In the midst of World War II, a small group of scholars who had gathered at the YIVO Institute’s New York headquarters announced plans to create a “Museum of the Homes of the Past,” which would present to American visitors the richness of East European Jewish life. But after spending more than two years collecting hundreds of items for the museum, the project was abandoned. Why did YIVO set out to create this museum? What was the vision for its displays? Why was this project never realized? And what can we learn from this episode, largely forgotten, which took place at a momentous turning point in Jewish history? Join Center for Jewish History 2021-22 NEH Scholar in Residence Jeffrey Shandler (Rutgers University) in conversation with Kalman Weiser (York University) to address these questions and more. This program is funded, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. This event took place on May 19, 2022. In her talk, Center for Jewish History Dr. Sophie Bookhalter Graduate Research Fellow Angelina Palmén (University of Oxford) in conversation with Dr. Mila Ganeva (Miami University, Ohio), explores how and why an esteemed Imperial German department store and fashion house, owned by an acculturated Jewish family, apparently took a public stance in support of women’s rights. There has been increasing public awareness in recent years about the company’s significant social justice legacy in securing the rescue of thousands of Jews from Nazi era Berlin under Wilfrid Israel, the store’s final director. Two decades before the calamities, however, N. Israel was a flourishing fashion retailer, a self-proclaimed “women’s paradise” at the heart of Berlin, shaping the tastes of German consumers for a century before the First World War. The lecture takes listeners on a journey into the converging worlds of German feminism and a “Jewish” niche in ready-made fashion before the world wars, showing how a prominent Jewish family took a leading role in endorsing and culturally constructing “new womanhood,” in an era when the real-life New Woman remained but a rare curiosity. This program was funded, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. This event took place on May 9, 2022.