Language

Ohavi Zedek Lunch & Learn: Preserving & Sharing Yiddish Literature & Culture: The Role of the Yiddish Book Center 03/14/2024

From Ohavi Zedek Synagogue:

Zvi Jankelowitz, the Yiddish Book Center’s Director of Institutional Advancement, shares highlights of “Yiddish: A Global Culture”, the Center’s new permanent exhibition, and explains how the Center is at the forefront of technological advances, ensuring the accessibility of Yiddish books to Yiddish and non-Yiddish readers. Zvi shares clips from the Wexler Oral History Project, a growing collection of more than 1,200 video interviews about Yiddish language and culture — and also gives us a glimpse of what the future of Yiddish looks like for the 21st Century.

For more information: https://ohavizedek.org/

Language Justice in Vermont - Panel Discussion 12/15/2021

A panel discussion hosted by Vermont's Executive Director of Racial Equity Xusana Davis about language justice, human rights, and how Vermont can move those conversations and efforts forward.

Featuring Odilia Romero, Co-founder/ Executive Director of Comunidades Indigenas en Liderazgo (CIELO);
Thelma Gomez, Migrant Justice Leader;
Seema Kumar, Programs Manager, Planning and Court Services Division;
John Pirone, Lecturer/ Coordinator, American Sign Language;
Alison Segar, Vermont Language Justice Project;
Moderated by Xusana Davis, State of Vermont’s Executive Director of Racial Equity

FOCUS: Vermont Legislature Apologizes for ‘Eugenics Survey’ 05/21/2021

Following is a video of our Center for Media and Democracy program which aided in removing the Dorothy Canfield Fisher name from a prestigious Vermont children’s book award. The name has been changed to the Vermont Golden Dome Book Awards.

In this discussion of why Dorothy Canfield Fisher's name should be removed from the Vermont Book Award, evidence is presented that the author had a direct connection with the Vermont Eugenics Survey. Judy Dow, Franco American/ Abenaki educator, artist, and writer, presents a compelling power point on the history of eugenics and documentation on the reasons to change the Dorothy Canfield Fisher book award name. Kim Chase, third generation, Franco American writer and educator, and Kathy Olwell, retired social worker and social activist, talk about how the impact of the Vermont Eugenics Survey is still pertinent and discuss the vital need for acknowledgment, education, and a chance to heal.

Vermont Book Award: vcfa.edu/vermont-book-award/about-vermont-book-award

Lost Mural Immigrant Voices: Henia Lewis - Background of Yiddish Culture & Literature 05/05/2019

The Lost Mural Immigrant Voices project hosts Henia Lewin at Ohavi Zedek Synagogue. Henia Lewin is quite renown and she is speaking on behalf of the Lost Mural. She and the Lost Mural artist, Ben Zion Black, share an interest in the preservation of Yiddish language and literature.

Henia is a Holocaust survivor originally from Lithuania. She is a Hebrew and Yiddish instructor at the University of Vermont, a former Hillel director at UVM, and a Yiddish instructor at UMass Amherst and Hampshire College. Henia is the first Goldfarb Chair and Yiddish scholar at the National Yiddish Book Center, Amherst and a Yiddish instructor at the Jewish Community of Amherst.