Who Is Yiddishkayt?

Yiddishkayt’s Staff

Rob Adler Peckerar

Executive Director

Clare Fester

Program(me) Director

Lisa Kenner Grissom

Special Projects

Vovik

Companionship Specialist

Wallis Annenberg Helix Fellowship Staff

David Shneer

FACULTY ADVISOR

Ben Kline

MUSIC & FOLKLORE

Sasha Razor

SLAVIC LANGUAGE & LITERATURE

Anita Samaha

GROUP FACILITATOR

We’re a small organization devoted to a great cause!

We explore Yiddishkayt as a vital, unrestrained, and critical worldview, which embraces a concern for all humanity and draws on Jewish culture’s legacy to inspire us all to help build a more inclusive and just society.

Cultural Preservation

We bring the European Jewish past to life by recovering historical treasures to put into a meaningful context and connect them to our contemporary world.

Digital & Multimedia

Every day we’re sharing the artifacts of Jewish life online. With our images, poems, videos, and songs, we entertain, educate, and engage culture lovers the world over.

Travel & Immersion

We hasve been transforming the way Jewish history is taught and perceived by directly engaging the landscapes of Jewish life from Boyle Heights to Brooklyn to Bobruysk.

Live Arts

Our unique spin on creative arts programming has set Yiddishkayt apart from other Jewish cultural organizations with our emphasis on cross-cultural programs.

251
Historical Profiles Online
98
Intrepid Travelers to Yiddishland
14440
Facebook Follows
55451
Online Viewers Per Week
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The role that Yiddishkayt plays in building Jewish community and writing and making known European Jewish history is vital. There really are no other organisations that undertake the work they do! It was such a pleasure to discover them, and to be able to read the little nuggets of history and culture that they offer...

Jordy • Australia
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I have always appreciated Yiddishkayt's playful and open approach to culture and history. Last year I went on their walking tour of Boyle Heights and it was simply amazing to think that my grandfather grew up in a part of the city that it took me over 50 years to even visit!

Diane • Los Angeles, Calif.
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I’m discovering the rich history and heritage of Yiddish culture that was nearly missed — great credit is due to Yiddishkayt for nurturing the growth of interest in Yiddish as a secular cultural movement.

Anne
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Yiddishkayt brings together an amazing array of personable experts which led perhaps the most interesting and engaging group of students I've ever been a part of. We all left with our own heightened nuances about the history we uncovered and how we perceive ourselves within it.

Max • Cambridge, Mass.
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Yiddishkayt is truly the only organization offering students the opportunity to engage deeply with the past and present of eastern Europe. They offer students generous scholarships to make their experiences possible for people regardless of financial resource. I've been a lucky beneficiary, and it changed my life.

Hanna • Seattle, Wash.
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it is clear to me that Yiddishkayt's work teaching Yiddish history and culture as worthwhile in and of itself but also as having enduring implications for the cultures among which it developed is of absolutely vital importance on all sides. The world needs Yiddishkayt!

Emma • New York, N.Y.
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Yiddishkayt provides unparalleled opportunities to engage with history, using Yiddish culture as an entry into the history of Los Angeles communities, the former Polish-Lithuanian Grand Duchy, and places throughout the world where Yiddish took root, no matter how far away.

Elena • Honolulu, Hawaii
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The Yiddishkayt website and Facebook posts teach about figures in Jewish culture who I might never have heard of, but brings them to life and, with them, an entire world that one never would see otherwise.

Jonah • San Francisco, Calif.