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Yiddishkayt Los Angeles e-Newsletter
 
Yiddish Transcends the Globe - January 2008

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Make a Donation
In This Yidbits
A Hartsikn Dank
Limmud LA
Return Journeys to Cuba
The Mercurial Sholem Aleichem
Centennial of Chernowitz
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Dear Friend of Yiddishkayt,

We hope this first yidbits of 2008 finds you healthy and well!

Have you heard that a crater on Mercury has been named after our beloved Yiddish writer, Sholem Aleichem?  Check out the picture below.

We are proud to announce our participation in the first ever Limmud LA, a weekend-long inclusive conference on anything and everything Jewish.  Read more below.

As you know, our Family Festival this Fall, Viva Yiddish, will celebrate the history and culture of Yiddish in Latin America.  Throughout the year we will keep you informed of other events concerning this fascinating subject, starting with Return Journeys to Cuba at the Skirball.

And last, but not least, this August will mark the passing of one-hundred years since the influential Chernowitz Conference.  Learn more about this historic marker (and how to pronounce Chernowitz) below.

mit vareme vuntshn,

The Yiddishkayt Staff
A HARTSIKN DANK - HEARTFELT THANKS
Thank you for responding so graciously to our Annual December fundraiser!

Your generosity allows us to continue our mission - striving to ensure the survival of Yiddish.  With your support, we plan on making 2008 our best year yet.   From all of us here at Yiddishkayt, a sheynem dank, thank you.

(If you haven't given already, it's not too late to become a member of Yiddishkayt for 2008.  Please visit our website to make a contribution.)
FIRST EVER - LIMMUD  LA

Participatory Conference
February 15-18
Hilton Hotel Orange County, Costa Mesa

Limmud LA: Celebrating the Kaleidoscope of LA Jewish Life

Yiddishkayt Los Angeles will be a presenter at the first-ever
Limmud LA, a revolutionary weekend of grassroots learning. Over the course of three days, participants will have the opportunity to choose between attending 256 sessions and 26 films. Subjects covered at the conference reflect the diversity of the Jewish people, and will cover almost every conceivable topic. Limmud gatherings in other cities and countries around the world have become important, annual festivals of Jewish learning, and there is no doubt that Limmud LA will have a similar success.

We are excited to bring Yiddish to the first Limmud conference held in LA. Through three presentations, we will explore Yiddish Theater in America, Yiddish Film, and the Yiddish experience in Los Angeles.

Yiddish Theater in America
Caraid O'Brien will tell the story of Yiddish Theater in America - its writers and actors and their influence on the American stage. Caraid, a leading translator of Yiddish plays, is well-known for her innovative productions of Sholem Asch plays in New York.

Film Screening: "Uncle Moses"
Uncle Moses is a fascinating film. It tells the story of the transformation of a wealthy Jewish sweatshop owner amidst the union struggles on the Lower East Side during the early 20th Century. Caraid O'Brien will introduce the film, starring Maurice Schwarts and adapted from a novel by Sholem Asch.

The Yiddish Experience in Los Angeles

As Jewish immigrants came to Los Angeles, they brought Yiddish culture with them, as seen by the flourishing of literary journals such as Zunland, Pasifik, and Kheshbn. Bradley Bernstein, a graduate student at UCLA, will explore this history and share rare poems - written in Yiddish - extolling the virtues and sunlight of the Southland.

Visit Limmud LA's website to learn more about the conference and presenters.  It's not too late to register to attend Limmud LA!  If you're already planning to attend, we look forward to seeing you there.
RETURN JOURNEYS TO CUBA
Lecture and Booksigning
Wednesday, February 13
7:30 pm
at the Skirball

$8 General, $5 Skirball Members and Full-Time Students
Advance Tickets are available at the Skirball, online, or by phone at (877) SCC-4TIX.

Join Cuban-born writers Ruth Behar and Rosa Lowinger as they examine the historical context of 1950s Cuba, Jewish life on the eve of the Cuban revolution, the revitalization of the Cuban Jewish community, including the involvement of American Jews and the bittersweet stories of Jews living in Cuba today. A booksigning will follow the program.
 
THE MERCURIAL SHOLEM ALEICHEM

 
The Sholem Aleichem Crater on MercuryIt's official, Yiddish culture is Universal. Well, at least it can be found in the most unlikely of spots in the solar system.

A few days ago, the Messenger spacecraft enjoyed its first flyby of the Planet Mercury. When Messenger was 11,000 miles away, it captured this image of the surface. (We added the arrow.)

The large crater in the foreground is named after Sholem Aleichem, the famous Yiddish writer whose stories continue to carry great impact.
THE CENTENNIAL OF CHERNOWITZ

 
One hundred years ago this August, the leading Yiddishists of the day began a conference on the Yiddish language in Chernowitz (pronounced tsher-nuh-vitz).  The conference "continues to be celebrated by Yiddishists as a symbolic turning point in the history of the language," setting the stage for the flowering of Yiddish literature, education, and scholarship in the twentieth century.1

How did the Chernowitz Conference achieve this influence?  After days of fervent debate (these were Jews afterall) the participants in the conference passed a resolution:

The first conference for the Yiddish language recognizes Yiddish as a national language of the Jewish people, and calls for its political, social and cultural equal rights.  Moreover, the conference finds it necessary to state that each participant in the conference, and of its resulting organization, has the freedom to regard the Hebrew language according to his personal convictions.2
 
This proclamation empowered the Yiddish movement while allowing for the membership of Zionists who supported Yiddish as the language for Eastern Europe but Hebrew as the language for Palestine.

The importance of this and other conclusions of the Chernowitz Conference will be discussed throughout this year by Yiddishkayt LA and every Yiddish organization in the world.  As the year progresses, we'll keep you informed about the celebrations surrounding the Centennial of Chernowitz.

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Footnotes
1. Dovid Katz, Words on Fire: The Unfinished Story of Yiddish (New York: Basic Books, 2004) 267.
2. Ibid, 268-269.

Yiddishkayt Los Angeles

www.yiddishkaytla.org