YIVO Presents the First in a Series of Programs Held in Conjunction with Its Current Digitization Project of the Jewish Labor and Political Archives

(New York, NY) – On Monday, April 28, 2025 at 7:00pm ET, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research will host a lecture given by Tony Michels titled Two Revolutionary Jews: Leon Trotsky and Chaim Zhitlowsky. The lecture is the first in a series of programs inspired by YIVO’s current digitization of the Jewish Labor and Political Archives (JLPA) and will take place at YIVO (15 West 16th Street, New York, NY). It will also be available via livestream on Zoom.

When Jews plunged into the world of politics en masse at the beginning of the 20th century, a variety of new political options were available to them. Two of the leading figures who proffered novel, but opposing political avenues to the Jewish masses were Dr. Chaim Zhitlowsky and Leon Trotsky. Zhitlowsky, a founder of the Russian Socialist Revolutionary party, offered a synthesis of socialism and Yiddish nationalism. Trotsky, on the other hand a leading Russian Social Democrat, formulated a strict version of internationalism that left no room for Jewish national aspirations.

Many Jews, however, did not view their political choices in such stark terms. Instead, they saw both men as leaders and thinkers who pointed the way to Jewish national liberation and working-class revolution, a Jewish homeland, as well as a flourishing life in the diaspora. In this lecture, Michels will explore the political ideas of Trotsky and Zhitlowsky, and how Jews engaged with them during the first half of the 20th century.

Consisting of nearly 200 collections encompassing 3.5 million pages of archival documents in the Bund Archives, the JLPA forms the world’s most comprehensive body of material pertaining to Jewish political activity in Europe and the United States. This series is inspired by the subject matter contained in these collections.

What:           Two Revolutionary Jews: Leon Trotsky and Chaim Zhitlowsky
When:           Monday, April 28, 2025 at 7:00pm ET
Where:          Taking Place on Zoom and in person at YIVO, Located in the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011)
Cost:              Free
Reservations Available at:  yivo.org/Two-Revolutionary-Jews

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

For more information contact:
Alex Weiser
Director of Public Programs

About the Speaker

Tony Michels teaches American Jewish history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also serves as director of the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies. He is author of A Fire in Their Hearts: Jewish Socialists in New York, editor of Jewish Radicals: A Documentary History, and co-editor of The Cambridge History of Judaism, Volume Eight: The Modern World, 1815-2000.

YIVO

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, now in its Centennial year, is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide. For a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression. Our public programs and exhibitions, as well as online and on-site courses, extend our outreach to a global community. The YIVO Archives contains 24 million unique items and YIVO’s Library has over 400,000 volumes—the single largest resource for the study of East European Jewish life in the world. yivo.org / yivo.org/the-whole-story