We kindly request that you register at: info@selma-stern-zentrum.de

For the Selma Stern Lecture 2025, the renowned Professor of German and German-Jewish History, Prof. Dr. Aya Elyada of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has been invited. In her lecture, she will address the topic

“The Afterlife of Yiddish in German-Jewish Culture: Diachronic Translation and the (Re)turn to the Past.”

The lecture examines how German-Jewish authors, scholars, and intellectuals of the 19th and early 20th centuries engaged with their Yiddish literary heritage. Although Old Yiddish literature was no longer published in the German lands at the beginning of the 19th century, numerous texts of this early modern corpus experienced a remarkable afterlife in modern German-Jewish culture. They became the starting point for lively discussions on topics such as tradition and secularization, acculturation and nostalgia, emancipation and antisemitism, gender relations and religious reform.
The lecture focuses on the ideological and emotional dimensions of Yiddish as a post-vernacular language in German-Jewish culture.

The evening will be opened by Prof. Dr. Verena Blechinger-Talcott, First Vice President of Freie Universität Berlin. The introduction will be given by Prof. Dr. Reimund Leicht.

Thursday, Nov. 13 2025 18:00 - 20:00

Freie Universität Berlin Fabeckstr. 23/25 (Holzlaube) R. 2.2058