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2007-06-20
JHF Seminar Series Report on the popular semester-long series sponsored by the Dutch Jewish Humanitarian Fund

2007 Cycle of Seminars on Eastern European Jewish Heritage

Sponsored by the Dutch Jewish Humanitarian Fund (www.jhf.nl)

(1)

Date: April 24, 2007
Speaker: Dr. Silva Pocyte [Klaipeda University, Lithuania]
Lecture: Interethnic Relations in Klaipeda Region 1919–1939.

The Klaipeda region became a part of the Lithuanian Republic in mid 1920s. Studies of Jewish history of Klaipeda region remain incomplete and need serious academic interest and research. Both Jews and Lithuanians left the region in 1939 when the area was taken over by the Nazi Germany.

(2)

Date: May 15, 2007
Speaker: Aleksandr Astraukh [Public organization „Open Society“, Minsk, Belarus]
Lecture: Mame Lokshn. The influence of the Belarussian language on Yiddish

Aleksandr Astraukh from Minsk has studied Yiddish at Vilnius University for several years. Since 1998 Astraukh has been working on the Yiddish-Belarus dictionary. The dictionary is scheduled to come out in print in 2007. This will be the first publication on this topic in the world.

(3)

Date: May 22, 2007
Speaker: Rimantas Zirgulis [Director of the Kedainiai Regional Museum, Kedainiai, Lithuania]
Lecture: Multicultural Kedainiai.

The Lithuanian town of Kedianiai distinguishes itself in history as the site of a rich multicultural life where people of different ethnics and religions – Scots, Jews, Poles, Germans, Lithuanians, Russians – lived cooperatively together. Rimantas Zirgulis heads the Regional Museum of Kedainiai which represents the town‘s multicultural variaty.

(4)

Date: May 29, 2007
Speaker and performer: Dr. Maria Krupoves-Berg [Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania]
Lecture: The Vilna Ghetto Songs

Dr. Maria Krupoves-Berg, vocal artist and folklorist, is internationally acclaimed as a singer and interpreter of the folksongs of Central and Eastern Europe, especially those of her native Vilnius. She has traveled extensively to find songs in Yiddish, Polish, Lithuanian, Belarusian, Gypsy (Roma), Karaim, Tatar, and other languages. Multilingual herself, she lectures on the history of Jewish music and the history and folklore of the stateless cultures of Lithuania (Yiddish, Karaim, Tatar, Roma, and Russian Old Believers).

The seminar was held in the Tolerance Centre of the Jewish Museum of Lithuania. The hall hosted over 100 people who showed interest in Maria Krupoves-Berg‘s lecture and performance of the Vilna ghetto songs. The audience consisted of local Jewish community members, international guests of the city, diplomatic corps, and Vilnius University students.

(5)

Date: May 30, 2007
Speaker: Chayele Palevsky [New York, USA]
Lecture: In the Vilna Ghetto and Among the Partisans

Chayele Palevsky – native of Svintsian (Lithuania), Svintsian and Vilno ghetto survivor and former partisan ­– returned to Lithuania for the first time in 60 years. Chayele has written and contributed her personal story to published anthologies and oral histories, speaks at special events, appears in the documentary film, “The Partisans of Vilna,” contributed artifacts to the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City and continues to lecture for groups of educators and students at the Museum, at Columbia University and other such venues.

A strong interest in the seminar was shown by the local Jewish community members, Holocaust survivors, scholars who study Holocaust history, linguists who study the Yiddish language, journalists and many others. Questions varied from those of personal interest looking for and finding common acquaintances – ghetto survivors and partisans now living around the world – to academic interest in the Holocaust history and the Vilna partisans, viewpoints of the survivor, the Holocaust’s psychological effects on the survivor and her family.

(6)

Date: June 11, 2007
Speaker and performer: Steponas Aleksandravicius [the Lithuanian Roma Community, Kaunas, Lithuania]
Lecture: Songs of the Stateless Cultures of Lithuania

On June 11 the Vilnius Yiddish Institute invited all its friends to the concert Songs of the Stateless Cultures of Lithuania performed by Dr. Maria Krupoves Berg (Vilnius Yiddish Institute, Vilnius University) and Steponas Aleksandravicius (Lithuanian Roma Community, Kaunas).

The evening seminar was a farewell tribute to the Canadian Ambassador to Lithuania Brian Herman, which took the form of a public dialogue between Ambassador Herman and VYI academic staff on various issues in Jewish heritage in Lithuania today.

The Institute was happy to collaborate with Mr. Brain Herman during his three years of diplomatic service in Lithuania and now wishes him all the best in his endeavors.