Yiddish Culture Festival 2013
In Memoriam Seth Brody
This free, informal gathering meets periodically to enjoy film, music and speakers encompassing all things Yiddish. It is not necessary to speak or understand Yiddish to fully enjoy these events. Meetings are held Wednesdays at 7:30pm (promptly!) in Chase Hall Auditorium (except the Monday April 15 concert, which begins at 7:30pm in Stokes Hall Auditorium.) For more information or directions, see our website www.haverford.edu/ycf/ or contact Jeff Tecosky-Feldman ((jtecosky@haverford.edu, 610-896-1199). All are welcome! Organizers: Professors Dan Gillis, Mel Santer, Jeff Tecosky-Feldman.
NOTE: These programs will be held during inclement weather UNLESS the campus is closed, which happens only rarely. You can call campus security (610-896-1111) to check.
Dates
Wednesday, February 6:
An Interview with Misha Lev (2011). Lev, born in 1917, was a resistance fighter in WWII and a survivor of the post-war Soviet regime. He writes about his experiences, creating a new literary style in Yiddish storytelling. This filmed interview, conducted by Boris Sandler from The Forward, explores the writer’s creative process. In Yiddish with English subtitles (45 minutes).
Wednesday, March 6:
Yankl Der Schmid (The Singing Blacksmith) (1938). Moishe Oysher stars in Edgar G. Ulmer’s musical version of David Pinski’s play. Singing and dancing, Oysher plays a passionate shtetl blacksmith who must struggle against temptation to become a mensch. In Yiddish and English, with English subtitles (105 minutes).
Wednesday, March 20:
Presentation by co-founders of the Yiddish Farm Education Center Inc, a new Yiddish school and organic farm in New Hampton NY. Yiddish Farm is developing a cadre of new Yiddish speakers of all ages in a kibbutz-like, Yiddish-immersion setting. . Naftali Ejdelman and Yisroel Bass will visit with an audio-visual presentation.
Monday, April 15:
Yiddish Concert by "Kolenu beyakhad," a new independent Jewish choir directed by Alexander Botwinik. The choir will sing old and new Yiddish songs, including choral compositions by David Botwinik seldom or never previously performed. English translations provided. NOTE: This special concert starts at 7:30pm, and is in Stokes Hall Auditorium, in the building right next to our usual meeting place. Signs will be posted.
Wednesday, May 1:
Jan Hamer will speak about her opera, Lost Childhood, based on a Holocaust memoir by psychiatrist Yehuda Nir, and on dialogues between Nir and Gottfried Wagner, great-grandson of Richard Wagner. She'll share videos of workshop performances in New York and Tel Aviv, and tell us about the upcoming premiere. Hamer, a former Haverford faculty member, now teaches at Swarthmore. A graduate of Harvard with a Ph.D. from the City University of New York, her music has been performed by the BBC Singers, the Kharkov Philharmonic, the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, Orchestra 2001, American Opera Projects, and many other groups.
Directions to Chase Auditorium
Chase Hall
If arriving by car, enter the campus by the College Avenue entrance, and park in any spot marked FACULTY/STAFF on the right of the driveway. To find Chase Hall, continue on the driveway until you reach the end of the building on your left (Stokes Hall). Turn left and follow the path up a gentle slope to a stone building with a few steps outside its double-door entrance–– this is Chase Hall. We’re in the first floor in the back of the building. There is an entrance without steps around the right hand side.
Support the Festival: We need your contribution to support this ongoing celebration of Yiddish culture, so please send a check made out to Haverford College, with Yiddish Culture Festival written on the check or on an accompanying note to: Catherine Toia, YCF Donations, Haverford College, 370 Lancaster Ave, Haverford PA 19041. Be sure to include your name and address so that you can be mailed a receipt for tax purposes. We appreciate donations large and small, which we’ll use to pay screening fees, enlarge our library of videos and continue to bring interesting speakers and performers for your enjoyment.