In the beginning 1990s, a core group of Yiddish writers living in Israel- the remnants of the once significant collective of Yiddish writers in the Jewish State met every Friday at the quarters of the Association of Yiddish Writers and Journalists, located at the Leivik-Hoyz (The Leivik House) in Tel Aviv. Most of the writers and poets had miraculously survived the Holocaust and settled in Israel afterwards.
Synopsis
It’s ironic, that Israel- where Yiddish, as the language of Ashkenazi Jewry, was systematically oppressed and stifled was where these former refugees and concentration camp inmates decided to write in their mother tongue, Yiddish.
The chief goal of the series, “Yiddish Writers Monologues”, was to give these writers a platform in which to share details about their life and work with the public. Each of the ten monologues depicts the life of that particular writer and all the films together create collective historical, psychological portrait of a bygone era in the 20th century, in which the Yiddish language, literature and culture had played a leading role. The film includes rare photos and footage, some of them taken in Lithuania, Moldova and other locations in Eastern Europe.
Producer
Boris Sandler
Camera
Aaron Shvartsman
Camera/Subtitles
Chana Pollack
Graphic Design
Boris Budiyanskiy
Sound
Nahum Koyfman
Stills
