Sophie Edelhart

Sophie Edelhart (they/she) holds a B.A. in History with a Concentration in Gender, Sex, and Family from Barnard College (2019) and an M.A. in Yiddish from University of Toronto (2021). They are currently pursuing their PhD in Yiddish in the Germanic Languages and Literature Department with a collaborative specialization in Book History and Print Culture. Their research focuses on Yiddish folk music, material culture, recording technology, Yiddish radio, and audiovisual archives. They are a member of the 2020-2022 Helix Fellowship cohort and a recipient of the Barbara Wertheimer Prize for Undergraduate Labor History from the New York Labor History Association for their senior history thesis entitled, “Bad Girls Like Good Contracts”: The Fight for Unionization at the Lusty Lady Theater in San Francisco, 1992-1998.

Outside of school, they have worked as a tour guide, archivist, researcher, and translator at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Yiddish Book Center, and Museum at Eldridge Street. They are also a singer, currently studying Yiddish folk song under the tutelage of Ethel Raim as well as a bookbinding hobbyist.