YIVO at 100, Lithuanian DC Christmas, Mystery Highway
Here's the latest dispatch.
Good afternoon,
For you newbies out there, welcome to Outsider on the Inside. I hope this dispatch from in and around the nation’s capital on underreported topics finds you well.
If you’re just discovering my musings, here’s a backgrounder and make sure we’re connected on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
Quick Thoughts
Support and follow the work of IWF’s Center for Energy and Conservation today if you haven’t already.
President-elect Trump was named TIME’s Person of the Year. (Deservedly so.)
Oh Canada…Our neighbors have banned over 2,000 gun models. It makes me appreciate our Second Amendment more.
Longtime conservative thought leader and Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation chairman Lee Edwards passed away this week at 92. RIP.
I implore my fellow American women to stop watching true crime series and fawning over “handsome” killers.
That’s all for now. Stay tuned for next week’s dispatch on Friday!
YIVO Institute at Lithuanian Embassy in D.C.
Earlier this week, I revisited the Lithuanian embassy in Washington, D.C., to attend a lovely event spotlighting the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
I first heard about YIVO from historian Niall Ferguson, who spotlighted the organization in his October 2024 write-up at The Free Press entitled, “My Journey From a Jerusalem of Ghosts to the Living Jerusalem.” He wrote:
Yet the city was also the most important Jewish cultural hub in Eastern Europe—a center of Jewish learning and culture from the 1560s until the 1930s. The greatest Talmudic scholar of the eighteenth century, Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, was known as the Vilna Gaon. The man who pioneered the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, studied in Vilna. That cultural vitality did not abate after the city’s incorporation into the Polish republic. YIVO, the center for Jewish studies that is now based in New York, was originally founded in Wilno in 1925.
Vilnius, if you’re unaware, was famously known as the “Jerusalem of the North” before World War II. YIVO was founded in Lithuania’s capital city in 1925—almost a century ago. As Ferguson aptly observed, the Nazis murdered at least 90% of Lithuania’s Jewish population - or Litvaks - with the help of local collaborators by the end of 1941. This took place in Panerai on the outskirts of Vilnius.
YIVO’s Executive Director Jonathan Brent presented on his organization’s work and highlighted a 60 Minutes feature on their work—specifically preserving documents salvaged by the Paper Brigade.
My paternal side of the family settled in Vilnius in 1948 after Nazi occupation and displacement in Uzbekistan and Kazakstan during the war period. Prior to this, they lived in Belarus. My dad is a self-described Litvak because he was born and raised in the remnants of the Vilna Ghetto. By some act of God, they avoided the Holocaust. As I wrote at Townhall, many other Hoffmans weren’t so lucky.
Lithuania is very cognizant of its past and has worked to rebuild trust with its Jewish residents and descendants.
I want to congratulate YIVO on a century of critical work and encourage you to support their efforts.
Out Now - “Mystery Highway” by Madison Hughes
Stream “Mystery Highway” by my friend Madison Hughes OUT NOW.
Madison played me a raw version of the song during our August 2023 drive on Alaska’s Seward Highway from Anchorage to Kenai Peninsula. The path was moody, rainy, and lined with awe-inspiring glaciers. I don’t know it if was coincidence or not. But the song playing against this backdrop had a magical and timeless quality about it. Truly one of Maddy’s bests.
Let’s give this song the viral treatment, y’all! Congrats Madison. I’m so proud of you!
Scenes From the Week: More D.C. Christmas Parties
ICYMI
Articles/commentary/media appearances from the past week.
MEDIA MENTIONS
The Texas Nuclear Alliance plugged my recent RealClear Energy/IWF oped in its newsletter.
ARTICLES/BLOGS
IWF: ‘Landman’ TV Series Humanizes Oil and Gas Industry
IWF: Two Truths And A Lie: Nuclear Energy
IWF/RealClear Energy: How the Trump Administration Can Make Nuclear Energy Popular With Women
District of Conservation
Catch up on District of Conservation episodes below.
And check out a new episode of The Sportswoman Show with professional kayak angler Wendy Biles.
Thank you for reading! Let me know your thoughts and encourage your friends to subscribe to the newsletter too.
—Gabriella