6 August: public symposium “Zalmen Szyk’s Vilna in the New Millennium”

An international research conference “Reading Vilna in Jewish Writing and Urban History” will take place in Vilnius, 5–7 August, 2019. The organizer of the conference is the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore in cooperation with the Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies of Vilnius University, and the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, Judaica Research Center. The conference is supported by the Research Council of Lithuania.

The conference venue is the J. Kovalevskis Auditorium of the Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies at the Vilnius University (Universiteto 5).

The three days-long conference aims at detailed analysis of the significant Judaica sources from the beginning of the 20^th century until the 1940, representing Vilnius and its history. Vilnius at that period was a particularly important center of the Jewish culture; great number of texts ant works of art by the Jewish authors writing in Yiddish, Hebrew and other languages contributed to developing of its historical narrative, cultural symbolism, identity and spatial images. Other topics related to this multicultural and multilingual city revealing interactions between the Jewish and Lithuanian, Polish, Russian and other contexts of Vilnius will be discussed at the conference as well.

The conference will be attended by the outstanding Judaica researchers from Israel, USA, and Sweden: David G. Roskies (Jewish Theological Seminary, USA / Hebrew University, Israel), David Fishman (Jewish Theological Seminary / YIVO, USA), Avner Holtzman (Tel Aviv University, Israel), Mikhail Krutikov (University of Michigan, USA), Cecile E. Kuznitz (Bard College, USA), Theodore R. Weeks (Southern Illinois University, USA), Vladimir Levin (Hebrew University, Israel), Jan Schwarz (Lund University, Sweden) and others.

Lithuanian participants include the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, literary researcher Mindaugas Kvietkauskas, researcher of the Jewish culture and bibliography Lara Lempertienė (Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, Judaica Research Center), art historian Laima Laučkaitė (Lithuanian Culture Research Institute), historian Darius Staliūnas (Lithuanian Institute of History), and ethnologist Radvilė Racėnaitė (Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore).

During the conference, on 6 August, 5 p. m. the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, Judaica Research Center (Gedimino 51, auditorium on the 5^th floor) invites to the symposium “Zalmen Szyk’s Vilna in the New Millennium”, dedicated to the chairman of the interwar Jewish Country Lovers’ Society (Yidisher gezelshaft far landkentenish) Zalmen Szyk. During the evening, participants of the conference will introduce exceptional places related to the memory of the Jewish Vilnius. This event symbolically marks the 80^th anniversary of the first volume of the detailed guide “1000 yor Vilne” (“1000 years of Vilnius”), edited and published by Z. Szyk in 1939. Unfortunately, the second volume of the guide never saw publication.

Venue and time of the conference “Reading Vilna in Jewish Writing and Urban History”: Vilnius University, Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies, J. Kovalevskis Auditorium (Universiteto 5); August 5–7, 2019, from 9 a. m. The language of the conference is English.

Venue and time of the symposium “Zalmen Szyk’s Vilna in the New Millennium”: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, Judaica Research Center (Gedimino 51, auditorium on the 5^th floor); August 6, 2019, from 5 p. m. The language of the symposium is English.

Conference program ›

For more information, please contact:
Radvilė Racėnaitė, phone: 8 655 144 18
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Short information about the event