Press Room
The Center for Jewish History is pleased to announce Jeffrey Veidlinger as the new Chair of the Center’s Academic Advisory Council. Professor Veidlinger, the Joseph Brodsky Collegiate Professor of History and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, has been elected to the position and will serve a three-year term as the Council’s leader. Professor Veidlinger succeeds Beth Wenger, the Moritz and Josephine Berg Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, who is now Ex-officio Chair.
Professor Veidlinger is the author of The Moscow State Yiddish Theater: Jewish Culture on the Soviet Stage (2000), Jewish Public Culture in the Late Russian Empire (2009), and In the Shadow of the Shtetl: Small-Town Jewish Life in Soviet Ukraine (2013), as well as the editor of Going to the People: Jews and Ethnographic Impulse (2016). These titles have earned him the National Jewish Book Award, the Barnard Hewitt Award for Theatre History, two Canadian Jewish Book Awards, and the J. I. Segal Award. He will launch his newest book In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918-1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust in a program on November 30, 2021, presented by the YIVO Institute and the Center for Jewish History.
In addition to his service on the Center’s Academic Advisory Council, Veidlinger is also a former Vice-President of the Association for Jewish Studies and a member of the Academic Committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
“Prof. Veidlinger is an incredible scholar and a valued long-time member of the Academic Advisory Council,” said CEO and President Bernard Michael. “We are absolutely delighted to welcome him into this new role and look forward to drawing upon his creative savvy as we enhance our Fellowship Program and other academic offerings.”
The Academic Advisory Council at the Center for Jewish History serves as a critical bridge between the academy and the Center as an independent research institution, providing guidance and insight for the Center’s academic efforts and serving as a voice for the Center among the scholarly community.
"The Center for Jewish History already holds the most important archival collections documenting global Jewish experiences outside of Israel and has become an important home for scholars and venue for Jewish-themed presentations and exhibitions,” said Professor Veidlinger. “I hope that we can build on these strengths to foster the next generation of thought leaders, to connect academic research and public history, and to serve as an incubator for public conversations that explore and interpret Jewish history and its relevance to the world around us."
He added, "I have been a regular patron of the Center's collections for as long as the Center has existed and have been involved in its academic leadership for nearly a decade. I look forward to working with the Partner institutions and all the stakeholders to help the Center develop as the leading forum for the study and engagement of Jewish history."