A Celebrating Yiddish Literature: A one
day festival
modified 14 May 2004
Sunday 23 May 2004, 11.00am to 5.30pm
For the first time in many years, Britain's most distinguished Yiddish literary specialists will be brought together, by Yiddish Theatre historian David Mazower, for a day-long celebration of this rich and vivid literature with a unique Jewish perspective on life. Leading critics and translators including Dr Joseph Sherman of the Oxford Centre of Hebrew and Jewish Studies. We will introduce the life and work of - amongst others - Isaac Bashevis Singer, lyric poets Itzik Manger and Avrom Sutskever, the London Yiddish writer Esther Kreitman and Whitechapel's own Poet Laureate Avrom Stencl. All presentations will be in English and no prior knowledge of Yiddish will be necessary.
Location:
The Spiro Ark Yiddish Hoyz
164 Grays Inn Road WC1
Near Chancery Lane and Kings Cross tube stations
Fees:
£15 (£12 Friends of JMI, Spiro Ark or JEECS) to include
light refreshments.
Booking in advance is essential
Please contact The Spiro Ark:
Tel. 020 7723 9991, Fax 020 7723 8191
Email: spiroark[at]aol.com
www.spiroark.org
Programme
Morning Session:
- 11am Coffee
- 11.30am Welcome, David Mazower
- 11.40am Gluckl of Hameln and the Yiddish Civilization of Ashkenaz ,
Paul Krivazcek
- 12.10pm Yiddish in South Africa: Between Zionism and Apartheid, Dr Joseph
Sherman (University of Oxford)
- 12.40pm Itsik Manger plus his London Exile, Dr Helen Beer (University
College, London)
- 1.20pm Bagel Lunch
Afternoon Session 1:
- 2.20pm Leyb Rashkin's Novel of 1930s
Warsaw: Discovering an Unknown Yiddish Literary Masterpiece, Dr Dafna
Clifford (Oxford)
- 2.50pm Jewish Mystical Motifs in Isaac Bashevis Singer's Novel 'The
Magician of Lublin', Dr Haike Beruriah Wiegand (London)
- 3.20pm Between Two Worlds: Esther Kreitman's Stories of Whitechapel
and Warsaw
- 4.10pm Afternoon Tea
Afternoon Session 2:
A tribute to the poet Avrom Nokhem Stencl (1897 - 1983) - the last
major Yiddish writer from London's East End
- 4.30pm Poem or story by A. N. Stencl, Read by Majer Bogdanski
- 4.40pm Stencl in Berlin: Encountering German Modernism, 1920s &
1930s, Dr Heather Valencia (University of Stirling)
- 5.10pm A Shtetl Called Withechapel: Stencl's London Years, 1930s - 1980s,
Barry Davis (London)
- 5.40pm Memories of Working with Stencl as a Translator, Derek Reid (London)
- 6.15pm Festival Ends
Presented by Jewish Music Institute International Forum for Yiddish
Culture in conjunction with The Spiro Ark
Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund
