Book Talk: The Rudashevski Diary: Life and Loss in the Vilna Ghetto

Thursday, June 5 | 7:30pm ET
In person at 92NY and livestreamed

Presented by 92NY Bronfman Center for Jewish Life; co-sponsored by YIVO

Yitskhok Rudashevski was a talented young teenager who kept a contemporaneous diary of his daily life in the Vilna Ghetto.

He and his family were tragically murdered in the killing fields of Ponary, but his diary miraculously survived and provides a poignant and insightful account of life in the Ghetto during the Holocaust. The diary, written in Yiddish from June 1941 to April 1943, demonstrates the value of culture as a key element of resistance and survival in times of existential crisis.

Yitskhok’s observations offer a deeply human and insightful perspective on the struggles and resilience of the Jewish community under Nazi oppression.

The diary was sent to the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City in the 1940s where it remains to this day and was used as the basis of the second exhibition of the YIVO Bruce and Francesca Cernia Slovin Online Museum which was launched in 2024: Yitskhok Rudashevski: A Teenager’s Account of Life and Death in the Vilna Ghetto.

This event features expert panelists, including Professor Samuel Kassow (Historian), Professor Mindaugas Kvietkauskas (Co-curator of the YIVO Rudashevski exhibition and Dean of the Faculty of Philology at Vilnius University), Jonathan Brent (CEO of YIVO), and Karolina Ziulkoski (Chief Curator of the YIVO Online Museum). Their discussion delves into the diary’s historical significance, its incredible journey from its miraculous recovery in a Vilna hiding place to its current home at YIVO and its impact on understanding Jewish cultural resilience during the Holocaust. At the event you will also receive a curated tour of the new YIVO online exhibition. Do not miss this unique opportunity to engage with a pivotal piece of Holocaust history and honor the memory of those who refused to let their spirits be broken. Join us in exploring The Rudashevski Diary — a testament to life, loss, and the enduring power of the written word.

Don’t miss this powerful commemoration of history and humanity.

Copies of the Jewish Quarterly’s November 2024 edition containing the latest translation of the diary by Solon Beinfeld with an introduction by historian Samuel Kassow will be available for purchase prior to and at the event.