New Tribute to Yiddish Culture at Tel Aviv University

As we already have informed our readers, a statue of the great Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem has been recently inaugurated at Tel Aviv University. The inauguration event, which took place on June 6th, 2023, was the culmination of an important project spanning over three years.

The monument is a generous gift of two charitable foundations: the Heritage Projects Foundation (USA) and the Yiddish Heritage Preservation Foundation (Israel). Our website, among other important initiatives, is also a result of these foundations’ activities.

The inauguration ceremony was led by the administration of Tel Aviv University. Among the attendees were President Prof. Ariel Porat, Vice President Mr. Amos Elad, and Dr. Haim Ben Yakov, the director general of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, and others. Among the speakers were Prof. Ariel Porat, Leonard Blavatnik, the founder of the Blavatnik Family Foundation, Dr. Mark Zilberquit, the president of the Yiddish Heritage Preservation Foundation, and Dr. Yair Lipshitz. Other distinguished professors, university lecturers and special guests were also present, including Alexander Chernov, the nephew of the monument’s author, sculptor Yuri Chernov, as well as Julia Zilberquit, the executive director of the Yiddish Heritage Preservation Foundation.

Dr. Mark Zilberquit expressed his excitement about his recently introduced initiative: the interdisciplinary Yiddish program, which will be added to the university’s educational system starting from the upcoming academic year 2023-2024. This program will involve not only studying the Yiddish language as such, but also provide novel approaches to the studies of history of Yiddish culture, using Dr. Zilberquit‘s important discoveries as primary materials: previously unknown or nearly forgotten music, theater, art and literature artifacts. The new studies will be coordinated by Dr. Yair Lipshitz and Dr. Ruthie Abeliovich.

After the monument’s unveiling ceremony, Dr. Mark Zilberquit presented our website – Yiddish-Culture.com – to the audience.

Peter Thoren, Amos Elad, Julia Zilberquit, Mark Zilberquit, Ariel Porad, Leonard Blavatnik, Avi Fisher.

Pictures: Yuval Yosef