In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies

10/27/2025

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

In 2023, the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies joined forces with In geveb to pro­vide a series of grants to schol­ars and artists to work with Yid­dish mate­ri­als in the archive’s col­lec­tion. The first cohort of fel­lows result­ed in five suc­cess­ful projects rang­ing from tra­di­tion­al research and the cre­ation of ped­a­gog­i­cal mate­ri­als for using Yid­dish tes­ti­mo­ny in the class­room to musi­cal per­for­mance and artis­tic works. Build­ing on this suc­cess, we are now pub­lish­ing a call for a sec­ond cohort of fel­lows. The goal, again, is to encour­age and fund schol­ars to work with the col­lec­tion — to bring the archive off the shelf and into the class­room and beyond. After all, of the more than 4,400 tes­ti­monies, only a frac­tion has ever been used in teach­ing, research, or cul­tur­al pro­duc­tions. The Yid­dish tes­ti­monies are a rich body of mate­ri­als that can be employed in a wide range of disciplines.

To encourage this use, the Fortunoff Video Archive, together with In geveb, will provide two fellowships of USD 3,000 each for projects that are based primarily on the Yiddish language materials in the Fortunoff Video Archive. We are looking for an In geveb/Fortunoff Pedagogy Fellow who will develop a project that aims to employ testimonies in teaching at the university level and an In geveb/Fortunoff Arts and Culture Fellow who will draw upon testimonies in some form of cultural production (for example, plastic arts, music, podcasts, or documentaries).

Following the completion of the fellowship, In geveb will invite the fellows to submit their projects for inclusion in a continuing iteration of In geveb’s special issue “Engagement with Yiddish Language Materials in Video Holocaust Testimony” for further dissemination.

https://ingeveb.org/blog/call-for-proposals-2025

10/21/2025

Un Tango Para Rachel: A Conversation between Joanna Spyra and Lea Kalisch NEW on the blog today!

"I first heard of Lea Kalisch through that ever-reli­able net­work known as “Jewish/Yiddish geog­ra­phy.” A friend from Switzer­land sent me a link to her music video “Eshet Chay­il of Hip Hop,” where Lea raps, sings, and con­fi­dent­ly sports a shtrayml. There was some­thing about her cre­ative bold­ness that imme­di­ate­ly stood out...

This inter­view delves into the intense and vul­ner­a­ble process behind Lea’s first-ever film. We explore what it means to cre­ate a world that bal­ances his­tor­i­cal imag­i­na­tion with emo­tion­al truth, how Yid­dish lan­guage ani­mates the story’s tex­ture, the dif­fi­cult cre­ative choic­es Lea made along the way, and how stub­born vision fueled the entire project. "

https://ingeveb.org/blog/un-tango-para-rachel

10/17/2025

NEW: An Interview with Stefanie Halpern about YIVO’s New Centennial Coffee Table Book 🦚

Ste­fanie Halpern is the direc­tor of col­lec­tions at the YIVO Insti­tute for Jew­ish Research and the edi­tor of 100 Objects from the Col­lec­tions of the YIVO Insti­tute for Jew­ish Research, released as part of YIVO’s cen­ten­ni­al anniver­sary. The book pro­files one hun­dred objects cho­sen from YIVO’s twen­ty-four mil­lion, each accom­pa­nied by a short essay by one of fifty-sev­en lead­ing scholars.

Halpern and In geveb edi­to­r­i­al intern Dinah Meg­i­bow-Tay­lor sat down in YIVO’s new­ly built Learn­ing and Media Cen­ter to talk 100 Objects. There, the book comes to life: Its fea­tured prints adorn the walls, a hand seal press sits atop a shelf, and the draw­ers are filled with repro­duced repro­duced posters from YIVO’s col­lec­tions. The two took note of their sur­round­ings and dis­cussed, among oth­er things, the process of choos­ing the one hun­dred objects, how Yid­dish remains all-encom­pass­ing with­in the pages, and their per­son­al con­nec­tions to their favorite objects.

https://ingeveb.org/blog/yivo-100-objects

10/15/2025

NEW translation up on the site: "In Ford's Factory" by Joseph Opatoshu, translated by Nadav Pais-Greenapple.

"Opatoshu made his own pere­gri­na­tion to Detroit in the spring of 1929 and penned “In Ford’s Fac­to­ry” (Bay Fordn in fab­rik) which appeared in Der Tog and, with minor changes, in Warsaw’s Naye folk­st­say­tung, on May 17, 1929.

Immune to the “vast mechan­i­cal appa­ra­tus of enchant­ment” that was Fordist man­u­fac­tur­ing, Opatoshu’s account of his guid­ed tour at the Riv­er Rouge com­plex – an expe­ri­ence Ford still offers to vis­i­tors today – pre­sent­ed a human-cen­tered alter­na­tive to the alien­at­ed, hyper-mechan­i­cal images of the fac­to­ry which pre­vailed in pop­u­lar reporting. Where the main­stream Anglo­phone press tend­ed to por­tray the plant as “bereft of almost any human beings,” as “tem­ple machin­ery inno­cent of toil, impreg­nable by injus­tice, [and] unsul­lied by lust for pow­er or prof­it,” Opatoshu did near­ly the oppo­site, mak­ing the read­er con­stant­ly aware of the human pres­ence – and human suf­fer­ing – of the workers."

Opatoshu reports on working conditions in a Ford factory in Detroit.

10/14/2025

Ready to show your love for In geveb as we cruise into our second decade? NEW tsen yor designs are available via our Redbubble shop--linked below! 🦚

https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/174859274

10/09/2025

Our first book review of the year is now LIVE!

Daniel Soyer reviews "East End Jews," a new anthology in translation from editors Vivi Lachs and Barry Smerin via @ waynestateuniversitypress.

"East End Jews, as the subtitle indicates, is an anthology of brief articles from Yiddish newspapers and magazines published in Britain....The translated pieces are accompanied by a helpful introduction by Lachs, notes on the authors, and a list of titles and dates of the publications from which the sketches were drawn. The well-translated articles make for entertaining, and often moving, reading. But they also serve as an introduction to the social and cultural history of life in the Jewish East End."

https://ingeveb.org/articles/east-end-jews

10/08/2025

Calling all In geveb enthusiasts!

In geveb is seeking contributions for a special issue of our blog celebrating our 10th anniversary. We are looking for writing from anyone who has been moved by In geveb’s work, whether you’ve written for us, or are/have been a reader, or supporter. We are eager to consider the following (and more!):

-Reflections about a particular piece (or trend in scholarship, etc) that you read in In geveb and how it has impacted you or your work
-Descriptions of how you have used something from In geveb in your teaching or learning
-Reflections about your experiences contributing to In geveb (What led you to contribute? What was the editing process like? etc)
-Discussions of your time working with us as an editor, intern, volunteer, etc.
-Creative pieces inspired by something you read in In geveb

Please send your pieces to [email protected] by November 25. If you’d like to run an idea by us before you start writing, please let us know - we’re eager to talk through it with you!

Do you have something to say about your experience with In geveb? Now's your chance to share.

10/07/2025

We are thrilled to share this welcome-back update from our Editor-in-Chief, Jessica Kirzane.

https://ingeveb.org/blog/welcome-back-something-to-celebrate

10/06/2025

a note from editor-in-chief Jessica Kirzane at the commencement of our publishing year—read the full message at the link below. 🦚

“Tayere leyeners,

In geveb reached its tenth birthday in August and I’m thrilled to celebrate with you! It’s hard to overstate how proud I am of the wealth of scholarship, essays and reflections, the treasures of translations, the gems of teaching resources that we have gathered, polished, and presented to our readership over these past ten years. Most of all I am proud of the community that has flourished by reading and writing, supporting, sharing and valuing this work together.

It’s not an easy time to celebrate, to be sure. But it feels appropriate to be writing this message ahead of sukes, which is zman simkheseynu: the season of our joy. In his iconic Yiddish poem about sukes, Avrom Reysn describes a couple sitting in a suke as the cold wind howls and threatens to blow over the precarious shelter. “Hob nisht keyn tsar,” (don’t be sad) says the man to his wife, reassuring her that the suke can withstand the onslaught that threatens to overwhelm it.

The Jewish calendar reminds us that we can and should cultivate a posture of joy, even in the worst of times, and we can be grateful for the things we have, while we have them, and trust that they will continue despite adversity I am grateful for all of you, our In geveb community of these past ten years. May In geveb celebrate 120 birthdays, and then some!”

https://ingeveb.org/blog/welcome-back-something-to-celebrate

08/12/2025

Reminder: Applications are due on August 19! Feel free to contact us at [email protected] if you have questions about this position.

Come work with us!

In geveb is seeking a new member of our editorial staff for the 2025-2026 publishing year. We seek a highly organized editor to support our editor-in-chief in overseeing and coordinating the submissions, editing, and publishing processes of In geveb. The managing editor will also participate in editing contributions to the blog and pedagogy sections of In geveb.

To apply: please submit a cover letter and resume by August 19, 2025 to [email protected]. Subject line: “managing editor”.

See the link for further details about the position!

https://ingeveb.org/blog/in-geveb-is-seeking-a-managing-editor

07/30/2025

Come work with us!

In geveb is seeking a new member of our editorial staff for the 2025-2026 publishing year. We seek a highly organized editor to support our editor-in-chief in overseeing and coordinating the submissions, editing, and publishing processes of In geveb. The managing editor will also participate in editing contributions to the blog and pedagogy sections of In geveb.

To apply: please submit a cover letter and resume by August 19, 2025 to [email protected]. Subject line: “managing editor”.

See the link for further details about the position!

https://ingeveb.org/blog/in-geveb-is-seeking-a-managing-editor

07/01/2025

In geveb is on a summer publishing break! You can read here about our year in review and learn how you can engage with us over the break. We look forward to returning with more great Yiddish Studies writing in the fall.

https://ingeveb.org/blog/in-geveb-is-on-summer-break