YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture

This book is the first history of YIVO, the original center for Yiddish scholarship. Founded by a group of Eastern European intellectuals after World War I, YIVO became both the apex of secular Yiddish culture and the premier institution of Diaspora Nationalism, which fought for Jewish rights throughout the world at a time of rising anti-Semitism. From its headquarters in Vilna, Lithuania, YIVO tried to balance scholarly objectivity with its commitment to the Jewish masses. Using newly recovered documents that were believed destroyed by Hitler and Stalin, Cecile Esther Kuznitz tells for the first time the compelling story of how these scholars built a world-renowned institution despite dire poverty and anti-Semitism. She raises new questions about the relationship between Jewish cultural and political work and analyzes how nationalism arises outside of state power.

Author: Cecile Esther Kuznitz
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 09/14/2017
Pages: 324
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.73d
ISBN: 9781316634837

About the Author
Kuznitz, Cecile Esther: - Cecile Esther Kuznitz is an Associate Professor of History and the Director of Jewish Studies at Bard College, New York. A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University, she received her Ph.D. from Stanford University, California. Her articles have been published in The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe (2008), The Encyclopaedia Judaica (2007), The Worlds of S. An-sky (2006), The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies (2002) and Yiddish Language and Culture: Then and Now (1998). She previously taught at Georgetown University, Washington DC and has held fellowships at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, and the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.