Sunday, November 16

1:30-3:30pm        Lightning Lectures on Yiddish History & Culture

Location: UIUC ARC Multipurpose Room 5, 201 E Peabody Dr, Champaign, IL 61820

Description: This lecture series features short talks on a variety of subjects related to Yiddish. See below for more information.

Anastasiia Strakhova

Jewish Emigration from Eastern Europe (1870s-1914)

Description: More than two million Jews emigrated from the Russian Empire between the 1870s-1914, many of whom came to the United States. While this is the genesis of many family histories, most don't know that between 75-90% of these departures occurred illegally. This talk will explain why Jewish emigrants had to choose a clandestine route when legal options were also available.

Speaker bio: Anastasiia Strakhova is Associate Director of the Program in Jewish Culture & Society at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She specializes in Modern Jewish history with a concentration on Eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine, and migration. 

Paul Weichsel

Yiddish and Translation

Speaker bio: Paul Weichsel was born in 1931 into a Yiddish (or more properly, Yinglish) speaking home in the Bronx, New York. His parents (mother from Ukraine, father from Poland) wanted nothing more than to raise their children as proper “Yenkees”. Paul’s serious interest in Yiddish began to evolve when he returned from living in Israel with his family between 1970-1972. Upon return to CU, Paul founded a YiddIsh leyenkrayz, which lasted until 2010. He has several unpublished English translations of Yiddish literature, and a soon-to-be published set of English translations of some of the early writings of Issac Bashevis Singer.

Ben Schacht

Life, Labor, and Culture among Chicago's Jewish Immigrant Garment Workers (1880-1910) 

Description: Using the life stories of three exemplary Jewish immigrants, this lecture explores the major events and institutions that defined Jewish immigrant life in Chicago during the turn of the twentieth century, including the Haymarket Affair, the garment industry, Maxwell Street and the Jewish ghetto, Hull House, and the labor movement. 

Speaker bio: Ben Schacht is a public humanist, independent scholar, and member of the Chicago YIVO Society board.

Emma Lerman

Yiddish Children’s Literature through Illustrations

Description: The artwork in children's books can tell us much about how children are taught to see the world. Visual storytelling can guide young readers through a period of rapid societal transformation. In this talk, we will look at examples of illustrations in works of Yiddish children's literature from the early Soviet Union. Some authors and artists treated include Mani Leyb and Leyb Kvitko as well as El Lissitzky and Issachar Ber Ryback.

Speaker bio: Emma Lerman is a PhD Candidate at the University of Michigan in the Slavic Languages and Literatures Department. She specializes in interwar Soviet children’s literature with a focus on Russian and Yiddish texts.

Frances Harris

Klezmer Today

Description: Frances will talk about and share sound clips from the breadth and depth of today’s vibrant klezmer scene. Buckle your seatbelts!

Speaker bio: Frances Harris is a retired high school librarian who has found a home in klezmer music and Yiddish culture. She is a regular attendee at Yiddish culture festivals, delights in bringing klezmer luminaries to Champaign-Urbana, and is the proud leader of C-U's Papashoy Klezmer Band.

Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell

Me'am Lo'ez: Parallels of Black and Jewish Roots Music

Description: What are the formal relationships between Ashkenazi Jewish music and music of the African diaspora? In this short lecture, with performed examples from Jewish liturgy, Spirituals and folk and art music from both traditions, we’ll find out.

Speaker bio: Anthony Russell is a multidisciplinary artist working in Yiddish language and culture. The 2025-26 Mitchell J. Gerstein Distinguished Visiting Artist in Residence at the University of Toronto, Anthony has expanded his work into cultural activism in collaboration with the Workers Circle and as an essayist in a number of publications, including The Forward, Tablet Magazine and Jewish Currents.