Goldrich Family Institute

Jona Goldrich

The Goldrich Family Institute for Yiddish Language, Literature and Culture was established in 2005 by the Goldrich family in honor of Jona Goldrich (1927-2016) – a Holocaust survivor who escaped Poland in 1942 and eventually became one of California’s most successful real estate developers and a prominent philanthropist. His contributions and initiatives helped to preserve the memory of the Jewish and Yiddish civilization both in the US and in Israel.

Hana Wirth-Nesher

The founding director of the Institute is Professor Hana Wirth-Nesher of the Department of English and American Studies. She led the Institute until the fall of 2020. The current director is Dr. Hannah Pollin-Galay, a senior lecturer in the Literature Department known as a researcher and teacher of Yiddish literature and Holocaust Studies.

The Goldrich Family Institute administers the Inter-university MA Program in Yiddish Studies for the Tel Aviv Campus, the Anna and Max Webb Chair for Visiting Scholars in Yiddish, as well as the Goldrich Family Foundation Advanced Yiddish Studies Forum, which allows the students to contact with leading scholars in the field.

The Institute is also the center for the world-renowned Naomi Prawer Kadar International Yiddish Summer Program.