Please register below.

The case of Hebrew is considered unique in history: an ancient holy language miraculously brought back to life after 2000 years by a small group of dreamers. But was Hebrew ever really “dead”? What do Yiddish, Ladino, and other languages have to do with its “rebirth”? And what influence does modern Hebrew have on the languages of diasporic Jews today? Challenging common myths, this talk will introduce us to how, why, and when Hebrew became the wonderfully hybrid language of millions of Jews and non-Jews in Israel and abroad today. Please join us for a light-hearted and playful presentation

Kalman Weiser is the Silber Family Professor of Modern Jewish Studies and Director of the Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies at York University. He specializes in modern Jewish history, Yiddish, and Jewish language studies more broadly. His most recent volume is Key Concepts in the Study of Antisemitism (2021). He is now completing two books - one about the complex relationships across the decades between four Yiddish linguists - two Jewish, two Germans who became Nazis; the other is about how refuge scholars transformed the Yiddish Scientific Institute (YIVO) in Vilna, Poland into today's YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, which will celebrate its centennial in 2025, in New York City.