A Look at the Educational Alliance Collection (1968)

This episode was originally broadcast on January 14, 1968. Host Luba Condell is joined by YIVO archivist Zosa Szajkowski for a discussion about YIVO’s collection of official records of the Educational Alliance, the cultural and educational institution on New York's Lower East Side, which was established in 1889 to promote the Americanization of Jewish immigrants.   

Zosa Szajkowski, a controversial figure in the history of Jewish archives, is the subject of a new book by Lisa Moses Leff, The Archive Thief: The Man Who Salvaged French Jewish History in the Wake of the Holocaust.

From 1963-1976, YIVO had its own program on WEVD, the radio station established by the Socialist Party of America in 1927 (its call letters stand for the initials of American socialist leader Eugene V. Debs), which was purchased by the Jewish Daily Forward in 1932 and became a major venue from Yiddish programming. 

YIVO used its spot on WEVD for Yiddish-language interviews and discussions with leading New York Yiddish cultural figures, as well as for reporting on its own scholarly and cultural work.

A new podcast of this program in the order in which it was originally broadcast will be posted here every two weeks.

Series curated by Matt Temkin, YIVO Sound Archives.

Listen to the program

[This program is in Yiddish.]