The World of Eastern European Jewish Migrants
Tuition: $480 | YIVO members: $375**
Students: $240 (Must register with valid university email address)
This is a live, online course held weekly on Zoom. Enrollment will be capped at about 15 students. All course details (Zoom link, syllabus, handouts, assignments, etc.) will be posted to Canvas. Students will be granted access to the class on Canvas after registering for the class here on the YIVO website. This class will be conducted in English.
Instructor: Aleksandra Jakubczak
Course Description:
Mobility has always characterized Jewish society, from antiquity to modern times. Jews were frequently on the move—not only fleeing persecution, but also pursuing new opportunities. This course explores modern Eastern European Jewish history through the lens of migration.
Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, more than two million Jews left Eastern Europe. While many settled in the United States, others sought prospects in destinations ranging from South America to the Far East. Some joined organized migration schemes, establishing agricultural colonies in places such as Palestine and Argentina. Given the scale of these migrations, even those who never left Eastern Europe were profoundly affected.
Drawing on statistics, migrant guides and brochures, autobiographies, and personal letters, students will examine the remarkable diversity of Jewish migratory experiences in the modern era: from family migration to the United States, to migration for prostitution in Istanbul and Buenos Aires; from successful settlement and return migration to Eastern Europe, to failed migration and the hardships endured along the way. Students will explore migration from multiple perspectives—the Jewish migrants themselves, the families and neighbors who remained in Eastern Europe, state officials, and the organizations that facilitated Jewish migration.
Course Materials:
All course materials will be provided digitally on Canvas.
Questions? Read our 2026 Spring Classes FAQ.
Aleksandra Jakubczak is a historian specializing in the social and economic history of Eastern European Jewry in the modern period. Since 2022, she has served as a historian at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. She earned her Ph.D. in Jewish History from Columbia University in New York in 2023 and has, since then, held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard University and at the Center for Antisemitism Research at the Technical University of Berlin. She is the author of monographs as well as numerous scholarly articles.
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