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October 24, 2003
Yiddish words 'n' music
International scholars lead Lost Worlds workshops.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Jewish culture in central and eastern Europe thrived until the
mid-20th century. Through immigration, that culture reached North
America, where more than two million people spoke Yiddish as their
first language. British Columbians will have a chance to explore
the world of Yiddish arts that once was – literature, drama,
news and music – with renowned scholars at Lost Worlds Recalled:
Words, Rhythms and Melodies from Yiddish Life, a workshop that will
take place in both Victoria and Vancouver next month.
Led by musician Michael Alpert, educator and author Nahma Sandrow,
professor, author and translator Naomi Sheindel Seidman and Prof.
Sarah Abrevaya Stein, Lost Worlds will focus on the North American
experience. In major cities such as Montreal, Winnipeg, New York
and Chicago, Yiddish theatre, music, radio stations and newspapers
flourished.
"Popular Yiddish theatre was actually a North American art,"
Sandrow told the Bulletin. "This is where it first developed
and where it flourished most splendidly. In fact, the immigrant
experience shaped it. Exploring its shows, its stars, its fans –
the whole theatre-going experience – is a way to explore the
'lost world' of the Yiddish-speaking immigrant."
Sandrow is a professor at City University of New York. She writes
books and articles, including Vagabond Stars: A World History
of Yiddish Theater, and has lectured widely. She is also a translator
and playwright.
In her presentation at the B.C. workshops, Sandrow said she will
relate some play plots and show biz anecdotes, read advertising
flyers and a love letter from a fan, and "maybe (maybe!) sing
a snatch of a song."
"As to the conference in general," said Sandrow, "I'd
say that Lost Worlds are not entirely lost so long as we have art."
Seidman, who will presenting the topic Lost in Translation: The
Hidden Language of Jewish Writing, describes Yiddish as a "private
Jewish language not understood by the surrounding population in
eastern Europe." She said this fact shaped eastern European
Jewish culture: what sorts of things could be said only among Jews
and how Jews spoke differently when they had this private discursive
space.
She said that this sense was lost when Jews began to speak the majority
language after immigrating to America.
"Yiddish has become not the private language of the Jews in
their relation to the larger world," said Seidman, "but
rather the private language of older Jews in relation to their children."
Seidman, who is an associate professor of Jewish culture at the
Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, is the author of A Marriage
Made in Heaven: The Sexual Politics of Hebrew and Yiddish and
she has translated several works.
Alpert has been involved in east European Jewish klezmer music for
more than 25 years. He has performed or recorded with Brave Old
World, Itzhak Perlman and others. Active as a scholar, producer
and educator in Jewish ethnomusicology and cultural history, he
was musical director of the PBS special Itzhak Perlman: In the
Fiddler's House. His lecture at Lost Worlds is called Funny,
You Don't Look Klezmer: A Jewish Musician's Guide to the Autobahn.
Stein will only be participating in the Victoria workshop. There,
she will speak on Illustrating Modern Yiddish Culture: A Chicago
Yiddish Press of the 1920s. Stein is an assistant professor in the
department of history and the Henry M. Jackson School of International
Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Sponsors for the two workshops are the Jewish Community Centre of
Victoria; the division of continuing studies, the faculty of humanities,
the department of theatre and the department of women's studies
at the University of Victoria (UVic); the Jewish Community Centre
of Greater Vancouver (JCC); and the Waldman Holocaust Education
Committee, the faculty of arts and the department of continuing
studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC).
The Victoria workshop takes place Nov. 9, 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
on the UVic campus, in the Fraser Building, Room 159. The total
cost is $61. People need to register in advance by calling 250-472-4747.
Seidman, Sandrow and Alpert will be at the Vancouver workshop, which
will be held at the JCC Wosk Auditorium on Nov. 11 from noon to
5 p.m. The total cost is $67. To register, call UBC at 604-822-1444.
Alpert will be in concert Nov. 12, 8 p.m., in the Norman Rothstein
Theatre. Tickets are $18/$15 and can be purchased at the JCC or
by calling 604-257-5111.
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