For 100 years, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research has preserved the legacy of one thousand years of Ashkenazi Jewish life. Through its treasured archival and library collections which include over 24 million documents, objects, and books and its robust programming and educational initiatives which engage tens of thousands of participants each year, YIVO tells the stories of the Yiddish language, culture, and civilization, and its evolution throughout the world. This panel discussion will feature YIVO’s Executive Director Jonathan Brent, Director of Collections Stefanie Halpern, and Director of Public Programs Alex Weiser discussing YIVO’s history, collections, and contemporary activities. A musical performance by Grammy Award-winning singer, multi-instrumentalist, and YIVO Sound Archivist Lorin Sklamberg will follow the discussion.

Jonathan Brent is the Executive Director of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City. From 1991 to 2009, he was Editorial Director and Associate Director of Yale University Press. He is the founder of the world-acclaimed Annals of Communism series, which he established at Yale University Press in 1991. Brent is the co-author of Stalin’s Last Crime: The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors, 1948-1953 (Harper-Collins, 2003) and Inside the Stalin Archives (Atlas Books, 2008). He is now working on a biography of the Soviet-Jewish writer Isaac Babel. Brent teaches history and literature at Bard College.

Stefanie Halpern is Director of Collections at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Jewish Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary and a Masters in Archival Studies from Clayton State University. Halpern has published on archival theory and practice, Yiddish theater, and Jewish performance, and was the assistant curator of the exhibition “From the Bowery to Broadway: New York’s Yiddish Theater,” held at the Museum of the City of New York.

Alex Weiser is the Director of Public Programs at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. As a composer, Weiser’s debut album, and all the days were purple, was named a 2020 Pulitzer Prize Finalist and features settings of modernist Yiddish poetry. A second album, in a dark blue night, features two song cycles which explore Jewish New York history. Other projects include operas Tevye’s Daughters with librettist Stephanie Fleischmann (American Lyric Theater) and The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language with librettist Ben Kaplan (American Opera Projects).

Multi-instrumentalist and YIVO Sound Archivist Lorin Sklamberg is a founding member of the Grammy Award-winning Yiddish-American roots band, the Klezmatics, and has been heard on innumerable recordings and live shows, solo and in collaboration with such diverse artists as Itzhak Perlman, Jane Siberry, Chava Alberstein, Ehud Banai, Yoni Rechter, Emmylou Harris, Tracy Grammer, Neil Sedaka, Natalie Merchant, Tony Kushner and Theodore Bikel. He has composed and performed for film, dance, stage and circus, and has produced a number of recordings of world and theater music.