The Cultural NYC Class Visits YIVO

Dr. Daniel Stein Kokin’s Cultural NYC class visited YIVO at the Center for Jewish History. Founded in Berlin in 1925 and based primarily in Vilna until its move to New York in 1940, the mission of YIVO – an acronym in Yiddish for “Jewish Research Institute” in Yiddish – is “to preserve, study, share, and perpetuate knowledge of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide.” The Ramaz students enjoyed a private session YIVO’s new educational center, where they learned about the history and activities of YIVO and examined archival materials selected especially for the class visit. These materials included pages of the Yiddish-language Jewish Daily Forward newspaper, placards for performances, historic photographs, and business cards. Students even got to see an actual Yiddish typewriter (“a typewriter: what’s that?”). The class was also paid a surprise visit by a blast from the Ramaz past: Dovid Braun (‘89), a renowned Yiddish instructor and, since 2023, YIVO’s academic advisor in Yiddish language, pedagogy, and linguistics.