Following are the online recordings (webcasts) of recent public programs pertaining to the Library’s international collections. To discover more videos, visit the four area studies divisions here: African and Middle Eastern, Asian, European, and Hispanic.
African and Middle Eastern Division
TITLE: Whitechapel Noise: Jewish Immigration Life in Yiddish Song & Verse, London 1884-1914
SPEAKER: Vivi Lachs
EVENT DATE: 2018/10/23
RUNNING TIME: 57 minutes
TRANSCRIPT: View Transcript
DESCRIPTION: Vivi Lachs discusses her book, “Whitechapel Noise: Jewish Immigration Life in Yiddish Song & Verse, London 1884-1914.”
TITLE: Gratitude in Low Voices: Dawit Gebremichael Habte
SPEAKER: Dawit Gebremichael Habte
EVENT DATE: 2018/10/11
RUNNING TIME: 49 minutes
TRANSCRIPT: View Transcript
DESCRIPTION: “Gratitude in Low Voices: A Memoir” documents a long, complicated journey of the author Dawit Gebremichael Habte from his homeland of Eritrea through Ethiopia, Kenya and finally to the United States. The memoir recreates the experience of so many who immigrated to the U.S. from their own countries. Habte is such a skilled writer that he has managed to capture the initial dire situation of émigrés and then recount his own and his family’s success stories that parallel those of others who have shaped the US landscape.
TITLE: Historical Atlas of Hasidism
SPEAKER: Marcin Wodzinski
EVENT DATE: 2018/10/10
RUNNING TIME: 71 minutes
TRANSCRIPT: View Transcript
DESCRIPTION: Marcin Wodzinski discussed his cartographic reference book on one of the modern era’s most important Jewish mystical, social and religious movements, Hasidism, which developed in Eastern Europe.
Speaker Biography: Marcin Wodzinski is professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Wroclaw, Poland.
Asian Division
TITLE: One Buddha, 15 Buddhas, 1,000 Buddhas
SPEAKER: Richard G. Salomon
EVENT DATE: 2018/11/15
RUNNING TIME: 75 minutes
TRANSCRIPT: View Transcript
DESCRIPTION: Richard Salomon discussed the Library’s unique Buddhist birch-bark manuscript from the ancient region of Gandhara in modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. This text is one of the oldest Buddhist manuscripts ever discovered, dating from around the beginning of the Common Era. Salomon explained the manuscript’s significance in Buddhist literature and history.
Speaker Biography: Richard G. Salomon is emeritus professor of Sanskrit and Buddhist studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. In addition to being the director of the British Library and University of Washington’s early Buddhist Manuscript Project, he is the author of many publications on early Buddhism. His most recent book is “Buddhist Literature of Ancient Gandhara: An Introduction with Selected Translations.”
European Division
TITLE: Italian-Americans Before and During World War II
SPEAKER: Constance Morella, Linda Boccucci Osborne, Ezio Marchetto
EVENT DATE: 2018/08/01
RUNNING TIME: 97 minutes
TRANSCRIPT: View Transcript
DESCRIPTION: A symposium and treasure display on Italian-Americans before and during World War II. Co-sponsored by the Greater Washington D.C. Region of the National Organization of Italian American Women.