A New Look at the Old World – Eastern European Jewry: Scenes of Life
(Top photo: Tempel synagogue in Krakow during renovations, 2024. Photo: Ofer Aderet)
A series of encounters, presented by Anu – Museum of the Jewish People in collaboration with Beit Shalom Aleichem.
2025-2026, Fridays once a month, 9:00am-11:00am
Series producer: Rivka Aderet
Series price: 680 ILS
Program:
November 21, 2025
- Kazimierz: Faded Hebrew Signs and Traces of Mezuzahs on Doors: Krakow’s Jewish past is visible from every corner. A stroll through the streets of the Jewish quarter, accompanied by archival photographs and rare texts. A lecture by Ofer Aderet, history correspondent for “Haaretz” newspaper.
- To the Place, To the Home – On the Road Following Books: A late visit to the childhood locales written about by the best authors. With Prof. Ruhama Elbag.
December 12, 2025
- Berlin-Vilna-New York 1925 – 2025: The YIVO Institute and its Research of Eastern European Jewish Culture. With Prof. Avraham Nowersztern.
- “Jewish Warsaw”: Chapters of memoirs by Moshe Zonshayn, who revived his lost city in his words. A talk with the book’s Yiddish translator, Beni Mer.
- A cinematic view of Warsaw in films from 1939 and 1948, from the Oster Visual Documentation Center at Anu – The Museum of the Jewish People. With Rivka Aderet.
January 16, 2026
- Stempenyu on the Way to the “Bolshoi”: Discovering Roots Among the St. Petersburg School: A musical conversation accompanied by recordings and live demonstrations. Lecturer and flutist – Dr. Michael Lukin.
- Perhaps We Shall Meet Again: Letters from Jewish children in Poland from the town of Nowy Dwór to their teacher who immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1934. With Prof. David Assaf.
February 13, 2026
- “Vishniac,” 2023, a film about the renowned photographer Roman Vishniac, who documented Jews in towns and cities in the 1930s until just before the outbreak of World War II. His photographs gained widespread fame and left their mark on the memory and image of the Jewish world in Eastern Europe. A talk with lecture by the filmmaker, Laura Bialis.
March 13, 2026
- American Jews Documenting Visits to Their Birthplaces with Film Cameras: Rare films from the Oster Visual Documentation Center. With Rivka Aderet.
- A Journey Along the Jewish Heritage Route of Slovakia: On the renovated Trenčín synagogue and the Bátovce synagogue, which is undergoing restoration and renovation as part of the synagogue preservation project in Slovakia. An encounter with Meir Bulka, Chairman of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Eastern Europe.
April 24, 2026
- Not Just Days, Shabbaths, and Holidays: Leafing Through Yiddish Calendars, 1860-1914: קאַלענדאַר – The Window to the World. With Prof. Nati Cohen.
- Salon Guests in Kiev Dream of the Shtetl: Songs of Mark Warshawsky. Lecturer and flutist: Dr. Michael Lukin, Vocals: Vera Lozinsky, Piano: Yuri Povolotsky.
May 29, 2026
- Fiddler on the Screen: The Adaptations of Tevye and Yentl from Book to Film. With Dr. Yuval Rivlin.
- “The Baal Shem Tov’s Neighbor in Paradise,” an Israeli-Hasidic story from the musical “There Once Was a Hassid.” With Dr. Ze’ev Kizzis.
June 12, 2026
- The Shtetl Through the Lens of Hollywood in the New Museum of the History of the Shtetl of Šeduva (Lithuania). An encounter with Prof. Motti Zalkin, advisor to the museum project in the town.
- Looking Back: The Shtetl in Yiddish Theater Songs from the YIVO Collection. Conductor and flutist: Dr. Michael Lukin, Vocals: Vera Lozinsky, Piano: Igor Ostrovsky, Members of “די גאַסן טריו” – Clarinet: Gal Klein, Accordion: Yanush Hurwitz, Contrabass: Asaf Rabi.
