Second Annual Betsy/FIU Exile Studies Yiddish Symposium
RECLAIMING A WORLD OF YIDDISH: PRESERVING A HERITAGE ROOTED IN EXILE
Directed by Dr. Asher Milbauer, Florida International University
Sunday, November 12, 2017
Tickets for the general public are $36, and includes breakfast and lunch.
10 AM
SURVIVAL AGAINST ALL ODDS: THE ROLE OF YIDDISH IMMIGRANT NEWSPRINT IN HERITAGE PRESERVATION AND IDENTITY FORMATION
Mr. Boris Sandler, Author, Journalist, Editor-in-Chief (1998-2016) of the Yiddish Forverts, Sandler introduced Yiddish journalism to a new generation and earned the laurels of the Jewish literary community in the U.S. and in Israel during his many years as Editor in Chief of The Forverts, broadening readership to a younger and digitally sophisticated generation around the world. Born in Bălți (Belts in Yiddish), Moldova, Sandler studied in Kishniev and wrote pieces for Sovetish Heymland, a Yiddish language Soviet-era literary publication. He moved to Israel in 1992, where he published several books in Yiddish, including “Toyren,” a 1997 collection of short stories about the experiences of Russian immigrants to Israel. In 1998, he moved to New York to become editor of the Forverts. Known also as an indefatigable cultural activist, and the author of 15 books, Sandler was behind the effort to preserve 10 contemporary Yiddish writers on film, directing a series that aired at YIVO. His novella, “Keynemsdorf,” a post-modern Yiddish satire, was published in 2011.
11:15AM - 12:15PM
REVISING THE GOLDEN AGE OF CHAZANUT: A SON'S TRIBUTE TO THE GREAT CANTOR LEIB GLANTZ
Dr. Jerry Glantz, Political Scientist and Author of The Man Who Spoke to God
DR. JERRY GLANTZ (former IDF officer, specialist in Middle East and Terrorism Studies, author of The Man Who Spoke to God). Leib Glantz was one of the greatest scholars of the origins of Jewish music. His research and the theories he developed firmly established the historical continuity of Jewish music from its beginnings in the Holy Temples of Jerusalem to this very day. The Leib Glantz Project is housed at Florida Atlantic University.
1:30 - 2:30PM
MEMOIR WRITING: BEARING WITNESS TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD OF OUR MOTHERS AND FATHERS
Professor Miriam Hoffman in Conversation with Mr. Boris Sandler and Dr. Asher Milbauer on her memoir A Breed Apart. Hoffman was born in Łódź, Poland to a Yiddish-speaking family and was sent to a forced labor camp in Siberia, arriving in the United States in 1949. Since the late 1990s Hoffman has been a columnist and feature writer for the Jewish Forward, where she has published over two thousand articles. In 1992 she won the Israeli equivalent of a Tony Award for her English-to-Yiddish translation of Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys. She taught Yiddish at Columbia University for many years. Her memoir ‘A Breed Apart’ is soon to be released.
3:00 - 4:15PM
EXERCISING THE POWER OF CREATIVITY TO KEEP YIDDISH AND YIDDISHKAYT ALIVE
Moderator: Professor Asher Milbauer
Panel participants:
Dr. Deborah Briggs, VP of Marketing and Philanthropy, Betsy Hotel
Professor Henry Greenspan, Psychologist and Playwright, University of Michigan
Mr. Avi Hoffman, Actor and Artistic Director of the Yiddishkayt Initiative
Professor Erika Meitner, Poet and Director of the MFA Program, Virginia Tech Universit
4:30 - 5:15PM
CULTURAL PERFORMANCE
7:30 - 9:00PM
SCREENING "MENASHE", a Cinematic phenomenon in Yiddish
Introduction and Talkback: Drs. Holli Levitsky and Asher Milbauer
"A powerful work of human drama" - in Yiddish - (The Atlantic, 2017)
Deep in the heart of New York's notoriously secretive Hasidic Jewish community, Menashe, a good-hearted but somewhat hapless grocery store clerk, struggles against tradition to keep custody of his only son after his wife passes away. Directed by Joshua Weinstein. in Yiddish and English.
TO VIEW/DOWNLOAD SCHEDULE, CLICK HERE.
FOR A COMPLETE SCHEDULE AND TO PURCHASE TICKETS FOR THE JEWISH AMERICAN AND HOLOCAUST LITERATURE CONFERENCE (JAHLIT) VISIT THEIR WEBSITE JAHLIT.COM.
