BGU Establishes New Center for Yiddish Studies

BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL, January 15, 2010 -- Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is establishing a new Center for Yiddish Studies in Beer-Sheva, Israel to preserve the legacy of Yiddish culture, as well as to encourage the study of its literature and language.

With this new Center, BGU will be establishing itself as the youngest and most dynamic university in Israel for the study and dissemination of Yiddish culture.  The Center's goal is to become the organized anchor of Yiddish studies, where academic development, research and discussion on a global scale can flourish for future generations of scholars.

Prof. David Roskies, head of BGU's new Center for Yiddish Studies

Dr. David G. Roskies, the Sol and Evelyn Henkind Chair in Yiddish Literature and Culture and Professor of Jewish Literature at The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City (JTS), will head the new Center. A preeminent scholar and teacher in Yiddish language, literature and Eastern European Jewish culture, he will work on BGU's Marcus Family Campus one semester per year beginning in February.

Roskies is internationally recognized for his work in Jewish literary history.  He was handpicked by Prof. Moshe Justman, dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at BGU, to direct the new Center, just as 35 years earlier he was selected by then–JTS chancellor Gerson D. Cohen to introduce the study of Yiddish.

"Yiddish culture is a treasure with intrinsic value; it's essential for understanding our past and important for understanding Israeli and Jewish culture today," says Prof. Justman. "For Yiddish, it's the 11th hour.  Every year we postpone preserving this culture, we lose something.  As the older generation of scholars still raised in a Yiddish-speaking environment is retiring, there must be a new generation to replace them if Yiddish studies are to flourish in the 21st century."

1912 illustration of Sholom Aleichem, courtesy of Edward Portnoy

The Center will organize workshops and colloquia, bring to light forgotten and unpublished Yiddish works of poetry, prose, drama and memoir, and help access the great volume of Yiddish media from Eastern Europe.  Catering to the increasing interest in Yiddish culture in Israel, the Center has plans to publish classics of Yiddish literature in Hebrew translation.

The Center will work to forge partnerships with the Goldreich Center for Yiddish at Tel Aviv University, the Centre Medem in Paris and the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst. Within BGU, the Center will also seek to create partnerships with the University's departments of literature, linguistics, Jewish history, Jewish thought and Israel studies.

Commenting on the new Center, Prof. Roskies says, "I knew the time to build something new for Yiddish in Israel is now and BGU is the best place in Israel to do this. The Center is the capstone of my career, something I've always dreamed of doing, and in a rare instance, the dream came true."

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