Kine un kloglid – The Yiddish Art of Lamentation in Early Modern Ashkenaz

Diana Matut | Delivered in Yiddish.

In this lecture, Diana Matut will delve deep into the history of Yiddish song cultures. Yiddish or bilingual Hebrew-Yiddish laments, dirges, or elegies in early modern Ashkenazi society were both individual and communal. Mourning through song offered ways of coping and establishing patterns of memory. Through it, history was being narrated and interpreted. In turn, lamenting about past or present experiences helped to form the identities of Jewish communities and to keep memory alive. Laments were part of establishing wider societal norms of ethics and behavior, often with the ultimate objective of preparing the singer or reader for the end of their lives.

This lecture will also explore the more “entertaining” sides of the lament, namely, in parodies and Purim plays between 1500 and 1800.

Part of the 2025 Yiddish Civilization Lecture Series.

You may also like the following events from YIVO Institute for Jewish Research:

• This Tuesday, 24th June, 06:00 pm, A Turning Point in Remembrance: YIVO in the 1940s in New York, New York
• Next Tuesday, 1st July, 06:00 pm, In the Shadow of the Shtetl: Yiddish Memories of Small-Town Jewish Life in Ukraine in New York, New York
• Next month, 10th July, 06:00 pm, Yiddish Warsaw on the Hudson in New York, New York