Memorial for the Night of the Murdered Poets -- August 11

From the Congress for Jewish Culture:

Please join us on Tuesday, August 11th at 6:30 PM for a special program honoring the Yiddish artists and writers murdered in the Soviet Union on August 12, 1952. The date has become known as the "Night of the Murdered Poets". Among others, David Bergelson, David Hofshteyn, Perets Markish, Itsik Fefer, Leyb Kvitko, and Benjamin Zuskin were executed on that date in the Lubyanka Prison in Moscow. 

This year we will feature Ala Zuskin Perelman - daughter of Benjamin Zuskin, principal actor in GOSET (the Moscow State Yiddish Theater) - who will share memories of her father and read from her recent biography of him, The Travels of Benjamin Zuskin.  Ms. Perelman will be available to sign copies of the book after the event.
Dr. Jonathan Brent of the YIVO will greet the audience. Professor Tom Bird of Queens College, CUNY, will deliver opening remarks. Shane Baker of the CJC will chair. In the musical program, Yelena Shmulenson, well-known Yiddish actress and singer. 

The Congress for Jewish Culture has organized the program together with the YIVO, the Jewish Labor Committee and the Workmen's Circle.

Tuesday, August 11th from 6:30 PM to 8 PM at the Center for Jewish History 15 West 16th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues) Admission freeReserve your seat here

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To give you a taste of the poets we will be honoring, please watch Shane Baker performing Peretz Markish's Brokhshtiker

Last Minute Signal Boost for the Congress for Jewish Culture: Upcoming Events

Rumors of the demise of the Congress for Jewish Culture have been greatly exaggerated. The Congress has announced a full slate of events ready for the new year. It's a wonderful mix of history, new cinema and new Yiddish music, a little something for everyone. And, as you can imagine for an organization whose precarious existence has made the Times more than once, now might be an excellent time to make a donation. 

Straight from the Congress: 

On Sunday 11 January 2015 at 2 PM, we're joining with the American Jewish Historical Society to honor the memory of Mina Bern on the 5th anniversary of her yortsayt.  It's going to be a program to remember, with about everyone working in Yiddish theater today (after all, who didn't learn from Mina?) and it's free and open to the public.  But you have to have a reservation, so click here to save your seat.

On Wednesday 28 January 2015 at 3:15 PM and again at 8:45 PM, we're pleased to present our very own project in the New York Jewish Film Festival: a neon animation by Jack Feldstein called How to Break Into Yiddish Vaudeville (in three easy steps!).  With illustrations by Ellen Stedfeld and a script by Shane Baker and Allen Lewis Rickman, it's a fun little film, so catch it if you can -- on a double bill with Natan, a feature about an interesting character in the early days of film.  Info and tickets here.

Also on Wednesday 28 January 2015 at 7 PM, our very own Miryem-Khaye Seigel will be celebrating the release of her new CD Toyznt tamen with a special concert at the Museum at Eldridge Street.  Busy day, that 28th of January, but you won't want to miss this event.  There are a lot of special guests on the program and you can read more about it here.

Six Degrees of Kosher Bacon

My friend Michael Wex has read pretty much every book worth reading, and plenty, I'm sure, that weren't. About 14 years ago he recommended I read The Adventures of One Yitzchok by Yitzchok Perlov. And of course, I did. I enjoyed it so much that I then lent it to a friend whom I knew would like it just as much. And then, as these things often go, the book was never seen again. Happily, I picked up another copy last week and am re-reading it right now. The Adventures of One Yitzchok is just as funny and touching as I remembered.

Yitzchok Perlov was a writer for the Yiddish theater whose muse was his wife, Lola Folman, for whom he wrote many songs and shows. The Adventures of One Yitzchok is a memoir of his time as a Polish evacuee to Central Asia. (Many Polish Jews, like Perlov and Folman, found themselves in the USSR after the 1939 Hitler-Stalin pact and its partition of Poland. When war broke out between Germany and the USSR in 1941, many of those Jews continued to move east and found safety in exotic places like Baku and Tashkent.) Beautiful, talented, beloved Lola, of course, is a major character in the book.

And it's Lola who made me pick up The Adventures once again. Via the magic of Facebook, I found out that Lola Folman was the aunt of one of my favorite people, Yiddish teacher extraordinaire, Paula Teitelbaum. Not only that, but thanks to my other favorite people at the Congress for Jewish Culture, we can now hear Lola Folman sing, digitized off a 78 record from the collection of the grande dame of the New York Yiddish theater, Mina Bern.



Lola Folman sings "Di Shadkhnte" (The Matchmaker) from Congress for Jewish Culture on Vimeo.


....א וועלט מיט וועלטלעך