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Calendar of EventsUnless otherwise noted, all events will take place at the National Yiddish Book Center, on the campus of Hampshire College, Route 116, Amherst, Massachusetts. You don't need to know Yiddish to enjoy our programs! Space is limited, and all programs are filled on a strictly first-come, first-served basis. For additional information, an application or reservations, please phone us at 413-256-4900.  Sunday, May 18th - LectureThe Supernatural and Imagination in Yiddish Theater and Film Dr. Miriam Isaacs, visiting associate professor in Yiddish language and culture at the University of Maryland, discusses the use of the supernatural as reflected in H. Leivick’s The Golem, Jacob Gordin’s God, Man, and Devil, Peretz Hirshbein’s The Pledge, and S. Ansky’s The Dybbuk. 2:00 P.M. Cost: $6  Sunday, May 25th - FilmFrom Philadelphia to the Front This unique documentary focuses on six Philadelphia war veterans, their individual experiences during the war and their bittersweet reunion. The film includes personal photographs, rare archival footage, and newsreels. (2005; 37 min.) Poumy Monday, May 26th Closed - Memorial Day  Sunday, June 1st - ConcertThe Afro-Semitic Experience African American jazz pianist Warren Byrd and Jewish American jazz bassist David Chevan present a unique program combining stories and music from the Jewish and African American sacred traditions, including interpretations of gospel, klezmer, nigunim, spirituals, bebop, and swing. Reservations suggested. 2:00 P.M. Cost: $10  Sunday, June 8th - TalkOur Mothers, Ourselves The Jewish Mother Revised and Re-Invented Joyce Antler, author of “You Never Call! You Never Write! A History of the Jewish Mother,” traces the evolution of the Yiddishe mama as popularized by Sophie Tucker and Gertrude Berg’s “Molly Goldberg” through the present day re-interpretation by leading feminist scholars and stand-up comedians. Comedian Lauren Antler offers her reflections, entitled “What to Wear When You’re Fighting the Patriarchy: Lessons from the Daughter of a Jewish Feminist.” Co-sponsored by the Jewish Women’s Archive. Purchase You Never Call, You Never Write! from our bookstore. 2:00 P.M. Cost: $8 Monday, June 9th Closed - Shavuos Tuesday, June 10th Closed - Shavuous  Sunday, June 15th - FilmThe Two of Us This poignant and lighthearted film by acclaimed director Claude Berri is the story of a Jewish boy living in Nazi-occupied Paris. After he is sent by his parents to the countryside to live with an elderly Catholic couple, the eight-year-old bonds with the irascible, staunchly anti-Semitic Grampa (Michel Simon). 2:00 P.M. Cost: $6  Sunday, June 22nd - ConcertShtreiml The Montreal-based Shtreiml returns with its blend of klezmer, chasidic, Gypsy, and jazz, featuring Jason Rosenblatt on harmonica and piano, Thierry Arsenault on drums, and Ariel Harrod on bass. Reservations suggested. 2:00 P.M. Cost: $10  Sunday, June 29th - FilmThe Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg This 1994 documentary builds a fascinating portrait of the celebrated poet, teacher, protester, and icon Allen Ginsberg with illuminating interviews with fellow writers and Ginsberg himself. Purchase The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg from our bookstore. 2:00 P.M. Cost: $6 Paper Bridge Summer Arts Festival Sunday, July 6th - FilmFilm: Silent Comedies Silent film accompanist Ben Model and film historian Bruce Lawton return to the Book Center with a newly found print of the Max Davidson comedy “Feed Em and Weep” along with "Jewish Prudence", and "Long Fliv the King". 2:00 P.M. Cost: $10  Monday, July 7th - FilmThe Goldbergs Enjoy two episodes of this 1950s television situation comedy broadcast starring Gertrude Berg. Made possible by a gift from the family of Eli Mintz. 10:30 A.M. Cost: $5  Monday, July 7th - TalkPaul Buhle - Jews in American Comics Paul Buhle, Senior Lecturer in History and American Civilization at Brown University, will speak and lead a discussion about the participation of Jewish Americans in the various phases of comic art, from the Progressive Era Yiddish-language publication to the "art comics" of the twenty-first century. Purchase Jews and American Comics: An Illustrated History of an American Art Form from our bookstore. 3:00 P.M. Cost: $6  Monday, July 7th - FilmWill Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist Eisner tells his story in his own words through interviews with Michael Chabon, Art Spiegelman, Jules Feiffer and Kurt Vonnegut. Arist, businessman, innovator and visual storyteller, Eisner enjoyed a career that encompassed comic books from their early beginnings in the 1930’s to their development as graphic novels in the 1990’s. Producer/director Jon Cooke and producer Andrew Cooke will attend. Purchase Will Eisner from our bookstore. 8:00 P.M. Cost: $10 Tuesday, July 8th - Workshop Preserve your Memories Would you like to learn how to archive letters, postcards and photographs? Bring them this summer and we will show you how to safely protect them for future generations. 10:30 A.M. Cost: $5 Tuesday, July 8th - Workshop Translate your Memories Would you like to find out what a family letter, postcard, journal entry or recipe says in Yiddish? Bring it to our Yiddish translators and we'll open the door to your family history. 12:00 P.M. Cost: Free  Tuesday, July 8th - TalkJeffrey Shandler - Absolut Tchotchke Jeffrey Shandler, Associate Professor of Jewish studies at Rutgers University and author of Adventures in Yiddishland explains how everyday objects – coffee mugs, refrigerator magnets and lapel pins – embody the transmigrations of Yiddish language and culture since World War II. Purchase Adventures in Yiddishland: Postvernacular Language & Culture from our bookstore. 3:00 P.M. Cost: $6  Tuesday, July 8th - ConcertHip Heymish, and Hot Join Tony Award Nominee Eleanor Reissa for a celebration of Yiddish music and humor - folk songs, classics of the Second Avenue theater, and stirring tunes of love, piety, and protest. A Lazarus Family Concert. Reservations suggested 8:00 P.M. Cost: $18 Wednesday, July 9th - FilmThe Goldbergs Enjoy two episodes of this 1950s television situation comedy broadcast starring Gertrude Berg. Made possible by a gift from the family of Eli Mintz. 10:30 A.M. Cost: $5  Wednesday, July 9th - TalkJeffrey Shandler - The Goldbergs Shandler explores the reality behind the Goldbergs - the most popular Jewish family in 1950s America and pioneers in television's character-based domestic sitcom format. Shandler is a joint author with J. Hoberman of Entertaining America: Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting 3:00 P.M. Cost: $6  Wednesday, July 9th - FilmMaking Trouble: Three Generations of Funny Jewish Women This laugh-out-loud film portrays six legendary American Jewish women comics - Molly Picon, Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, Joan Rivers, Wendy Wasserstein, and Gilda Randner - who defied cultural expectations and changed the rules. 8:00 P.M. Cost: $10 Thursday, July 10th - FilmThe Goldbergs Enjoy two episodes of this 1950s television situation comedy broadcast starring Gertrude Berg. Made possible by a gift from the family of Eli Mintz. 10:30 A.M. Cost: $5  Thursday, July 10th - WorkshopMichael Wex Daytsh af tselakhis: German to Spite the Germans Author Michael Wex explains why Yiddish was never German. Purchase Miachel Wex from our bookstore. 3:00 P.M. Cost: $6 Thursday, July 10th - TalkDon't Knock Me a Teapot! Novelist, translator and lecturer Michael Wex explores strange Yiddish expressions and how they got that way. Purchase Miachel Wex from our bookstore. 8:00 P.M. Cost: $10  Sunday, July 13th - ConcertOld World Klezmer in the New World Michael Alpert, Hankus Netsky, and outstanding instrumentalists from the former Soviet Union bring old world klezmer music to life! Purchase Klezmer Madness from our bookstore. 2:00 P.M. Cost: $10  Sunday, July 13thTraditional Jewish Dance Party! Bring your dancing shoes, and learn to dance the freylekhs, the sher, the bulgar, and more - to live music - with Michael Alpert and friends. (Munson Memorial Library S. Amherst) Purchase Songs My Bubbe Should Have Taught Me Volume One: Passover from our bookstore. 7:30 P.M. Cost: $5  Monday, July 14th - WorkshopThe Misheberakh Mode Meets the Flatted Fifth Musician and composer Paul Shapiro explores the cross-pollination of Yiddish and jazz in early 20th century America. Purchase Midnight Minyan from our bookstore. 3:00 P.M. Cost: $6  Monday, July 14th - FilmAmerican Matchmaker (Amerikaner Shadkhn) Leo Fuchs, the "Yiddish Fred Astaire," stars in this musical comedy as Nat Silver, a debonair and fabulously wealthy Jewish-American businessman whose recent engagement (his eighth) goes awry. Purchase American Matchmaker from our bookstore. 10:30 A.M. Cost: $5  Monday, July 14th - ConcertRibs and Brisket Revue In the 1930s and 1940s bluesy, comedic, swing musicians like Louie Jordan and Cab Calloway made great music that still sounds fresh today. Paul Shapiro and his band members celebrate the interplay of hipster swing and Yiddish. Reservations suggested Purchase It's in the Twilight from our bookstore. 8:00 P.M. Cost: $18 Tuesday, July 15th - Workshop Preserve your Memories Would you like to learn how to archive letters, postcards and photographs? Bring them this summer and we will show you how to safely protect them for future generations. 10:30 A.M. Cost: $5 Tuesday, July 15th - Workshop Translate your Memories Would you like to find out what a family letter, postcard, journal entry or recipe says in Yiddish? Bring it to our Yiddish translators and we'll open the door to your family history. 12:00 P.M. Cost: Free  Tuesday, July 15th - WorkshopStations of the Nation: Yiddish Radio in America 1925-1955 Record producer, composer, author, and musician Henry Sapoznik discusses the broadcasts of the "golden age" of Yiddish. Purchase Klezmer!: Jewish Music from Old World to Our World with CD from our bookstore. 3:00 P.M. Cost: $6 Tuesday, July 15th - ConcertHank Sapoznik and the Youngers of Zion Henry "Hank" Sapoznik, Marlene "Cookie" Segelstein and Vince Giordano, offer an intimate, exciting salon of old time Yiddish music: hot fiddle tunes, forgotten ballads, introspective instrumentals and snappy Second Avenue vaudeville songs. Reservations suggested. Purchase Yiddish Radio Project Music from our bookstore. 8:00 P.M. Cost: $18  Wednesday, July 16th - FilmThe Singing Blacksmith (Yankl Der Schmid) The Singing Blacksmith is the film version of "Yankl der Schmid," a classic 1906 drama that was one of the first Yiddish plays to offer a psychological study of physical passion. Purchase The Singing Blacksmith from our bookstore. 10:30 A.M. Cost: $5  Wednesday, July 16th - WorkshopSocalled Socalled (Joseph Dolgin) explores the process of sampling and the impact it has had on the rediscovery and vitality of the Yiddish repertoire and continuity. Purchase SoCalled Seder: A Hip Hop Haggadah from our bookstore. 3:00 P.M. Cost: $6 Wednesday, July 16th - ConcertSocalled Musician, photographer, magician and writer Socalled brings his one of a kind sound that mixes klezmer with jazz and hip hop back to the festival. Reservations suggested. Purchase SoCalled Seder: A Hip Hop Haggadah from our bookstore. 8:00 P.M. Cost: $18  Thursday, July 17th - FilmYiddle With His Fiddle (Yidl Mitn Fidl) Director Joseph Green returned to his native Poland from America to produce this, the most commercially successful musical in the history of the Yiddish cinema. Purchase Yiddle With His Fiddle from our bookstore. 10:30 A.M. Cost: $5  Thursday, July 17th - WorkshopKlezmer Bluegrass: a lecture/demonstration on klezmer and American music Learn about the history of klezmer music in America and its intersection with other kinds of American music. 3:00 P.M. Cost: $6  Thursday, July 17th - ConcertMargot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys Appalachian and southern fiddle tunes by Bill Monroe meet klezmer melodies from pre-war Russia and Eastern Europe. Reservations suggested. Purchase Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys from our bookstore. 8:00 P.M. Cost: $15 Laura Wetzler and her Band Enjoy a rollicking afternoon on singer-songwriter Laura Wetzler's critically acclaimed orginal songs, worldbeat Jewish music from Uganada, Turkey, Morocco, Djerba, the shtetlekh and Brooklyn, and great classics of American song. Reservations suggested 2:00 P.M. Cost: $10 Sunday, July 27th - Lecture Maya Benton: Picturing Vishniac Art historian Maya Benton explores the life and work of photographer Roman Vishniac and presents some of his unpublished photographs as well as never-before-seen contact sheets. Benton serves as collection manager for Vishniac’s estate and is curating a major retrospective of his work. Purchase Children of a Vanished World from our bookstore. 2 p.m Cost: $6 Sunday, August 3rd - Drama Sala-Manca Group Using texts of the Yiddish poet Avraham Sutzkever, Israeli artists Lea Mauas and Diego Rotman integrate new media with voices in Yiddish and English. 2 p.m Cost: $10 Sunday, August 10th - Concert Yiddishkeit Klezmer Ensemble The Yiddishkeit Klezmer Ensemble, led by Brian Bender, performs traditional Eastern European Jewish folk music including freylekhs, bulgars and Yiddish folksongs. Reservations suggested. 2 p.m Cost: $10 Sunday, August 17th - Concert Vira Lozinsky Vira Lozinsky, born in Beltz, Moldova (Bessarabia), is one of the freshest young voices in a new generation of Israeli singers cultivating Yiddish culture. Reservations suggested. 2 p.m Cost: $10 Sunday, August 24th - Film Back To Gombin This documentary follows 50 children of Holocaust survivors who travel to their parents’ town near Warsaw to rebuild and rededicate the ancient Jewish cemetery. Includes rare archival footage from 1937 Gombin, 18 months before the Nazi occupation. 2 p.m Cost: $6 Sunday, August 31st - Film Our Children (Unzere kinder) This semi-documentary film features the comedy duo Szymon Dzigan and Israel Shumacher at an orphanage/school near Lodz with Jewish children who had survived the Holocaust. 2 p.m Cost: $6 |
| The National Yiddish Book Center Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building • 1021 West Street • Amherst MA 01002 • Phone 413-256-4900 • Fax 413-256-4700 • Contact |
