Yiddish research educates

Assistant Director of the Il Pitigliani Jewish Community Center in Rome Laura Mincer accomplished two personal milestones this week. Not only did she venture to Bloomington for the first time, but her visit also marked the first time she set foot in the United States.\n"It has been very exciting," she said. "This is a very little piece of America, but Bloomington is very nice."\nMincer traveled to campus to present her original unpublished research paper, "Ida Kaminska: Images from her Life" at a three-day conference, "Beyond The Shtetl: Yiddish Language and Culture in 20th Century Eastern Europe." \nThe event was held Sunday through Tuesday in the Oak and Georgian Rooms of the Indiana Memorial Union, and was put together by the Russian and East European Institute and the Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Program.\nAssistant Professor of Jewish Studies Jeffrey Veidlinger coordinated the conference with the Dr. Alice Field Cohn Chair in Yiddish Studies, Dov-Ber Kerler.\n"We realized there was a lot of research in Eastern European Yiddish studies, but there was no forum where all of these people could come together and share their ideas," Veidlinger said. "This conference is a means of uniting Yiddish studies scholars from around the world."\nMore than 30 field members from across the United States and eight other countries presented research papers in panels focusing on the a variety of concentrations, including "Cultural Policies and the Left" and "Yiddish Today." \nEach panel consisted of between two and three researchers who responded to questions and comments from the audience, which consisted of more than 60 registered participants, after presenting their manuscripts.\nJeremy Dauber, assistant professor of Germanic languages and literatures at Columbia University, oversaw the panel on youth culture.\n"It's great when you bring together people in the field whose names you know but who you have never met," he said. "These presentations show just how complex Yiddish movements within Eastern Europe were."\nRussian and East European Institute Assistant Director Denise Gardiner confirmed between eight and 10 conference term papers will be published in an upcoming book.\n"I hope this conference gives a very good impression of IU and the programs it offers," Gardiner said.