Wednesday, February 29, 2012

From Cleveland to the New York Times

You guys know about Bert Stratton and Cleveland's own Yiddishe Cup Band, right? But Bert isn't just a talented musician. He's also a Cleveland real estate mogul and a damn good writer. And by damn good writer, I mean, he casually publishes an op-ed in the New York Times like it ain't no thang.

Aside from his op-ed in the New York Times, Bert wrote this lovely Mother's Day piece about buying his mom junk food, also for the Times. Reading it, I thought of my own mom and how she always seemed to have a pack of Pepperidge Farm Milanos at the bottom of her huge black bag. Sniffle.

Bert also keeps a hilarious blog called Klezmer Guy, about his life in real estate and gigging around the Midwest. You should definitely check it out.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

נישט אהין און נישט אהער

Nisht ahin un nisht aher... neither here nor there


Back before he was writing the Letter from China for the New Yorker, Yiddish-surname-having journalist Evan Osnos was churning out his own version of the Yiddish Revival article. His was in 2002, for the Chicago Tribune. 


In contrast, Soviet Premier Nikita "mistakes were made, Yiddish poets were murdered" Khrushchev was firmly against a Yiddish revival.


This Sunday, February 26, a unique program at the Sholem Aleichem Cultural Center. Theater director Moshe Yassur will speak in Yiddish on "The Paradox of Yiddish Theater in Romania Today".

Yassur for many years directed the Bucharest Yiddish Theater in the 1990s and 2000s.

In addition, Maida Feingold will sing Yiddish songs. 

Sunday, February 26th  2012   1: 30 PM at 
The Sholem Aleichem Cultural Center
3301 Bainbridge Avenue, Bronx NYC   1 block from Montefiore Hospital
information:  917-930-0295

If you're closer to Dnepropetrovsk than you are to the Bronxopetrovsk, then be sure to check out the incomparable Psoy Korolenko.

But if you're somewhere between the Bronx and Dnepropetrovsk, then you may be interested in this fascinating new theater piece about the Russian-Jewish experience in the United States:

The Lost & Found Project presents ДOROGA, an interactive play that explores personal family stories about the Russian-Jewish immigrant experience through a series of dramatic snapshots and a dialogue between the past and the present.
Performance dates:  
March 8th, 8:00PM --PREMIERE@ JCC in Manhattan Tickets 
March 14-18th, 8:00PM and Sat & Sun Matinees- 3:00PM@ The Gene Frankel Theatre Tickets

The Lost & Found Project is an experimental theatre troupe featuring Russian-Jewish actors born in the 70s-80s in the former Soviet Union, who immigrated to the United States with their families. Through the process of investigation into personal family histories, weaving together family narratives, legends and personal stories, a play emerged.