Two Historic Festivals in Yiddish Culture Will Take Place on Campus of College in Southern Georgia

— Two historical festivals, "Celebration of Jewish Culture in Georgia and the South" and "Festival of the Yiddish Spirit, " featuring many of the world’s leading Yiddish-Jewish writers, composers, performers and artists, will take place on the campus of Georgia Southern College in Statesboro May 17-20.

According to Bernard Solomon, associate professor of art at the college, "This is an unprecedented first meeting in modern history for Jewish cultural leaders from around the world at a time when Yiddish culture is in the very beginnings of a renaissance. " Only twice before in modern Jewish world history has there been such a gathering, both times in Europe, he noted. The third is to take place in the rural south Georgia college town with fewer than 10 Jewish families.

MAJOR GOAL OF THE FESTIVALS

The major goal of the festivals, Solomon said, is to cite the impact of Yiddish culture on the arts generally "and to develop a sensitivity to and appreciation of contributions made by a single cultural minority living within the mainstream culture of the South."

The festivals, which will examine Jewish contributions in this region from colonial days to the present, will include readings of poetry and stories, art exhibitions, a theatrical production, a film series and a symphony concert featuring Jewish music. There will also be lectures and panel discussions on the state and the future of the Yiddish arts.

Among the international celebrities whose works will be show-cased are Nobel Prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer; Yuri Sherling, director of the Moscow Yiddish Chamber Music Theater; Szymon Szurmiej, director and chief actor of the Warsaw Yiddish Theater; Cantor Isaac Good friend of Congregation Ahavath Achim in Atlanta, the only surviving member of his Polish Hasidic family after he escaped from a concentration camp; composer David Amram; art historian Moshe Davidowitz; scenic designer and theater historian Mordecai Gorelik; poetry columnist and author Rochelle Ratner; and singer-actress-director Naomi Pollack.

ONE OF THE OUTGROWTHS CITED

One of the outgrowths of the festivals, Solomon said, will be a series of videotape programs of various aspects of the event, to be made available to the Georgia Educational Network as well as the Public Broadcasting System. The festivals are funded in part by a $25,000 grant from the Georgia Committee for the Humanities through the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Georgia Southern College International Cultural Outreach program. Dr. Richard Johnson, associate professor of communication arts at the college is director of the festivals, with assistance from Solomon.

Explaining the college’s interest in the festivals, Solomon said: "In the past 10 years, the face of the rural South has changed. Although a wide variety of ethnic and cultural groups have lately settled in this area, the Jewish community of Georgia reflects waves of Jewish migration to America beginning in the colonial period and continuing through the years to the recent immigrants of the Soviet Union." Among the visual arts on exhibit will be works by contemporary Jewish artists residing in the USSR.