[Cz-L] Summary of IAYC Conference

Greetings,

While I am not back home yet in New York, I can tell you that I
enjoyed very much the comraderie that was felt at the just completed
IAYC conference. So many people who love the Yiddish language,
whether it was their first language or the language their parents
spoke at home, reveled in the experience of hearing Yiddish spoken
constantly. Of course, often times there were those attendees who
were disappointed that every lecture was not given in Yiddish, etc.
There were lectures given in English, lectures given strictly in
Yiddish, and those with a bissel (lttle) of both.

Boris Sandler was the main speaker Saturday morning at your first
plenary session. The title of his talk was "Di evolutsye fun der
yidisher literatur nokh der tshernovitser konferents biz haynt,"
which I believe translates to "The Evolution of Yiddish Literature
 from the Czernowitz Conference to Today." His lecture was entirely in
Yiddish, and since my knowledge of Yiddish is very poor (how sad!), I
will hope that he will find someone to translate this talk of nearly
one hour into English so I can include the transcript on my site. I
am not sure how I will present all the lectures within my site, i.e.
whether they will always be full written transcripts, whether I will
present short audio clips, i.e. the speaker will begin talking
(whether in Yiddish or English), and after he speaks for a couple of
minutes, you will be able to click on a link that will lead you to a
continuation of the talk in English, etc. I'll decide this once I
transcribe to talk. Since it takes approximately five or six hours to
transcribe one hour of talk, it could take a while. But I do have a
transcription machine with a foot pedal, so let's hope I can do it in
a reasonable amount of time.

As agreed upon with the organizers of the conference, I will be
giving a CD with the speaker's presentation to each of the speakers.
Dr. Scherrzer, Professors Mayer and Vaisman (as well as Boris
Sandler) were already given copies. They are all very nice people, so
I was very pleased to meet and talk with all of them.

To continue, what else was presented that would be of interest to
Czernowitzers?
By Vivian Felsen, "Chernovits un dis idishe imigrantn in amerike,"
i.e. "Czernowitz and the Jewish Immigration to America," this one I
didn't record. I could only record two sessions (of a possible five
given at the same time), and I chose not to record this one, not only
because it was given strictly in Yiddish, but it was not really about
Czernowitz, but more about immigration to America. At least this is
what Ms. Felsen told me.

Next: On Sunday was the next plenary session. Professor Iosif Vaisman
(born in Czernowitz) spoke for an hour. The title of his talk was
"The World Wide Shtel: Yiddish on the Internet." Even though he
writes and and talks about Czernowitz, this was not what the
talk (given in English) was about, though I would hope to present a
transcript of his talk at some point.

Also on Sunday, Dr. Julius Scherzer (born and raised in Czernowitz)
gave a wonderful talk (in English) about life in Czernowitz, as well
as his life in Czernowitz up to the time of his emigration. The name
of his talk was "Growing up in Czernowitz."

The next session included a talk by Prof. Meinhard (Hardy) Mayer, who
spoke in English about "The Yiddish and German Poets from
Czernowitz." This was another fine talk that could have easily
extended past the hour and quarter allotted for each lecture.

There was also Dr. Amelia Glaser who gave a talk entitled
"Remembering the Old Country in the New Country." She has done
Czernowitz research, though I don't recall how much of her talk was
about Czernowitz per se. Hopefully she will contact me with some
material I can use on my site as we've discussed. This session was
not recorded.
I don't recall which of the lectures I've mentioned were videotaped,
but if they were, I might be able to include a couple of video clips
along with sound and text.

Also at the vendor tables were two Silverblatts (I believe Irene and
Helene) who edited the book "Harvests of Blossoms (Poems from a Life
Cut Short)." Part of the product descripton says, "A rediscovered
poetry collection from a lost voice of the Holocaust Revealing an
artist of remarkable talent and enduring hope, this collection of
poetry will join Anne Frank's diary as a touching reminder of what
the world has lost by a life cut short. The poems written by Selma
Meerbaum-Eisinger are astonishing for their beauty; it is equally
astonishing that they have survived at all. Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger
was born in Czernowitz, Romania, now Chernivtsi, Ukraine. Czernowitz,
known for its vibrant mix of languages and ethnicities, was famously
described by Selma's cousin, poet Paul Celan, as a city "where human
beings and books used to live." I hope that they will be able to send
me material so I can include it on my site.

While the conference wasn't exclusively about Czernowitz (there were
also few posters displayed on easels around the conference rooms with
older photos of Czernowitz itself), there were enough mentions and
lectures given about Czernowitz to satisfy (me, at least.) Sorry that
more of you weren't there.

In summary, it was an enjoyable conference, though I wish I could
read and speak Yiddish fluently. My only regret is that more of you
could not attend. It was a joy to be among so many Yiddish speakers.
I could only imagine how much more of a joy it would have been if I
knew Yiddish better. Something more for me to do! I will write more
about it once I return home and have a chance to begin work on
transcribing the lectures.

Lastly, let me reiterate that it was a joy to finally meet our dear
Mimi (and her husband) and share with her not only the pleasure
of listening to Yiddish language being spoken, and Yiddish music
being played, but hearing those "in the know" speak fondly of their
Czernowitz, this town that they remember and have written about, that
once had a rich Jewish past.


Best,
Steve Lasky
<http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com>
steve_at_museumoffamilyhistory.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This moderated discussion group is for information exchange on the subject of
 Czernowitz and Sadagora Jewish History and Genealogy. The opinions expressed
 in these posts are the opinions of the original poster only and not necessarily
 the opinions of the List Owner, the Webmaster or any other members
 or entities connected with this mailing list. The Czernowitz-L list has
 an associated web site at http://czernowitz.ehpes.com that includes a
 searchable archive of all messages posted to this list. Please post in "Plain
 Text" if possible (help available at:
<http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/PlainText.html>).

To remove your address from this e-list follow the directions at
http://www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/elist/lyris/leave.html

To receive assistance for this e-list send an e-mail message to:
owner-Czernowitz-L_at_list.cornell.edu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Received on 2008-10-29 00:54:30