Yiddish Club with Dylan Seders Hoffman

Nu, vilst redn a bisele yidish? An event for Yiddish enthusiasts the world over, the YIVO Yiddish club is an informal monthly gathering to celebrate Mame-loshn. Hosted by Shane Baker, sessions take place in English, and are liberally peppered with Yiddish. Each month Baker is joined by a different guest who discusses their work and a related Yiddish cultural theme. In the spirit of a club, sessions are held as interactive zoom meetings in which participants can see and hear one another. Each session includes ample time for audience questions, group discussion, and, time permitting, knock-down, drag-out arguments. Attendees need not know any Yiddish to attend, though some familiarity with the language is highly recommended.

This session features actor, singer, and filmmaker, Dylan Seders Hoffman. She is the founder and artistic director of Chava Productions, a film production company which presents original works located at the intersection of pop culture and 21st century Jewishness with a generous dose of Yiddish. Chava Productions’ first short film Yiddish Mean Girls premiered in the fall of 2022. As an actor, she has performed Off-Broadway with the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, including in their New York Times Critic’s Pick production The Sorceress, with the New Yiddish Rep, and at the New York Theatre Festival.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.