Decade of Discovery: Yiddish and Social Justice

The Decade of Discovery is an initiative launched by the Yiddish Book Center to mark our 40th anniversary in 2020. Its aim is to foster a deeper understanding of Yiddish and modern Jewish culture. For each of the ensuing years, the Center will select an annual theme around which we will curate and share content and collaborate with other organizations. 

Our focus for 2021 is Yiddish and Social Justice, and we invite you to join us for the wide range of virtual public programs and curated content we will be offering around this theme. 

The Yiddish Book Center's Decade of Discovery is made possible in part by a grant from the Leona and Ralph W. Kern Foundation.

Attend

Virtual Yidstock 2021—A Global Lineup of Artists Performing Songs of Social Justice

Read

Introduction to this Year's Decade of Discovery Theme

Learn

Decade of Discovery 2020—Yiddish in America: Cultural Encounters

Decade of Discovery: Read / Listen / Watch

In honor of our Decade of Discovery theme for 2021, "Yiddish and Social Justice," we're featuring items from our collections that highlight the way that those in the Yiddish world engaged with social justice issues in their lives and work.

Read

"Fences" and "A Chimney Sweep," Two Workers Poems by Moyshe Nadir, Translated by Ollie Elkus

Read

Black Struggle in Yiddish Literature

Listen

The Story Behind the Discovery of the Lost Songs of World War II

Listen

Author Elissa Bemporad: Legacy of Blood

Read

Der bund in bilder, 1897–1957 / The Bund in Pictures , By J. S. Hertz, in Yiddish and English

Listen

Glasgow's Yiddish Pink Peacock Café

Watch

Social Justice As Taught In American Yiddish Schools

Yiddish and Social Justice

A selection of audio recordings from our archives and virtual public programs that help tell the story of Jewish life through the 2021 Decade of Discovery theme, "Yiddish and Social Justice."

Audio Recordings and Virtual Public Programs

Reading Yiddish Literature in a Time of National Reckoning, A Panel Discussion Moderated by Rachel Rubinstein

What can the Yiddish writing of previous generations of protest reveal to us about our own moment? Join our panel of translators and scholars in a conversation about race and social justice in Yiddish literature.

The Door Slams Shut: Reactions of the Yiddish Press to Immigration Issues in the Early 1920s, with Eddy Portnoy

Join Eddy Portnoy in a discussion of the role of Yiddish cartoons in addressing the issue of immigration as it pertained to immigrant Jewish communities in New York in the early twentieth century.

The Yiddish Press and Racism in America, 1880–1920, with Tony Michels

Tony Michels addresses questions about how Yiddish journalists and intellectuals responded to the persistent discrimination and violence against African Americans in the US in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in order to gain a historical perspective on the Jewish encounter with race and racism in the United States.

Yiddish Women Writers Reclaimed, with Professor Anita Norich

In this lecture series, Professor Anita Norich of the University of Michigan examines Yiddish poetry and prose written by women and discusses how these women claimed a place for themselves as modern Jewish writers.