Today News, Tomorrow History (1965)

In this episode, originally heard on March 7, 1965, YIVO historian and archivist Zosa Szajkowski talks about the importance of collecting news of current events: “How what is news today is tomorrow’s history.” Two of the many YIVO archival collections with newspaper clippings and first-hand accounts that he mentions are The Mizrakh Yidisher Historisher Arkhiv (RG 80), which contains documentation on events in Ukraine, including pogroms, in 1918-1920, and Territorial Collection-France (RG 116), which contains scrapbooks related to the Dreyfus Affair.

From 1963-1976, YIVO had its own program on WEVD, the radio station established by the Socialist Party of America in 1927 (its call letters stand for the initials of American socialist leader Eugene V. Debs), which was purchased by the Jewish Daily Forward in 1932 and became a major venue from Yiddish programming.

YIVO used its spot on WEVD for Yiddish-language interviews and discussions with leading New York Yiddish cultural figures, as well as for reporting on its own scholarly and cultural work.

A new podcast of this program in the order in which it was originally broadcast will be posted here every two weeks.

Presentation of series curated by Matt Temkin, YIVO Sound Archives.

Listen to the program [in Yiddish].