Jan’s Comments (group member since Feb 26, 2020)

Jan’s comments from the Yiddish lit in translation group.

Saw this today -- winners of Israel's national Yiddish story contest: https://forward.com/culture/432884/yi...

Yiddish word-of-the-day video series: https://forward.com/yiddish/444999/fo...

Alan wrote: "The Sutskever doc. Did the rounds of Jewish film festivals last year. Apparently an excellent film.

Emory-is that Atlanta? Is there a jewish film festival there?"

I might check out the poetry!
Yes, Emory is in (metro) Atlanta. Right around the corner from me, actually. The Jewish film festival just ended but I checked and no Black Honey. Hope I didn't miss it under some other name! Hoping eventually it will be released for purchase or streaming.

I was supposed to go next week to Emory (nearby) for a presentation by David E. Fishman on his book The Book Smugglers: Partisans, Poets, and the Race to Save Jewish Treasures from the Nazis. Just heard it's been cancelled due to the coronavirus. When I looked further at the book, I saw that one of those book rescuers was Abraham Sutzkever, and when I looked at the bookshelf here, he's on it. There is a movie that has been made about his life called Black Honey that I've read about but it's not available so far, or wasn't; I don't think it is. I understand he was a champion of Yiddish and an all-round hero.

Thank you, Alan. I think I've heard of the Lansky, and at some point hope to read that. I did hear about Harry Potter!

I'm not obsessed with Yiddish writers--yet--but I am obsessed--a little bit--(although that's a contradiction in terms) with Yiddish. I expect it's because I had no contact with Yiddish growing up or for most of my life. So except for words that have entered the vernacular, I was deprived. So I pay attention to the words in books that contain Yiddish expressions, although if they aren't used, I may not remember them. Most recently I bought a parody of Goodnight Moon with Yiddish words for my grandchildren. Goodnight Bubbala 😍
I'm also interested in the historical treatment of or attitude to Yiddish since the founding of Israel. I read an essay about the Yiddish poet Avraham Sutzkever and about an Israeli movie about him, but don't think the movie's available except at certain film festivals. https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/artic...
I joined to follow along.