In Memory of Avrom Sutzekever: A Public Program, YIVO, New York, NY, 22 February 2010
IN MEMORY OF AVROM SUTZKEVER: A Public Program
Monday, February 22, 2010
6:00 p.m. 7:30 p.m.
at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
Admission: Free
Avrom Sutzkever was a great Yiddish poet and a hero of the Jewish people. He was born near Vilna, spent most of his youth in the city, survived the Holocaust there, and then settled in Israel. From 1949 to 1995, Sutzkever edited the prestigious Yiddish literary journal Goldene keyt.
In the wartime ghetto, Sutzkever was drafted by the Nazis to work on a team sorting books from plundered Jewish libraries, including YIVO's; the most valuable of the books were to be shipped to an institute in Germany devoted to "Jewish studies without Jews," the rest destroyed. He and some of his colleagues, who were nicknamed the "Paper Brigade," risked their lives by removing rare books from the selection and burying them. After the war, he and others returned to Vilna to dig up their cache and send
much of it to YIVO in New York.
Avrom Sutzkever died on January 20. On the occasion of his shloyshim (one-month anniversary of his death), YIVO is holding a public program to pay tribute to his memory. Participants include:
Benjamin Harshav: Sutzkever's Poetry (Yiddish-English)
David Fishman: Sutzkever's Life (Yiddish)
Benjamin & Barbara Harshav: poetry reading (Yiddish-English)
Boris Sandler: a few words on behalf of the family of Yiddish writers (Yiddish)
Hy Wolfe, Shane Baker & Barney Zumoff: poetry reading (Yiddish-English)
Adrienne Cooper: two songs by Sutzkever (sung in Yiddish)
Recording of Avrom Sutzkever reading one of his poems (Yiddish)
Recording of Dan Miron lecturing on Sutzkever (English)
The program is sponsored by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the Congress for Jewish Culture-CYCO, the Forverts and the Workmen's Circle.
Dr. Paul (Hershl) Glasser
Associate Dean, Max Weinreich Center
Senior Research Associate, Yiddish Language
212-294-6139
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
15 West 16 Street
New York, New York 10011
212-246-6080 (ph)
212-292-1892 (fax)
www.yivo.org