Coming of Age: Jewish Youth in Poland between the Wars | Barbara Krishenblatt-Gimblett

July 29, 2019
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

Yiddish Civilization Lecture Series

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett | Delivered in English.

During the 1930s, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research organized three competitions for youth autobiographies. These extraordinary documents – more than 600 of them were submitted – are unique testimony to the hopes and dreams, as well as to the reality of those who were growing up in Poland at the time. Mayer Kirshenblatt, who was born in Opatów (Yiddish: Apt) in 1916, could well have been one of those autobiographers. Although he did not enter the competition, he did recall his youth much later during interviews recorded by his daughter during the last forty years of his life.

This illustrated lecture will relate the youth autobiographies written in real time, by youth who had no idea of what the future would hold, with Mayer’s recollections in words and paintings many years later. The talk will include a short film about Mayer’s return to his hometown and how he was received by those living there today. Finally, the talk will consider the role of the youth autobiographies and Mayer’s childhood memories in POLIN Museum’s Core Exhibition.

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