Steven Zipperstein Appointed First Jacob Kronhill Visiting Scholar at YIVO

(NEW YORK, September 17, 2013) – The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is pleased to announce the appointment of the first Jacob Kronhill Visiting Scholar, Dr. Steven Zipperstein, Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History at Stanford University.

The Jacob Kronhill Visiting Scholar will conduct a graduate-level seminar in East European Jewish history, lead a professional development workshop for YIVO fellows and other young scholars in the field, deliver a series of public lectures, and play a leading intellectual role in other YIVO projects in research, education, and publications.

Dr. Zipperstein, who will begin visiting regularly in January and take up residence in March, is a widely published scholar of modern Jewish history. He is the author of acclaimed books, including The Jews of Odessa: A Cultural History, 1794-1881 (Stanford University Press, 1985), Imagining Russian Jewry: Memory, History, Identity (University of Washington Press, 1999), and Elusive Prophet: Ahad Ha'am and the Origins of Zionism (University of California, 1993). He is co-editor of the journal, Jewish Social Studies: History, Culture, and Society and sits on the editorial board of The Jewish Review of Books. Dr. Zipperstein has published articles and review essays in a wide range of journals, magazines, and newspapers, including The New York Times, Washington Post Book World, Ha-Aretz, Forward, The New Republic, Partisan Review, and Dissent. For sixteen years, between 1991-2007, Dr. Zipperstein was Director of the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford which under his leadership emerged as one of the leading programs in the field. Dr. Zipperstein is a member of the Academic Advisory Board at the YIVO Institute and Chair of the Academic Advisory Council at the Center for Jewish History. He is the recipient of the Judah Magnes Gold Medal from the American Friends of the Hebrew University, the Koret Award for contributions to American Jewish life, and other prizes.

“The YIVO Institute is most grateful to Irene Pletka and the Kronhill Pletka Foundation for the generous gift that makes possible establishment of the Jacob Kronhill Visiting Scholar position, which represents an enormous first step in rebuilding the educational and research activities of the Max Weinreich Center. We are delighted that Steven Zipperstein has accepted the position as our first Kronhill Scholar. His stature, accomplishments and range of interests precisely match the ambitions of YIVO’s vision for the future.”
—Jonathan Brent, Executive Director, The YIVO Institute

The new visiting scholar program at YIVO was established with a gift from the Kronhill Pletka Foundation, which was created by Irene Pletka in 2007 to honor the memory of her parents, Julia and Jacob Kronhill (Kronzylberg), who fled Poland in 1939. After spending the war in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, the family succeeded in reaching Australia, where they were active in Jewish community life, with Jacob particularly committed to Jewish welfare, increasing access to Yiddish education, freeing Soviet Jewry, and the defense of human rights.

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