100 Objects from the Collections of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
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Book Talk
Presented by 92NY Bronfman Center for Jewish Life Co-sponsored by YIVO In Person at 92NY:Admission: $18 Livestream:Admission: $18 |
This program takes place at 92NY, 1395 Lexington Avenue New York, NY 10128.
A pair of ruby red slippers. A medieval manuscript. A Yiddish folk medicine prescription. These and 97 other objects comprise a new centennial coffee table book, 100 Objects from the Collections of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, which chronicles modern Jewish history through 100 objects from the YIVO Archives and Library.
This gorgeously illustrated book highlights unique manuscripts, photographs, objects, and other ephemera with accompanying essays by 57 leading scholars. Join the book’s editor, YIVO’s Director of Collections Stefanie Halpern, YIVO Executive Director Jonathan Brent, and YIVO Senior Academic Advisor and Director of Exhibitions Eddy Portnoy for a discussion moderated by Rabbi David Ingber that highlights how this book traces YIVO’s role in documenting key moments in modern Jewish history and culture through its 100 years of collecting.
Exclusive Q&A for Bronfman Book Club Members:
Prior to the public event, book club participants are invited to an exclusive moderated Q&A with Stefanie Halpern, offering a deeper dive into the themes of the book and a chance to engage more personally with the author.
This program is part of the Bronfman Center for Jewish Life.
About the Speakers
Rabbi David A. Ingber is the new Senior Director for Jewish Life and Senior Director of the Bronfman Center at 92NY. He serves as the founding rabbi of Romemu, the largest Renewal synagogue in the United States. Rabbi Ingber founded Romemu in NYC in 2006, following his ordination by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Founder of the Jewish Renewal movement. Over the past decade-plus, Romemu has grown into a weekly home for thousands of people, a growing membership of over 1,000 in its two physical locations (Manhattan and Brooklyn), and a growing online global membership. Rabbi Ingber also founded Romemu Yeshiva, the first fully egalitarian Yeshiva (immersive learning center), dedicated to mystical and meditative Jewish learning and practice.
Stefanie Halpern is Director of Collections at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Jewish Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary and a Masters in Archival Studies from Clayton State University. Halpern has published on archival theory and practice, Yiddish theater, and Jewish performance, and was the assistant curator of the MCNY exhibition “From the Bowery to Broadway: New York’s Yiddish Theater.”
Jonathan Brent is the Executive Director of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City. From 1991 to 2009 he was Editorial Director and Associate Director of Yale Press. He is the founder of the world acclaimed Annals of Communism series, which he established at Yale Press in 1991. Brent is the co-author of Stalin’s Last Crime: The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors, 1948-1953 (Harper-Collins, 2003) and Inside the Stalin Archives (Atlas Books, 2008). He is now working on a biography of the Soviet-Jewish writer Isaac Babel. Brent teaches history and literature at Bard College.
Eddy Portnoy is the Senior Academic Advisor and Director of Exhibitions at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. The exhibitions he has created for YIVO have won plaudits from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, VICE, The Forward, and others. He has written numerous articles on topics relating to Jewish popular culture and is also the author of Bad Rabbi and Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press (Stanford University Press, 2017).