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Outline: Condensed and/or intensive university-level (or serious cultural institute level) seminars (/ mini-courses / master classes) are offered in the fields of Yiddish Studies, Litvak Studies, and Baltic Holocaust Studies, by Professor Dovid Katz at his Seminar Room, established for some years at his home in the interwar “Yiddishist district” of Vilnius. Seminars are by contract with universities, recognized cultural and educational institutions and select NGOs and historical tour providers. Individual contracts can be discussed for shorter events of one to four hours within a single day.
(1) Program comprises: one to five sessions (as required by Client, no difference in fees payable) of no more than three hours for any individual session. All sessions must be scheduled within a seven-day period, with lecturing/teaching/seminars by Prof. Katz (CV; books; publications; recent US lecture tour). He lectures in Yiddish, English or (Ashkenazic) Hebrew. Additional local lecturers can be provided by colleagues, by arrangement, in Belarusian, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian and other languages.
(2) The Seminar Room features a rich Yiddish and Litvak library and mini-museum collected over half a century and housed in this neighborhood for the past eighteen years. Current exhibits include: Yiddish-Lithuanian bilingualism in the interwar Lithuanian Republic, Lithuanian dreidels (dréydlakh) from the past three centuries, Vilna rabbinic history, and the rise of modern Yiddish scholarship on these very streets. Many historic texts and artifacts are of direct relevance for most of the topics offered. Video facilities for enjoying scenes (with interviewer’s comments and explanations to current participants) of the last Yiddish-speaking Litvaks in their lands (Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, northeastern Poland, eastern Ukraine), deriving from the Provider’s quarter century of expeditions are being developed with a provisional launch date in early spring 2017. NOTE: The premises are on the third floor of a four-floor Victorian-era building with no elevator, and regrettably not suitable for those unable to negotiate stairs.
(3) An absolute maximum of thirty persons can be hosted by the Provider at any one session. The Client must provide at least one professional local administrative (non-academic) person to accompany each group at all times without exception, who will be responsible for security. Client is fully responsible for any loss, theft or damage that occurs during sessions as a result of any action by any member of group brought by Client on the day. The Client is responsible for ensuring that only authorized members of the group are present. Provider will not open seminars to any non-participants without Client’s written permission.
(4) The Provider will make available free of charge soft drinks and light snacks at all times.
(5) Participants are given a souvenir A3 size map of Jewish Lithuania developed over the last quarter century by Professor Katz.
(6) Courses and seminars are generally constructed from Professor Katz’s published list of topics, but discussions may explore alternative topics and combinations to suit each Client’s needs, including the addition of additional local lecturers with whom the Provider contracts from time to time in close consultation with Clients.