YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

On March 12, 2008, YIVO held an event and reception celebrating the completion and publication of The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, a two-volume, 2,500-page reference edited by Gershon Hundert of McGill University. The event emphasized the breadth and diversity of the work’s coverage with a series of brief presentations by scholars associated with the project that led into or included performances, recitations, and readings that served as examples. The program was as follows:

Part 1:

Opening Remarks:  Jeffrey Edelstein, Project Director
Cantorial Music:  Wendy Heller, presenter
    “Ve-‘Al Yedey ‘Avodekho” (Zavel Kwartin, composer; Jack Baras, arr.)
    Jacob Ben-Zion Mendelson, performer
    Linda Hall Gerson, accompanist
Literature and Pogroms:  Alice Nakhimovsky, Presenter
    Hayim Nahman Bialik, Be-‘Ir ha-haregah / In shkhite shtot (In the City of Slaughter; 1903/1906)
    Jacob Ben-Zion Mendelson, Hebrew reciter
    Yankl Salant, Yiddish reciter
Yiddish Theater and Song:  Michael C. Steinlauf, presenter
    “Dos Bahtshl Kreln” (The Necklace of Beads; Yitskhok Perlov, lyrics;
    Lola Forman, music)    Rebecca Joy Fletcher, performer
    with Spencer Chandler
    Conrad Winslow, accompanist
Chairman's Remarks:  Bruce Slovin, Chair, YIVO Board of Directors

Part 2:

Publisher’s Remarks:  Jonathan Brent, Editorial Director, Yale University Press
    Introduced by Carl J. Rheins, YIVO Executive Director
Visual Arts: Olga Litvak, presenter
Traditional Instrumental Music:    Mark Slobin, presenter
    Medley—Doyne/Nign from the Beregovskii collection:
    “A Vivat far di Mekhutonim” (Congratulations to the In-Laws; from a 1919
    recording by Abe Schwartz); “Heymish Freylekh” (from a 1919 recording
    by Max Leibowitz)    Lisa Gutkin (violin) and Paul Morrissett (tsimbl), performers
Jewish Writers and the Soviet State:  Alice Nakhimovsky, presenter
    Excerpts: Isaac Babel, “Karl-Yankel” (pub. 1931); and Vasilii
    Grossman, Zhizn’ i sud’ba (Life and Fate; pub. 1980)
    Alexander Nakhimovsky, reader
Closing Remarks: Gershon David Hundert, Editor in Chief

The YIVO Encyclopedia Celebration Part One:                     wmv

The YIVO Encyclopedia Celebration Part Two:                      wmv