YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

SUNDAY 18 MAY 2008 | 11:30AM

PODBRUDZER ANNUAL MEMORIAL LECTURE : AUDITORIUM

A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL? The Chair for Yiddish at the University of Vilnius

Keith Weiser, Professor of Humanities, York University

 

Keith Weiser’s lecture will focus on Vilna in 1939 to 1941, when the city changed hands repeatedly. During that time period, the members of YIVO debated the future of Eastern European Jewry and Yiddish culture, as well as who would occupy a proposed Chair for Yiddish at the university, even as the catastrophe of World War II unfolded.

Prof. Weiser, who received his Ph.D. from Columbia University, is a former Hertz Memorial Fellow at YIVO. The topic of his dissertation,  “The Politics of Yiddish: Noyekh Prilutski and the Folkspartey in Poland, 1900-1926”, mirrors the research he did while he was a YIVO fellow. His ongoing research interests include Modern and Eastern European Jewish History, history of Israel, sociolinguistics, and Yiddish language and culture.

The Podbrudzer Annual Memorial Lecture at YIVO was established to honor the Jewish Community of Podbrodz (now called Padbrade), which perished during the Shoah.

 

15 West 16th Street, New York City

 at the Center for Jewish History

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FREE EVENT! For Reservations: 212.294.6140