“material culture”

From CDs to detective stories, zines to toys, the objects remembered and analyzed in this volume presents the range of material that filled the childhoods of Ashkenazi Orthodox Jews growing up in the last decades of the twentieth century.

Jun 21, 2023

Now you can play with your favorite Yiddish cultural figures!

Mar 03, 2023

Through her work, Gross seeks to validate practices that meaningfully contribute to Jewish identity formation and connect Jewish Americans to their history as a people and to the contemporary community of Jewish people.

Jan 24, 2022

Sholem Asch’s arrival at the small house at 50 Arlozorov Street in the coastal town of Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv, was to be his final move in over two decades of travels. Six decades later, the house has been carefully restored and reopened as a museum.

Feb 16, 2020

Mishory examines the collaborative work of art historian Rachel Wischnitzer (1885-1989), and Jewish-German designer and typographer Franzisca Baruch (1901-1989), demonstrating that Baruch’s revival of medieval Hebrew letterforms in her work on Rimon/Milgroym and her use of fragmentation as a strategy for visual, textual, and cultural revival was in conversation with Wischnitzer’s scholarship. 

Dec 10, 2019

In her work on images of the Lower East Side, Blair spotlights the paradoxes of the neighborhood's dynamic status as site of memory and of artistic experimentation and highlights stories and voices often left out of American collective memory.

Dec 09, 2019

Artist and In geveb supporter Samantha Wood incorporated In geveb pencils into a work of art now on display as part of an art show at The Art Garden in Shelburne Falls, Mass.

Dec 02, 2019

Mann discusses the knowledge she gained through a hands-on encounter with the materials of print while creating her artist’s book “Things/Zachen/Devarim.”

Mar 27, 2019

In honor of Purim, a fine calligraphed scroll of Yehoash's translation into Yiddish of the Book of Esther, completed by the poet's daughter Chava.

Mar 22, 2016

The fifth and final post in an investigation of an autobiography found in the YIVO archives from 1930s Poland: why do we need to read these autobiographies today?

Jan 31, 2016

The fourth in a series of five posts about an autobiography found in the YIVO archives from 1930s Poland: suicide and the modern library of a maskil.

Jan 24, 2016

The third in a series of five posts about an autobiography found in the YIVO archives from 1930s Poland: the cheder years!

Jan 18, 2016

The second in a series of posts about an autobiography found in the YIVO archives from 1930s Poland: RJ's hatred of women but love for the hasidic tale!

Jan 10, 2016

The first in a series of posts about an autobiography found in the YIVO archives from 1930s Poland.

Jan 04, 2016

Iconic hats of Yiddish poetry, plus the labor of creating a look! 

Dec 01, 2015

A look at an example of the famed Yiddish new years cards. This one is a "good year ship ticket," granting the receiver "120 free yearly round-trips for himself and his family." 

Sep 09, 2015

What the ascot can teach us about Yiddish cultural history. 

Aug 10, 2015