Yiddishism: Mythologies and Iconographies

Joint International Conference of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw and the Paris Yiddish Center – Medem Library in cooperation with the Polish Association for Yiddish Studies and the Michal Friedman Foundation.

Program in the PDF format is here: Yiddishism_program

Schedule

The papers are in English (E) and Yiddish (Y). Translation from Yiddish to Polish will be provided.

Sunday, 15 November 2015

Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute, ul. Tłomackie 3/5 00–090 Warsaw, Błękitny Wieżowiec

10:45 Registration and coffee

 11:15 Opening

 11:15–11:30 Greetings,  Prof. Andrzej Żbikowski, Head of the JHI Academic Department

Tal Hever-Chybowski, Director of the Paris Yiddish Center – Medem Library (PYC)

11:30–11:45 Opening remarks, Dr. Karolina Szymaniak (JHI)

Jewish Masses and Politics, Chair: Dr. Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov (Polish Academy of Sciences/ Deutsches Historisches Institut)

11:45–12:05 Dr. Tamara Sztyma (POLIN Museum), Folklore as Reassurance of Distinctiveness: On the Fusion of Folk Nature, Avant-garde and Mass Culture in Jewish Interwar Culture in Poland (E)

12:05–12:25 Tal Hever-Chybowski (PYC), Gathering zamlers: Political Representations of Collecting in Modern Yiddish Scholarship (Y)

Respondent: Prof. Kenneth B. Moss (Johns Hopkins University) (E)

12:40–13:00 Discussion

13:00–14:30 Lunch break

 

Heroes, Icons, Models, Chair: Tal Hever-Chybowski (PYC)

14:30­–14:50 David Mazower (independent scholar, London), Commerce and Celebrity: The Yiddish Writer as Popular Icon (E)

14:50–15:10 Dr. Magdalena Kozłowska (Warsaw University/ Jagiellonian University), To Be Young, a Martyr and a Socialist: Yugnt-Bund Tsukunft and Its Heroes (E)

15:10–15:30 Evita Wiecki (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), Ikh bin dokh a yidish kind, muz ikh kenen yidish: Yiddishism in Post-War Yiddish Textbooks (E)

Respondent: Dr. Kamil Kijek (Wrocław University) (E)

15:45–16:10 Discussion

Yiddishism and Linguistics, Chair: Dr. Agata Kondrat (Polish Association for Yiddish Studies)

16:10–16:30 Prof. Itzik N. Gottesman (University of Texas), The Yiddishism of Yehuda Elzet’s Der vunder-oytser fun der yidisher shprakh (Y)

16:30–16:50 Alec Burko (Jewish Theological Seminary, New York), The Story of Max Weinreich’s Yiddish Myth (Y)

Respondent: Prof. Ewa Geller (Warsaw University) (E)

17:05–17:20 Discussion

17:20–17:35 Coffee break

Old Yiddish Literature, Chair: Dr. Marzena Zawanowska (JHI)

17:35–17.55 Dr. Arnaud Bikard (European University of Saint-Petersburg), Yiddishist Myths and Their Influence on the History of Old Yiddish Literature (E)

17:55–18:15 Binyamin Hunyadi (Hebrew University), Noli turbare circulos meos! Yiddish Historical Attempts – The Growth of the Yiddish Historiographical Tradition around Yavein Metsula (Y)

18:15–18:35 Dr. Oren Roman (Haifa University), Thoughts on the Composition of the Biblical Epics in Old-Yiddish (Y)

Respondent: Prof. Marion Aptroot (Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf) (E)

Discussion: 18:50–19:05

Monday, 16 November 2015

Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute, ul. Tłomackie 3/5 00–090 Warsaw, Błękitny Wieżowiec

Modern Yiddish Literature,

9:30–9:50 Dr. Khayke Beruriah Wiegand (University of Oxford), The Myth of Isaac Bashevis Singer as the Icon of the Yiddish Culture for the World (Y)

9:50–10:10 Dr. Sharon Bar-Kochva (INALCO, Paris), Birth of the Yiddish Writer or the Author’s Name as a Bridge between Myth and Reality (E)

10:10–10:30 Dr. Natalia Krynicka (PYC/Paris IV-Sorbonne), The Myth of Klemens Junosza as a Yiddishist (Y)

Respondent: prof. Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska (Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin)

10:45–11:00 Discussion

11:00–11:15 Coffee break

Spaces and Places of Yiddishism, Chair: Dr. Sharon Bar-Kochva (INALCO)

11:15–11:35 Prof. Jack Kugelmass (University of Florida), Venice in the Swamps of Pinsk (E)

11:35–11:55 Yaad Biran (Hebrew University), Erets Yisroel: The Image from Yiddish Travelogues (E)

11:55–12:15 Janina Wurbs (GEI Braunschweig / MLU Halle), Where From and Where To? The Power of Imagined Space – Mordkhe Schaechter’s Business Card (Y)

12:30–12:45 Discussion

12:45–14:00 Lunch break

Yiddishism and/in Art, Chair: Dr. Karolina Szymaniak (JHI)

14:00–14:20 Dr. Marcos Silber (Haifa University), Yiddish Cinema in Poland and the Visualization of Yiddishist Myths in Poland during the Late 1930s (E)

14:20–14:40 Dr. Małgorzata Stolarska (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń), Jewish Messianism and Its Visual Discourse in Jewish Avant-Garde Groups (E)

14:40–15:00 Dr. Agnieszka Żółkiewska (JHI), And the Myth Was Made Flesh: Yiddishism in Caricature (E)

Respondent: Dr. Renata Piątkowska (POLIN Museum) (E)

15:15–15:30 Discussion

15:30–16:00 Closing discussion with all participants

Sponsors:

Midrasz. Pismo żydowskie www.midrasz.pl

Słowo żydowskie / דאָס ייִדישע וואָרט

In geveb. A Journal of Yiddish Studies  ingeveb.com

dzieje.pl

TOK fm tokfm.pl

Kultura liberalna kulturaliberalna.pl

Center for Yiddish Culture www.jidyszland.pl

Towarzystwo Społeczno-Kulturalne Żydów w Polsce www.tskz.pl

This conference is a part of the Jewish Historical Institute’s project on the Yiddishist intelligentsia in the Poland run by the Institute’s Yiddish Culture Department.

The conference is organized as part of the Jewish Historical Institute’s program commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of I. L. Peretz. It is supported by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.