29 April 2019

Lithuanian National library has entered into cooperation agreement with Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture

On April 29, during her visit to Vilnius, Yfaat Weiss, the director of the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture - Simon Dubnow at Leipzig University, professor of history at Leipzig University and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has signed a cooperation agreement between Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania and Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture. Since 2018, National Library of Lithuania and Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture have been working together on an international project to research the Romm dynasty of Jewish publishers in Vilnius. The project is titled “Cultural Agency, Transnational Innovation and Publishing Economics: The Romm Printing House and the European Republic of Letters“.

During her tightly scheduled visit, prof. Weiss have met with Director General of the National Library of Lithuania prof. Renaldas Gudauskas, Director of the Documentary Heritage Research Department Jolanta Budriūnienė and the head of the Judaica Research Centre dr. Lara Lempertienė. They discussed partnership of the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow in the events planned by the National Library of Lithuania for the upcoming Year of Vilna Gaon and Jewish History (2020), and touched upon the perspectives of future collaboration.

Prof. Weiss, originating from a Jewish family in Kaunas, is especially interested in Lithuanian Jewish heritage and contemporary society of Lithuania. Prof. Weiss have published a research monograph on Leah Goldberg – a Kaunas-born poet, later a national poet of Israel.

On April 29, by request of German Historical Institute and Vilnius University, prof. Weiss gave a presentation „ „Zur Untermiete. Über Metaphern und Lebenswelten“ („Apie subnuomą: metaforos ir pasaulėvaizdžiai“) at the Faculty of History of Vilnius University.

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