Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies is proud to have supported Yiddish Barcelona 2026 (Yiddish Barcelona), the first edition of an intensive Yiddish summer program based at Casa Adret in Barcelona’s historic Jewish quarter. It was a unique opportunity for participants to be introduced to the development and collection of the Fortunoff Video Archive while engaging with video testimonies in Judeo-Spanish, Yiddish, and Spanish. In the afternoons and evenings, the program featured cultural activities in various venues throughout the city, a guided tour of the old Jewish quarter, the screening of a film in Yiddish, and poetry readings in Yiddish, with Catalan and Judeo-Spanish translations.

Congratulations to organizers Violeta Bronstein, Malena Chinski, and Golda van der Meer, who wrote a short recap of the program:

“We deem the collaboration between the Fortunoff Archive and Yiddish Barcelona an important step in raising awareness on the linguistic dimension of Holocaust testimonies, and on the necessity of transmitting Jewish languages as a means for shaping new audiences for oral testimonies, and new readers for written sources.”

“The public lecture series (July 21-23), which focused extensively on Holocaust testimonies and Holocaust literature, both in Yiddish and in translation, enabled the program to reach a broader audience interested in Yiddish language and culture. The session devoted to the Fortunoff Video Archives, held at the University of Barcelona on July 21, introduced students, researchers and members of the audience to the Archiveʼs unique collections, methodology and mission. More broadly, the session opened new perspectives for future collaboration between the Fortunoff Archive and the University of Barcelona.”

Thank you for the support provided by: Mozaika Universitat de Barcelona

And Yiddish Barcelona collaborators: Estudios Judíos Barcelona, Goethe-Institut Barcelona, Call de Girona, Cinema Jueu, Toldot, Consulado General de Alemania

is proud to have supported Yiddish Barcelona 2026, the first edition of an intensive Yiddish summer program based at Casa Adret in Barcelona’s historic Jewish quarter. It was a unique opportunity for participants to be introduced to the development and collection of the Fortunoff Video Archive while engaging with video testimonies in Judeo-Spanish, Yiddish, and Spanish. In the afternoons and evenings, the program featured cultural activities in various venues throughout the city, a guided tour of the old Jewish quarter, the screening of a film in Yiddish, and poetry readings in Yiddish, with Catalan and Judeo-Spanish translations.

Congratulations to organizers Violeta Bronstein, Malena Chinski, and Golda van der Meer, who wrote a short recap of the program:

“We deem the collaboration between the Fortunoff Archive and Yiddish Barcelona an important step in raising awareness on the linguistic dimension of Holocaust testimonies, and on the necessity of transmitting Jewish languages as a means for shaping new audiences for oral testimonies, and new readers for written sources.”

“The public lecture series (July 21-23), which focused extensively on Holocaust testimonies and Holocaust literature, both in Yiddish and in translation, enabled the program to reach a broader audience interested in Yiddish language and culture. The session devoted to the Fortunoff Video Archives, held at the University of Barcelona on July 21, introduced students, researchers and members of the audience to the Archiveʼs unique collections, methodology and mission. More broadly, the session opened new perspectives for future collaboration between the Fortunoff Archive and the University of Barcelona.”

Thank you for the support provided by: Mozaika, Universitat de Barcelona.

And Yiddish Barcelona collaborators: Institute of Jewish Studies Barcelona, Goethe-Institut Barcelona, Call de Girona, Festival de Cinema Jueu de Barcelona, Toldot Barcelona, Embajada de Alemania Madrid

In the summer of 1946, psychologist Dr. David Boder began one of the first audio testimony projects with survivors of the Holocaust. Responding to a call by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Boder sought to raise awareness among the American public regarding the events of the Holocaust and was also interested in highlighting the plight of Jewish displaced persons in Europe.

In October this year, 80 years after after his innovative project, scholars to reflect on Boder’s life and work in relation to early post-war Holocaust testimony, but also to the fields of Social Psychology, Ethnography, Oral History, Linguistics, Literature, Social History, Refugee Studies and Jewish Studies.

More: https://fortunoff.library.yale.edu/2026/02/05/cfp-david-boder-research-seminar-reflecting-on-his-work-life-and-legacy-80-years-after/

is proud to help organize the conference with the Diana and Eli Zborowski Center for the Study of the Aftermath of the Holocaust, the International Institute for Holocaust Research, Yad Vashem: World Holocaust Center, Jerusalem, Yale University, and the George and Irina Schaeffer Center for the Study of Genocide, Human Rights and Conflict Prevention, The American University of Paris.

How does one bear witness to the Holocaust? And how do we listen to testimony?

In ’s new teaching kit The Art of Listening, students explore the complexity of testimonies as personal narratives and historical sources. They analyze the Fortunoff Video Archive’s interviewing methodology to explore how recording practices contribute to the ways in which survivors tell their stories. **FREE and available now.**

More: https://bit.ly/artoflisteningfvaht

The Journal of History (Journals - University of Toronto Press) is accepting papers from scholars who critically engage in the use of historical testimony in artistic and educational initiatives.

More: https://utppublishing.com/journals/jh/special-issue-call-for-papers

What are the uses of testimony for researchers, artists and audiences? What are the limits of those forms of representation in their use of these accounts? How can art and other forms of representation challenge our understanding of history? What do visual mediums offer to scholars, both in terms of their own research as well as their teaching of the past in the classroom?

Scholars from a broad range of disciplines who engage with these questions, and who examine how historical testimony can be used to represent and understand the past — are welcome to apply. The Guest Editors for the issue are Dr. Charlotte Schallié (Professor of Germanic Studies, University of Victoria) and Dr. Mark Celinscak (Louis and Frances Blumkin Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Nebraska at Omaha).

The deadline for submissions is December 4, 2026.

On Saturday, August 29, Musician-in-Residence Zisl Slepovitch will be performing selections from Songs From Testimonies as part of his upcoming three-day residency at the College of Arts and Sciences at Appalachian State University. The show starts at 4pm in the Rosen Concert Hall in the college’s Boyhill Music Center, and is free and open to the public.

More: https://cas.appstate.edu/news/app-state-welcomes-d-zisl-slepovitch-august-residency-holocaust-testimony-and-yiddish-music

Zisl’s residency will explore Holocaust testimony, Yiddish music, and cultural memory through a series of public events, including a public presentation and instrumental and vocal workshop.

The residency is presented by Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies, Appalachian State University - Hayes School of Music, and Temple of the High Country, with generous support from the Nadiv Funders of Western North Carolina.