Preservation of Yiddish Culture

Preservation of Yiddish Culture and Heritage

Сохранение культуры идиша

אָפּהיטן אונדזער ייִדישע קולטור־ירושה

לשמור על תרבות היידיש

New Tribute to Yiddish Culture at Tel Aviv University

New Tribute to Yiddish Culture at Tel Aviv University

New Tribute to Yiddish Culture at Tel Aviv University

As we already have informed our readers, a statue of the great Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem has been recently inaugurated at Tel Aviv University. The inauguration event, which took place on June 6th, 2023, was the culmination of an important project spanning over three years.

The monument is a generous gift of two charitable foundations: the Heritage Projects Foundation (USA) and the Yiddish Heritage Preservation Foundation (Israel). Our website, among other important initiatives, is also a result of these foundations’ activities.

The inauguration ceremony was led by the administration of Tel Aviv University. Among the attendees were President Prof. Ariel Porat, Vice President Mr. Amos Elad, and Dr. Haim Ben Yakov, the director general of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, and others. Among the speakers were Prof. Ariel Porat, Leonard Blavatnik, the founder of the Blavatnik Family Foundation, Dr. Mark Zilberquit, the president of the Yiddish Heritage Preservation Foundation, and Dr. Yair Lipshitz. Other distinguished professors, university lecturers and special guests were also present, including Alexander Chernov, the nephew of the monument’s author, sculptor Yuri Chernov, as well as Julia Zilberquit, the executive director of the Yiddish Heritage Preservation Foundation.

Dr. Mark Zilberquit expressed his excitement about his recently introduced initiative: the interdisciplinary Yiddish program, which will be added to the university’s educational system starting from the upcoming academic year 2023-2024. This program will involve not only studying the Yiddish language as such, but also provide novel approaches to the studies of history of Yiddish culture, using Dr. Zilberquit‘s important discoveries as primary materials: previously unknown or nearly forgotten music, theater, art and literature artifacts. The new studies will be coordinated by Dr. Yair Lipshitz and Dr. Ruthie Abeliovich.

After the monument’s unveiling ceremony, Dr. Mark Zilberquit presented our website – Yiddish-Culture.com – to the audience.

Peter Thoren, Amos Elad, Julia Zilberquit, Mark Zilberquit, Ariel Porad, Leonard Blavatnik, Avi Fisher.

 

Pictures: Yuval Yosef

Site News: Lev Pulver’s Music Scores

Site News: Lev Pulver’s Music Scores

Site News: Lev Pulver’s Music Scores

Our site’s editors are glad to inform our visitors about the publication of new unique materials: full scores of Leib (Lev) Pulver’s music for performances based on Sholem Aleichem’s works “Wandering Stars” and “The Big Winner” (also known as “200,000”).

Leib Pulver (1883-1970) was a major figure of the Moscow GOSET (State Jewish Theatre). He was the composer of 42 performances staged by this theater, its conductor and the head of its musical department.

Until recently, only individual fragments of Pulver’s music and a few of his minor compositions were believed to have survived. Our publication of complete scores of his major works is a big step towards the systematic exploration of this remarkable composer’s vast legacy.

From Evenki into Yiddish

From Evenki into Yiddish

From Evenki into Yiddish

On June 14, 2023, the newspaper Birobidzhaner Shtern published new translations of poems by the national Evenki poet Nikolai Oyogir (1926-1988) into Yiddish and Russian, translated by the writer, journalist and poet Yoel Matveyev. This is the second series of his parallel translations of Oyogir’s works into both languages.

The connection between Yiddish and Evenki may seem unexpected, but in the Birobidzhan context it is quite natural. The Evenks (Tungus) are the oldest indigenous population of the Jewish Autonomous Region of Russia; the very name of the region’s capital, Birobidzhan, is of Evenki origin. A number of local Jewish writers and poets turned to Tungus themes in Yiddish. This shows once again the extraordinary wide geographical and cultural area of Yiddish culture, the diversity of its ties with various countries and peoples.

As another example of the amazing diversity of Yiddish culture, on June 7, 2023, Birobidzhaner Shtern published a chapter from Vladimir Arseniev’s novel “Dersu Uzala” translated into Yiddish by Gershon Fridman (1892-1962). The book was originally written in Russian, but its main character is a Nanai hunter and guide. Nanais are a Far Eastern people related to the Evenks who also speak a Tungusic language.

Mark Zilberquit: Honorary Academician Celebrates His Anniversary

Mark Zilberquit: Honorary Academician Celebrates His Anniversary

Mark Zilberquit: Honorary Academician Celebrates His Anniversary

On May 30, 2023, a solemn ceremony was held at the Russian Academy of Arts, where the founder of our site, Dr. Mark Zilberquit, was awarded the title of Honorary Academician. Among other things, he is the creator and head of several philanthropic foundations, a public figure, author of several books and numerous publications on musical art. The president of the Academy, the well-known artist, sculptor and architect Zurab Tsereteli handed Dr. Zilberquit the Academician’s personal medal and diploma.

On June 6, Mark Zilberquit spoke at the inauguration of the Sholom Aleichem monument, erected on his initiative at the campus of Tel Aviv University, as well as at the presentation of our website to the faculty members and students. On June 9, he celebrated his 80th birthday. The team of our site wishes him good health and further creative success!

Site News: Beregovsky Bibliography

Site News: Beregovsky Bibliography

Site News: Beregovsky Bibliography

Dear visitors of our site: we are glad to inform you about our new unique publication: the bio-bibliographic index of Moisey Beregovsky, the great collector of Jewish folk songs. This new bilingual book in English and Russian, which contains Beregovsky’s detailed biography, was written and compiled by Evgenia Khazdan, a well-known musicologist, music critic and senior researcher from St. Petersburg. Published in May 2023, her work is now open for personal use on our website with the permission of the author and the Moscow publishing house Muzyka.

Moisey Beregovsky (1892–1961) is an outstanding figure in Soviet musicology, a scientist who almost single-handedly erected the building of Jewish musical folklore research, gathered a colossal collection of Yiddish songs, klezmer melodies, Hasidic nigunim and recordings of Purimshpils. Note that earlier we had also published on our website a substantial number of Beregovsky’s original works.

New Hebrew Translation of Sholem Asch’s Novel

New Hebrew Translation of Sholem Asch’s Novel

New Hebrew Translation of Sholem Asch’s Novel

The publishing house Pardes in Haifa published a new Hebrew translation of Sholom Ash’s novel The Man from Nazareth. This book first appeared in its Yiddish original in 1939 and in Hebrew in 1953, translated by David Stav.

The new translation was made by the literary critic Dr. Bilha Rubinshtein. In recent years, she has been actively translating fiction prose from Yiddish into Hebrew. Besides Sholem Asch (1880-1957), she also translated the works of Isaac Bashevis-Singer (1902-1991), Alter Kacyzne (1885-1941), Kadia Molodowsky (1894-1975) and Zalman Shneour (1887-1959).