Through our programs, YIVO makes discoveries and treasures from our collections accessible and fosters the creation of contemporary Jewish culture. Explore our upcoming events below.

Be the first to know about upcoming programs and special events by signing up for our email list.
Watch recordings of previous events.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel.


Show:       
Trip starts June 16

2025 Study Tour of Lithuania & Poland

Join YIVO for an enlightening journey to Lithuania and Poland. Reclaim your heritage as you examine the life that was lived in these lands. View the remarkable history of old Warsaw, Kraków, Vilnius, and Białowieża.

read more
Jun 22 7:00pm-9:30pm and Jun 23 10:00am-9:30pm

YIVO in America

Join us for a celebration of YIVO’s 100th anniversary with a conference focusing on how YIVO’s founding vision for Jewish social sciences has been realized in America since its headquarters shifted to New York City in 1940.

read more
Tuesday
Jun 24
2:00pm

A Turning Point in Remembrance: YIVO in the 1940s

This talk by Jeffrey Shandler will examine some of YIVO’s undertakings during the immediate postwar years, as its leaders forged a new sense of purpose in response to their radically altered circumstances.

read more
Thursday
Jun 26
2:00pm

The Poetry of Chaim Grade

This lecture by Joshua Price will provide an overview of the poetry of Chaim Grade, who, although known for his prose writing, published ten volumes of poetry which deal with the most pressing issues of his life and times.

read more
Tuesday
Jul 1
2:00pm

In the Shadow of the Shtetl: Yiddish Memories of Small-Town Jewish Life in Ukraine

Drawing from some 400 Yiddish-language interviews conducted by the Archives of Historical and Ethnographic Yiddish Memories project, Jeffrey Veidlinger will explore how elderly Yiddish speakers described their memories of Jewish life in Soviet Ukraine and of survival during the Holocaust.

read more
Thursday
Jul 3
2:00pm

Kine un kloglid – The Yiddish Art of Lamentation in Early Modern Ashkenaz

In this lecture, Diana Matut will delve deep into the history of lamentation in Yiddish song cultures through the exploration of laments, dirges, and elegies.

read more
Trip starts July 7

2025 Study Tour of Imperial Cities in Central Europe

Come and explore the rich history of Hungary, Austria, and Germany through a uniquely Jewish lens. This tour will visit beautiful synagogues, unrivaled museums, and landmarks of Jewish religious life and secular genius.

read more
Tuesday
Jul 8
2:00pm

“You had buried me, and I’ve come back!”: Manipulation, Lies, and the Archives of the Cinematic Dybbuk

Through analyses of the films The Dybbuk and The Prince and the Dybbuk, this talk by Zehavit Stern will reflect on the haunting legacy of Eastern European Jewish life and on how cinema can preserve, possess, or lay claim to possession.

read more
Thursday
Jul 10
2:00pm

Yiddish Warsaw on the Hudson

This talk by Ofer Dynes will explore how the shared experiences of immigrant Yiddish writers from Poland to America shaped their understanding of the role of Yiddish in American cultural life, how this vision evolved during World War II, and how their reimagining of Yiddish literature’s significance for American Jewry influenced their writings.

read more
Tuesday
Jul 15
2:00pm

The Red Jews: Intertextuality in a Yiddish Myth

This lecture by Rebekka Voß will trace the journey of the legendary Ten Lost Tribes of Israel through both Jewish and Christian imaginations, from their medieval origins to their presence in Old Yiddish and modern Yiddish literature.

read more
Thursday
Jul 17
2:00pm

The Yiddish of Jerusalem: The Old Yishuv in the Research of Mordecai Kosover

Yaad Biran discusses Mordecai Kosover’s research demonstrating that the history of Jews of the modern-day Land of Israel began decades before Rishon LeTzion, and that the Jewish community of the Land of Israel was very connected to a worldwide “Yiddishland.”

read more
Tuesday
Jul 22
2:00pm

The People’s Torah: Crowd-Sourcing Jewish Customs from An-ski to the Internet

Nathaniel Deutsch will discuss The Digital Minhag Project, an interactive website built around a Yiddish-English version of Sh. An-ski's ethnographic questionnaire, that seeks to crowd-source contemporary Jewish customs, beginning with those still practiced by Hasidic communities.

read more
Trip starts Sep 1

2025 Study Tour of Northern Italy

Join YIVO on a journey of discovery across northern Italy, exploring the fascinating, troubled, and glorious history of Italian Jews in the northern tier, unfamiliar to most of us.

read more
Sep 18 7:00pm and Sep 21 1:00pm

The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language

Join YIVO for the world premiere production of The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language, a new chamber opera with music by Pulitzer Prize finalist Alex Weiser and libretto by Ben Kaplan, which tells the remarkable true story of Yiddish linguist Yudel Mark’s unfinished effort to create a comprehensive Yiddish dictionary. 

read more