The Center For Jewish History

Daria Vakhrushova examines the linguistic developments of Soviet Yiddish, exploring how it transitioned from a former zhargon to a national kulturshprakh through language policy and research projects.

In commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, All We Have Standing Between Us explores 250 years of Jewish participation in American democracy. Drawing from the collections of the American Jewish Historical Society, the exhibition examines how Jews have shaped, debated, and challenged the nation's democratic ideals from the Revolutionary era to the present.

Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century and until the outbreak of WWI, some Yiddish calendars / almanacs began to change their traditional character and broaden their scope. This presentation will provide an overview of how these almanacs transformed into a kind of condensed encyclopedia and presented Yiddish as a “normal” language of culture.