YIVO Yiddish Club: Yiddish in Rio with Sonia Kramer

An event for Yiddish enthusiasts the world over, the YIVO Yiddish club is an informal monthly gathering to celebrate Yiddish. Hosted by Shane Baker, sessions take place in English, and are liberally peppered with Yiddish. Each month Baker is joined by a different guest who discusses their work and a related Yiddish cultural theme. In the spirit of a club, sessions are held as interactive zoom meetings in which participants can see and hear one another. Each session includes ample time for audience questions, group discussion, and, time permitting, knock-down, drag-out arguments. Attendees need not know any Yiddish to attend, though some familiarity with the language is highly recommended.

This session features Sonia Kramer, Professor of Pontific Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro/PUC-Rio, and coordinator of the “Núcleo Viver com Yiddish [Lebn far Yiddish Center]: research, courses and cultural projects.” Kramer has worked for many years as a teacher and researcher of language, literature, and pedagogy, publishing extensively on these subjects. Since 2015, her work has focused on Yiddish including developing a musical group, workshops on Yiddish music and literature for children in Jewish schools, Yiddish courses, and doing research on women that wrote in Yiddish.