Please join us for a unique conference marking the 15th yortsayt of Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter to be held on the campuses of Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary/JTS (New York) November 20-21, 2022. The conference will be bilingual (English and Yiddish). Proceedings will be recorded and available following the conclusion of the conference.

Keynote speakers: Prof. David G. Roskies and Prof. Anita Norich

Sunday, November 20 - 1:30 pm - 7:30 pm @ The Jewish Theological Seminary, 3080 Broadway, New York, NY 10027

• Keynote speakers; panels on Yiddish America in the aftermath of the Holocaust; recollections of Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter.

Monday, November 21 - 8:30 am - 6:30 pm @ Deutsches Haus, 420 West 116th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive, New York, NY 10027

• Panels on Yiddish linguistics, pedagogy and archives; conference concludes with a short concert by singer/violinist Eléonore Biezunski.

In the post-WWII period, Jewish immigrants to the United States brought fresh blood to Yiddish New York and Yiddish reached new heights in the academic world, particularly at Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS). A key figure in these programs was Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter, himself an immigrant, who also spearheaded a new wave of Yiddish activism. This conference will honor Dr. Schaechter by exploring his legacy at the two Morningside Heights institutions with which he was affiliated, as well as the place of Yiddish in American academia – its past, the current state of the field, and its future – set against a larger Jewish-American context.

The conference is sponsored by the League for Yiddish, the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies of Columbia University, and the Jewish Theological Seminary.