their approach largely combined the ideas of…

Heidegger in Ruins

July 13, 2026

Heidegger in Ruins

Richard Wolin
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Martin Heidegger’s sympathies for the conservative revolution and National Socialism have long been well known. As the rector of the University of Fre…

Yiddish Tangos and Klezmer Mambos

July 10, 2026

Yiddish Tangos and Klezmer Mambos

Ronald Robboy, Sonia Gollance, Josh Kun
Hosted by YIVO Institute

This panel discussion will explore the remarkable influence of Latin American music and dance on the culture of Yiddish speaking communities in the Un…

Psychoanalysis and Jewish Languages

July 8, 2026

Psychoanalysis and Jewish Languages

Naomi Seidman
Hosted by YIVO Institute

There is an academic interest in the "Jewish Freud," aiming to detect Jewish influences on Freud, his own feelings about being Jewish, and suppressed …

Mixed-Sex Dancing and Jewish Modernity

July 6, 2026

Mixed-Sex Dancing and Jewish Modernity

Sonia Gollance and Josh Lambert
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Dances and balls appear throughout world literature as venues for young people to meet, flirt, and form relationships, as any reader of Pride and Prej…

Max Weinreich and the Meaning of Yiddish

July 3, 2026

Max Weinreich and the Meaning of Yiddish

Naomi Seidman, Kenneth Moss, and Jeffrey Shandler
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Max Weinreich spent the entirety of his adult life building YIVO and the field of Yiddish Studies. A 'convert' to the cause of Yiddishism in his adole…

Good Goy, Bad Goy: The Portrayal of Gentiles in Sketches from the London Yiddish Press

July 1, 2026

Good Goy, Bad Goy

Vivi Lachs
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Gentiles often appeared in the news sections of the London Yiddish press, and sometimes they also appeared in the regular “feuilleton” section in char…

The 'Tsenerene': The Most Popular Yiddish Book in History

June 29, 2026

The 'Tsenerene'

Avi Blitz
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Arguably the most popular book in the history of Yiddish literature, the Tsenerene (alternative Romanization: Ze’enah U-Re’enah) has been reprinted, b…

The Jewish Press Today

June 25, 2026

The Jewish Press Today

Alana Newhouse, Jodi Rudoren, and Philissa Cramer
Hosted by YIVO Institute

In 1897 when the Forverts was founded, the need for a Jewish newspaper—a Yiddish newspaper that is—was self-evident: millions of Yiddish speaking Jew…

A Very Jewish Christmas: Jesus and Shabbtai Zvi, from Heretic to Hero

June 22, 2026

A Very Jewish Christmas

Hosted by YIVO Institute

In Jewish memory, Jesus and Shabbtai Zvi were heretics, false messiahs who rebelled against the rabbis and against normative Judaism. But a funny thin…

Hidden Heretics: Jewish Doubt in the Digital Age

June 20, 2026

Hidden Heretics

Hosted by YIVO Institute

In her recent publication, Hidden Heretics: Jewish Doubt in the Digital Age, scholar Ayala Fader tells the fascinating, often heart-wrenching stories …

European Jews in the 21st Century

June 18, 2026

European Jews in the 21st Century

Daniel Solomon, Stéphane Bou, Macha Fogel, and Danny Trom
Hosted by YIVO Institute

What is the status of Jews in Europe in the 21st century? How do they maintain vital communities? Do they desire to remain in Europe? To remain Jewish…

Jewish Identity in Lithuania Today

June 16, 2026

Jewish Identity in Lithuania Today

Miglė Anušauskaitė, Anna Avidan, Kęstas Pikūnas, and Mindaugas Kvietkauskas
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Join YIVO for a conversation about the resurgence of interest in Jewish identity and history in Lithuania today. Jonathan Brent will moderate a conver…

The Yiddish Historians and the Struggle for a Jewish History of the Holocaust

June 14, 2026

The Yiddish Historians and the Struggle for a Jewish History of the Holocaust

Mark L. Smith and Samuel Kassow
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Historians began writing the history of the Holocaust in Yiddish from a distinctly Jewish perspective in the years immediately after World War II. The…