A Yiddish
Sister Revealed
Sunday 29
February 12.30pm
Dafna
Clifford, Dorothee van Tenderloo,
Chair: Sylvia Paskin
Readings:
Rachel Morris
Esther Kreitman was the talented
elder sister of Isaac Bashevis and Israel Joshua
Singer. She was the first of her siblings to write, and the inspiration for I B
Singer's story Yentl. But she had to defy her
orthodox Hasidic family to pursue her own career in writing.
In this session to mark the launch of Blitz and Other
Stories, the first translation of Yikhes,
a collection of short stories set in the war-torn East
End and the shtetls of her
native Poland,
the panellists explored Esther Kreitmanís exceptional
achievements as a Yiddish woman writer and her deep sense of personal and
social injustice.
Dr Dafna Clifford
has taught at the Oxford Institute for Yiddish Studies and lectures in Yiddish,
modern European Jewish and Israeli literature.
Dorothee
van Tenderloo is a
freelance translator and literary critic specialising in 20th century Yiddish,
Hebrew and European Jewish literature.
Sylvia Paskin
teaches creative writing, film and literature. She has edited three books of
poetry, fiction and a reader on Yiddish film.
