Cover from the Yiddish literary journal Milgroym, 1922, photo Yiddish Book Centre
Until July 19th, Warsaw plays host the Summer Seminar on Yiddish Language and Culture. The event will feature Yiddish language courses, photography and theatre workshops, seminars on translation, films, and visits to important sites of Jewish heritage in the city.
This is the 11th year of the annual summer program, organized as a way to celebrate Jewish culture and equip future generations with the knowledge to preserve the rich heritage of Yiddish. Along with seminars in Yiddish language and translation – led by Professor Monika Adamczyk-Grabowski of the Department of Culture and History of the Jews at the UMCS Institute of Culture – the summer program offers workshops in photography, theatre, and music. The music workshops will feature virtuoso mandolinist Jeff Warschauer and violinist Deborah Strauss. Theatre classes are led by Raphael Goldwaser, Director of the Strasbourg LufTeater.
Gołda Tencer, an organizer of the seminar and the Director General of the Shalom Foundation, stresses the importance of the yearly workshops in Yiddish culture and translation, noting that they strive to bring in young people because “they will someday be responsible for translations of important Jewish texts.” She adds that knowledge of the language is essential to understanding canonical Yiddish texts, such as those of I.B. Singer – “He is untranslatable, translation never captures the full depth and complexity of meaning.”
The Summer Seminar will also include culinary workshops, films, and visits to museums and archives around Warsaw. In conjunction with this program, Tomasz Szerszeni will lead weekly photography workshops, entitled “Migratory Streets of Muranów.” He will accompany participants through the historically Jewish district of Warsaw and guide their photography. All are welcome, and there is no need to bring professional equipment.
The three-week program will be hosted by the Jewish Cultural Centre in the Muranów district – the historical heart of Jewish Warsaw. Participants will travel to the Seminar from the U.S., Sweden, Italy, Israel, Ukraine, and across Poland. While the event is certainly of interest to the Jewish community, participants in the seminars are not exclusively Jewish. Tencer comments, “It’s great that among the participants in our classes there are often Catholics who want to learn about Jewish heritage. These are people who have long historical associations with Jewish culture.”
Reflecting on the event, Sigmund Rolat – philanthropist, patron of the arts, and president of the World Association of Jews of Częstochowa and their Descendants – comments:
I feel very touched when I see such a large number of young people who come here to learn the language, which years ago was used by a large majority of Jewish people. This event fights the stereotype of Poles as anti-Semitic. Similarly, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews is a fantastic platform for dialog between generations. It is good to acknowledge that Jewish culture should not be associated only with the death camps and the Holocaust, but also with a living language and culture.
More information on the Summer Seminar on Yiddish Language and Culture can be found here.
Source: PAP
Edited: Alena Aniskiewicz 10.07.2013