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2005-10-01
News of Vilnius Summer Program Students

Egle Bendikaite (Vilnius, '00, '01) completed her doctorate at Kaunas University in 2004 with a dissertation titled "The Thought and Politics of the Zionist Movement in Lithuania from 1906 to 1940." During her research, Egle consulted Yiddish materials archived at YIVO (N.Y), where she held an A. and R. Melezin Faculty Research Fellowship. We heartily congratulate Egle on the award of the Ph.D. degree. We also note with satisfaction and thanks that, as a Judaic Studies faculty member, she was the first Lithuanian in the history of her country to teach Yiddish at the university level.

Joanna Lisek (Wroclaw, '01) presented a paper titled "The Jewish and Polish Literary Environment: Relations Between theYung Vilne Group and the Zagary Group" at the World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, July-August 2005.  Dr. Lisek is lecturer in Yiddish language and culture at the University of Wroclaw. 

Harriet Murav (Urbana/Illinois, '00) has published her third book since 1992, Identity Thief : The Jew In Imperial Russia and the Case of Avraam Uri Kovner (2004). Known today chiefly for his correspondence with Dostoevsky in protest against the Russian novelist's antisemitism, Vilna-born Kovner wrote prodigiously in both Hebrew and Russian. Professor Murav, who heads the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), drew on rare Yiddish sources in writing her important book. In preparation for it, she found it necessary to attain a mature grasp of the language she had first encountered as a child at home. "I turned to textbooks," she writes in the Forverts of 24 June 2005, "and I had the good fortune to attend the Vilnius Summer Program, where I studied with Dovid Katz and Andrey Bredshteyn."

Hilde Pach (Amsterdam, '01) presented the following talks based on her on-going doctoral research at Amsterdam University: "Moushe’s Choices. Was the Compositor of the Oldest Yiddish Newspaper (Amsterdam 1686-1687) a Creator or an Epigone?," European Association for Jewish Studies, Oxford, July 2004; "Di Wokhentlikhe Berikhtn (Amsterdam, den 10-tn yanuar 1781). Eyn numer, a sakh retenishn." VII. Symposium für Jiddische Studien in Deutschland, Düsseldorf, October 2004; '"In Hamburg a High German Jew Was Murdered': The Representation of Foreign Jews in the Dinstagishe un Fraytagishe Kuranten (Amsterdam, 1686-1687)," Symposium on the History of the Jews in the Netherlands, Jerusalem, November 2004; and "The Sort-Lived Blossoming of the Yiddish Press in the Netherlands," World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, July-August 2005.

Karolina Szymaniak (Krakow, '01, '02) is centrally involved in various projects aimed at acquainting Polish readers with modern Yiddish literature. Together with Natalia Krynicka (Paris), she presented a Yiddish seminar at the Maison de la Culture Yiddish - Bibliothèque Medem in Paris. Her topic was Avrom Sutskever and Polish literature. At Warsaw University, she also took part in a multimedia enactment of texts from the Ringelblum Archive (some translated from Yiddish and published in Polish for the first time). The event was titled "A. Ring I/1015. An Experimental Reading."

As chief project editor for the Forum for Dialogue Among Nations, Karolina will soon publish a Yiddish-Polish anthology of expressionist Yiddish literature, mainly by authors of the Khaliastre group. The goal of the project is to reclaim these works from oblivion and make this legacy of Polish-Jewish culture known to a broader public, and especially to the youngest generation of Polish readers.

Alex Hartov (Lebanon/New Hampshire, '03), in collaboration with his Dartmouth University colleague Professor Lewis Glinert, has created the online Dartmouth Jewish Sound Archive. This vast collection of recordings in several languages (among them English, Yiddish, Hebrew, and Russian) includes all that is germane to Jewish history and culture (e.g., Yiddish radio programs, readings, humor, field recordings, and much more). With 3,600 tracks already available for teaching and research purposes, another 11,000 tracks are ready to be added. Still awaiting processing are more than 10,000 additional recordings of all types. Anyone wishing to further this invaluable project is encouraged to contact Professor Hartov at the Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth University.

Please note: If you are a Summer Program graduate and actively employing your Yiddish, either academically or professionally, please write us. We look forward to announcing news of your degree progress, teaching, research, or other Yiddish-related undertakings.