Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Bat Kama At

With sadness I learned of the passing of Rosa Portnoi Rozenbaumas z'l', on August 5th. Rosa was the mother of my friend Isabelle Rozenbaumas, author of the unfolding memory project Bat Kama At.

If you haven't yet visited Bat Kama At, you must. It is a fascinating multimedia art and history project dedicated to the young women of the pre-war Telz Gymnasium Yavne. Rosa Portnoi Rozenbaumas was just one of the brilliant young students of Yavne before the war.

The education the girls of Yavne received was second to none. Rosa spoke seven languages, though English was not one of them. Latin had replaced English at Yavne in 1931. 

From Isabelle:
Yes, the girls of Yavne in Telz studied Latin. And the small bibliography in Lithuanian (among hundreds of documents from the archives of the school Yavne Telz) demonstrates the excellence of education provided in this school for girls: Halevi Yehuda, Ibn Gabirol, Bahai, Rambam, amidst luminaries of Western literature, from the medieval epic lyric (“Chanson de Geste”) of Roland to Voltaire and Rousseau via Shakespeare, Goethe and Novalis. The daughters of Telz were not exactly considered dumb. 

In addition to the website, you can now watch Isabelle's movie, [nemt]: (take) about Jewish life and memory in Lithuania:





May Bat Kama At continue to honor the extraordinary life of Rosa Portnoi Rozenbaumas and all the girls of Telz.

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