Students Discover Jewish History at the YIVO Learning and Media Center
Since the YIVO Learning and Media Center’s (YLMC) June opening, we have had a whirlwind of visits from high schools, colleges, universities, and other institutions. In the latter half of 2025 alone, we hosted 19 group visits totaling 300 visitors, including Kushner Yeshiva students for a special introduction to YIVO, with a talk by Eddy Portnoy on archival research for his book Bad Rabbi. Other visits brought Jewish Theological Seminary students from a class on Yiddish theater for a show-and-tell focused entirely on Yiddish theater; The New School students from a course on Jewish ethnography for a tour of YIVO's archival stacks; and Columbia University students from class on Zionist thought and ideology for a lesson exploring reproductions of archival materials pertaining to Zionist youth groups in Eastern Europe.
Visit Spotlight: The Abraham Joshua Heschel School
On November 7, 2025, ten 11th grade students accompanied by their teacher Max Lazar from The Abraham Joshua Heschel School visited the YIVO Learning and Media Center for a special lesson dedicated to Yiddish theater. During their visit, the students were introduced to the history of YIVO and the Esther Rokhl Kaminska Theater Museum. The students toured YIVO’s Centennial exhibitions, explored the Learning and Media Center, and after a presentation about the global history of the Yiddish theater, received a show-and-tell presentation of some of YIVO’s archival treasures by Director of Collections Stefanie Halpern.
The visiting students had prepared for their time at YIVO beforehand with an assigned reading from New York’s Yiddish Theater: From The Bowery to Broadway chosen by YLMC Educator Susannah Trubman. The Heschel students watched selected clips from Yiddish films and in an open conversation with Trubman, asked thoughtful questions about the material they had encountered and the work that they had read.
My 11th Grade Honors Seminar on American Jewish History had the pleasure of visiting the Learning and Media Center at YIVO in November 2025. Susannah Trubman and Stefanie Halpern did a wonderful job of framing our visit around texts, documents, and objects related to the Yiddish theater in New York City. Students came away with a richer sense of the history of Jewish life and politics at the turn of the 20th century, as well as a rare glimpse inside the YIVO Archives. We hope to have more Heschel groups working with YIVO soon!
—Max Lazar
Teacher, The Abraham Joshua Heschel School
The YLMC is currently open by appointment for visiting groups. Are you interested in bringing a class to visit the YIVO Learning and Media Center? Contact Susannah Trubman to schedule your visit today!