From East Europe to the East Bay: 100 Years After Emigration, a Bar Mitzvah in Berkeley

by Erika Dreifus on
7

I’ve spent so much time writing about my paternal family history–particularly the refugee histories of my dad’s parents–that it sometimes seems as though my mom’s side doesn’t get very much attention. But appearances can be deceiving–just because I haven’t written quite so much about my maternal ancestors doesn’t mean that I don’t think about them. This past week, in fact, I’ve been thinking about them quite a lot. And that’s because I’ve just returned from several days in Berkeley, Calif., a trip occasioned by the Bar Mitzvah of my eldest cousin’s elder child.

My dad is an only child, and my mom is one of two siblings. My sister and I have three first cousins. Gathered together for the Bar Mitzvah, I found myself thinking again about our common past and the significance of our gathering in Berkeley for A’s Bar Mitzvah. I realized (and confirmed via the Ellis Island/Port of New York records) that it was 100 years ago–during the summer of 1913–that our grandmother’s father Jacob had left Eastern Europe to immigrate to the U.S. He left behind his wife (Yettie, after whom I am named), my then-infant grandmother, and two more children (twin daughters, then in utero).

Theirs was not an unusual story. (more…)

Upcoming Seminar on Teaching Holocaust Literature; Applications due October 21

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has issued a call for applications for participation in the 2014 Jack and Anita Hess Faculty Seminar, “Holocaust Literature: Teaching Fiction and Poetry,” which will run January 3-8, 2014.

The Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies announces the 2014 Jack and Anita Hess Faculty Seminar. This year’s Hess Seminar is designed for professors who are teaching or preparing to teach English, Jewish studies, modern languages, literature, or other courses that have a Holocaust-related literature component. Sessions will focus on imaginative responses to the Holocaust created by a variety of writers, from those writing during the Holocaust to survivors to second generation authors to those without an explicit family connection to this event.

The seminar will be co-led by Anita Norich, from the Department of English Language and Literature and the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at University of Michigan, and Erin McGlothlin, from the Departments of Germanic Languages and Literatures and of Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at Washington University in St. Louis.

Applications are due on October 21, 2013. For application guidelines, please visit the museum’s website.

Jewish Literary Links

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Okay, they’re a couple of days early–usually, I post these links on Friday morning, pre-Shabbat. But I’m traveling this week, so I thought I’d get these out to you ahead of time. Shabbat shalom in advance!

  • Check out these calls for artists/writers from Jewish Currents.
  • “The Israel Institute is offering research grants of up to $10,000 for scholars, academics, and independent researchers to conduct substantive research on issues related to modern Israel. Areas for research may include, but are not limited to, Israeli history, politics, economics, and law. The grants are aimed at facilitating the publication of a book or a number of scholarly articles that make a serious contribution to the field of Israel Studies or promotes a greater understanding of modern Israel.” Next deadline is August 1.
  • Over on Tablet, discover a new group of “baal teshuvahs—a small but influential movement of incoming Chabad artists who are reinventing the arts in the Hasidic community.”
  • Last weekend, I saw the beautiful new Israeli film, “Fill the Void,” which is being described as “Jane Austen for Jews.”
  • Also last weekend, I read Miriam Katin’s new graphic memoir, Letting It Go, the primary focus of which is, as noted in Tahneer Oksman’s review for the Jewish Book Council, “Miriam’s inability to accept her adult son’s decision to move to Berlin, a city that represents her dark past.” It is a stirring and visually beautiful book. Recommended.

    • Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
    Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of Jewish-interest links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • What is “Jewish fiction”? In this video from a recent event in Toronto, Dr. Nora Gold shares some thoughts and cites reflections from Allegra Goodman, A.B. Yehoshua, Marge Piercy, Ruth Wisse, and D.G. Myers.
  • Ruth Franklin reviews Holocaust Literature: A History and Guide, by David Roskies and Naomi Diamant.
  • An review of and an excerpt from Rutu Modan’s The Property (trans. Jessica Cohen).
  • “Zutot: Perspectives on Jewish Culture is delighted to announce the establishment of ‘The Amsterdam Prize’ – an annual short essay competition for young scholars.”
  • I meant to share this earlier: one cantor’s reflections on the Unetaneh Tokef prayer, complete with multiple audio clips.

    • Shabbat shalom.

    From My Bookshelf: To Sing Away the Darkest Days by Norbert Hirschhorn

    by Erika Dreifus on
    1

    HirschhorngifPublished by Holland Park Press, To Sing Away the Darkest Days: Poems Re-imagined from Yiddish Folksongs “is the culmination of a five-year project which saw Norbert Hirschhorn source more than one thousand Yiddish songs from several archives and from collections on the Internet, as well as from CDs.” I learned about this book through a post that the publisher contributed to the Jewish Book Carnival Goodreads group, and when I received an offer of a review copy, I accepted.

    The book’s first half is devoted to Hirschhorn’s “re-imaginings” (his term) of the old Yiddish songs. Some source material is likely to be familiar to many readers: “Mayn Yidishe Mame” and “Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen,” for instance. But plenty of Hirschhorn’s inspiration comes from material that I hadn’t encountered before.

    Beginning on page 57, the book’s focus turns to “Sources, transliterations, literal translations, [and] links to music.” Starting with the book’s first poem and proceeding anew to the last, the reader finds a transliteration of each song’s original Yiddish text, a literal translation into English, historical background and notes, and, where possible, links to audio or video. I’m still trying to decide if I might have preferred having all of this information directly follow each of the poems instead; the format selected requires a lot of flipping back and forth for the reader who wants edification as she goes along, poem by poem.

    In any case, Hirschhorn has done something wonderful here, and I encourage readers interested in Yiddish language and literature (as well as in poetry itself) to investigate. I’ll even recommend a place to start: Hirschhorn’s publisher has created a page with links to some of the songs behind the poems. Go over there, and enjoy.