Gennady Estraikh of New York University will present a lecture titled "Evgeny Evtushenko's 'Babi Yar': Holocaust Poetry and Soviet Jewish Politics," at 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, in Kimpel Hall 102.

Estraikh will discuss a famous Soviet poem about the Holocaust. "Babi Yar" was written in 1961 by Evgeny Evtushenko to commemorate a World War II tragedy in which Nazis killed more than 33,000 Jews in Kiev and received no memorial or recognition by the Soviet government. Estraikh will talk about how Jewish and non-Jewish readers reacted in a controversy that erupted in response to Evtushenko's poem.

Students interested in learning more about Soviet Jewish literature, history, and politics are welcome to attend this lecture, as well as the lunch with Estraikh from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Kimpel Hall 416. They will serve free pizza.

Estraikh received a doctorate from the University of Oxford and is an associate professor of Hebrew, Judaic, and Yiddish studies at New York University. He is the director of the Shivdler History of Soviet Union Jews Project. Among his numerous publications are books on Soviet Yiddish (1999), In Harness: Yiddish Writers' Romance with Communism (2005), Yiddish in the Cold War (2008), and Yiddish Literary Life in Moscow (2015), the last of which was written in Russian.

This event is organized by the Russian-Eurasian Student Organization, a registered student organization that seeks to develop an inclusive Russian and Eurasian community on campus. Its members wish to spread and strengthen Slavic, Central Asian, Russian, and Yiddish language and culture, as well as the history of Eastern European Jews, through organizing campuswide engaging events and inviting speakers to the university.  

More information about the Russian-Eurasian Student Organization and the Russian program can be found on its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/UArkRussian, and the Jewish studies program's website.

This event is supported by the Student Activities Fee as a funded event by the Associated Student Government and is free to all currently enrolled University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, students who pay the student activities fee.  For questions about the event or for accommodations due to disability please contact Philip Purifoy, president of the Russian-Eurasian Student Organization, at pbpurifo@uark.edu or 501-580-0863.