Mendele Personal Notices and Announcements July 24, 2014
To minimize wear and tear on the untershames, three requests: 1. Send time-sensitive notices well in advance. 2. Send material as plain text to [email protected] as plain text (no HTML, other coding,or attachments and write MENDELE PERSONALS in the subject line. 3. Correspond directly with the person who or organization which has posted the notice, *not* with your ever-beleaguered untershames. From: Cecile E. Kuznitz <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 22:50:20 -0400 (EDT) Subject: YIVO in Vilna: Institution, Personalities, and Legacy International academic conference: YIVO in Vilna: Institution, Personalities, and Legacy Dedicated to the 90th Anniversary of YIVO's Establishment and the 75th Anniversary of its Transition to New York 21-23th April 2015, Vilnius In spring 1925 the institution known as the Yidisher visnshaftlekher institut (YIVO) was established in Vilna. It became one of the most famous research centers of East European Jewish culture, history, linguistics and literature, gathering and preserving the heritage of the Yiddish language. During the Second World War the YIVO headquarters was transferred to New York, where it continues its work today; yet part of the heritage that YIVO managed to collect was preserved in Vilna. In the context of today‘s Vilnius the symbolic meaning of YIVO – one of the famous icons of the Jewish community‘s past – remains. YIVO in New York continued the work of the institution, its academic tradition and spirit while adapting to the post-war environment in New York. The conference‘s focus will be the Vilna period of YIVO’s activities and its intellectual, social, and cultural contexts, as well as the institute’s transition to New York. It will also consider the relevance of YIVO’s work to today’s academic research in and institutional structure for the study of East European Jewry. Finally, the conference invites discussion of the impact of YIVO not only on scholarship but also on the identity of the local Jewish community, analyzing the creation of the institute‘s self-image and Vilna’s place in it. The conference seeks to discuss the following questions: 1. YIVO’s activities and main achievements in the interwar period; 2. YIVO’s relationship with other Jewish cultural and educational institutions in interwar Vilna, in particular the Yiddish secular schools. 3. The methodology and organization of YIVO’s scholarly work, their impact on Jewish studies in pre-war Eastern Europe, and their relevance today. 4. The role of YIVO in formulating Vilna’s identity as a centre of modern Jewish culture and Vilna’s importance to the self-image of YIVO. 5. YIVO’s relationship with other academic institutions in Vilna and with contemporaneous centers for Jewish studies throughout the world. 6. YIVO as a transnational organization with a worldwide network of branches and donors; contacts between YIVO in Vilna and its branches, most notably in New York, in the pre-war period 7. YIVO’s transition to New York and the legacy of Vilna in its post-war work. 8. YIVO during Soviet Years (1940-1941) and World War II; 9. Fate of YIVO people and books To submit a proposal, please send a title and description of your proposed presentation of no more than one page together with a brief CV to: [email protected]. The deadline for proposals is: the 1 of October of 2014. For more information, please contact: [email protected]. Some support for travel and housing expenses will be available, pending confirmation of funding. A program of events celebrating YIVO’s 90th anniversary, with a focus on its post-war history in the United States, will take place at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York in May 2015. Organizers: Centre for Studies of the Culture and History of East European Jews YIVO Institute for Jewish Research Vilnius University, Faculty of History Lithuanian Institute of History Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore Cecile E. Kuznitz Associate Professor of History Director of Jewish Studies Bard College Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504 Office: Fairbairn 103 Telephone: 845-758-7543 Fax: 845-758-7628 ___________________________________________________________ Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. Instead, direct your mail as follows: Responses to Mendele Personal Notices & Announcements should be sent directly to the person whom or organization which posted the item. Material for posting in Mendele Personal Notices and announcements,typically announcements of events, commercial publications, and questions not of general interest to the membership,should be sent to: victor.bers at yale.edu (IMPORTANT! in the subject line write "Mendele Personal") Material for postings to Mendele Yiddish literature and language i.e,inquiries and comments of a non-commercial or publicity nature and likely to interest the membership in general, should be sent to mendele at mailman.yale.edu IMPORTANT: Please include your full name as you would like it to appear in your posting. No posting will appear without its author's name. Submissions to regular Mendele should not include personal email addresses, as responses will be posted for all to read. They must also include the author's name as you would like it to appear. In order to spare the shamosim time and effort, we request that contributors adhere, when applicable, as closely as possible to standard English punctuation, grammar, etc. and to the YIVO rules of transliteration into Latin letters. A guide to Romanization can be found at this site: http://www.yivoinstitute.org/about/index.php?tid=57&aid=275 All other messages should be sent to the shamosim at this address: mendele at mailman.yale.edu Mendele on the web [interim address]:https://sites.google.com/site/mendeledervaylik _______________________________________________ Mendele mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/mendele
