Program Descriptions |
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| PROGRAM #1 |
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| "A Friend of Kafka" by Isaac Bahevis Singer |
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Read by Theodore Bikel
Directed by Jeremy Kagan.
Isaac Bashevis Singer sets his story in the Warsaw Yiddish Writers' Club, where Singer himself spent many nights as a young writer among the Jewish intelligentsia. |
| "How It Was Done in Odessa" by Isaac Babel |
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Read by Edward Asner
We meet gangster Benya Krik, lord of the Jewish underworld in Odessa and renowned Russian writer Isaac Babel's most famous character. |
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| PROGRAM #2 |
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| "Hodel" from Tevye the Milkman by Sholom Aleichem |
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Read Richard Dreyfuss
Directed by Jeremy Kagan
The legendary Tevye is known worldwide from the musical "Fiddler on the Roof." In this story Tevye's spirited daughter Hodel embraces the revolutionary fervor of her time. |
| From "I Love Gootie" by Max Apple |
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Read by Arye Gross
Max Apple's grandmother, Gootie, infused his childhood with an alternate vision of reality that had its roots in her tiny East European village. This world became as real to him as his Michigan hometown. |
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| PROGRAM #3 |
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| From "Herzog" by Saul Bellow |
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Read by Charlton Heston
Directed by Arthur Hiller
Portraying Herzog's youth in Quebec, Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow brings to life a crucial period when poor Jewish immigrants raised a generation of scholars, intellectuals and artists. |
| "The Adventures of Hershel Summerwind" by Itzik Manger |
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Read by Joanna Gleason
Directed by Isaiah Sheffer
One of the best known Yiddish poets, Manger creates a Chagall-like montage of whimsical fantasy in this charming tale about a young ne'er-do-well living in a small town in Eastern Europe. |
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| PROGRAM #4 |
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| "Dreyfus in Kassrilevke" by Sholom Aleichem |
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Read by Leonard Nimoy
Directed by Jeremy Kagan
The news from France about the historic Dreyfus Affair reaches the small village of Kassrilevke through a single newspaper, delivered by post to the town's lone subscriber. |
| "King Solomon" by Isaac Rosenfeld |
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Read by William Shatner
Directed by Arthur Hiller
Isaac Rosenfeld sped across the landscape of American literature leaving behind an intriguing body of work. His most well-known story depicts a venerated Biblical figure with the brush strokes of a post-modern master. |
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| PROGRAM #5 |
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| "The Silver Crown" by Bernard Malamud |
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Read by Adam Arkin
Directed by Claudia Weil
Malamud mingles reality with fantasy in this tale of a man trying to strike a bargain with a magician for this life of his father. |
| "An Afternoon on the Grass" by Ida Fink |
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Read by Christina Pickles
Directed by Isaiah Sheffer
In this moving piece, Fink, who herself survived the Holocaust, describes three young Jewish girls on the brink of disaster. It is a wistful snapshot edged with dread. |
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| PROGRAM #6 |
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| "A Wedding in Brownsville" by Isaac Bashevis Singer |
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Read by Ron Rifkin
Isaac Bashevis Singer, the only Yiddish writer to win the Nobel Prize, often wrote about survivors of World War II. In this story, a successful doctor now living in New York is reunited with the love of his youth in a frenzied wedding scene that culminates in an unexpected climax. |
| "Mysteries of the Cabala" by Isaac Bashevis Singer |
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Read by Theodore Bikel
Directed by Jeremy Kagan
Singer wrote lovingly of his childhood and his father's rabbinical court in Poland between the two world wars. It is a Poland that no longer exists, a Poland peopled with Jewish ghosts for whom Singer said he always wrote. In this touching memoir, Singer recalls the mysteries of growing up. |
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| PROGRAM #7 |
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| "Joy Beyond Measure" by I.L. Peretz |
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Read by Theodore Bikel
Directed by Arthur Hiller
I.L. Peretz infuses this traditional Hasidic tale with a modern sensibility that still celebrates the essence of its spiritual origins. During the prayers of the Jewish High Holy Days, a venerated Hasidic rabbi is called to heaven for judgment, only to be saved by the Lord of the Universe himself. |
| "The Calf" by Mendele Mocher Sforim |
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Read by Harold Gould
Mendele Mocher Sforim, founding father of Yiddish prose, showcases his sharp wit in this ironic, yet tender story about an insular Yeshiva boy's love for the family cow. |
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| PROGRAM #8 |
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| "The Stunt" by Mordechai Strigler |
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Read by Rene Auberjonois
The Stunt was the only story by Mordechai Strigler that has been translated into English. The author, recently deceased, was editor of The Yiddish Forward and in fact, a prolific writer himself. Written at the dawn of the destruction of European Jewry, this story is set in the secluded, pious world of a devout Yeshiva in Warsaw in the last days of its existence, before the Germans entered the city. |
| "The Recluse" by Abraham Reisen |
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Read by Hector Elizondo
In the small synagogues of Eastern Europe homeless people often sought shelter in the small synagogues of Eastern Europe. Abraham Reisen presents a bizarre, but sympathetic portrait of these desperate souls. |
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| PROGRAM #9 |
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| "A Letter to Harvey Milk" by Leslea Newman |
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Read by Carl Reiner
Directed by Arthur Hiller
The murder of gay rights activist Harvey Milk raises issues of great delicacy in this bittersweet story about the meeting of two generations. Attending a senior center writing class taught by a young gay Jewish woman, an elderly man writes about his friendship with Milk , as well as a poignant encounter with homosexuality. |
| "The Awakening" by Isaac Babel |
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Read by Richard Benjamin
Directed by Jeremy Kagan
Isaac Babel, the celebrated Russian writer who perished in a Siberian labor camp, made the rough and tumble Jews of his hometown, Odessa, the centerpiece of many of his short stories. In this work, he pokes fun at parents forcing their children to study violin in the hopes of discovering in their progeny the next Yascha Heifetz. |
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| PROGRAM #10 |
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| "I Always Wanted You to Admire My Fasting" or, "Looking at Kafka" by Philip Roth |
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Read by Elliott Gould
Directed by Jeremy Kagan
Philip Roth often writes about the Jews of New Jersey. In this literary leap, Roth imagines that Franz Kafka immigrated to America, became his Hebrew school teacher in Newark and started dating his aunt.. |
| "Repentance" by Israel Joshua Singer |
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Read by Theodore Bikel
Until his untimely death in 1944, Israel Joshua Singer was even more famous than his younger brother Isaac Bashevis Singer, who later became a Nobel Prize winner. This story tells of two rabbis: one seeking redemption through suffering and severity, the other through joy and happiness. |
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| PROGRAM #11 |
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| From "Uncle Moses" by Sholom Asch |
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Read by Ron Leibman
Directed by Jeremy Kagan
In this colorful 1918 novel, Uncle Moses, a larger-than-life figure, has built a clothing empire in New York on the backs of his poor fellow countrymen. These excerpts from the book follow the unfolding conflict between the workers and the boss. |
| "We Go On Strike" by Sholom Aleichem |
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Read by Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Often referred to as "the Yiddish Huck Finn," Mottel the Cantor's son faces all adversity with the buoyant spirit of a fun loving, mischievous youth. In this chapter, from Sholom Aleichem's collection, Mottel describes a tailors' strike on the Lower East Side. |
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| PROGRAM #12 |
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| "L'Olam and White Shell Woman" by Joanne Greenberg |
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Read by Julie Kavner
Directed by Jeremy Kagan
Written in and redolent of the sixties, this story describes a young woman who find the connection between Jews and Navajos while waitressing at a diner in New Mexico. |
| "Karl Yankel" by Isaac Babel |
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Read by Max Wright
Isaac Babel immortalized the turbulent port city of the Odessa of his youth. Here, he writes about the "new Odessa" of the Revolution, where atheism is the state religion. Babel ironically describes how a baby's circumcision becomes the centerpiece of a controversy-- politics versus religion. |
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| PROGRAM #13 |
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| From "The Romance Reader" by Pearl Abraham |
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Read by Annie Meisels
Directed by Isaiah Sheffer
A young Hasidic girl on the brink of adulthood dreams of living the life of the characters in the romance novels she reads on the sly. In this excerpt, she meets the young man her family has arranged for her to marry and tries to ameliorate her desire for a freer life. |
| "The Writer in the Family" by E.L. Doctorow |
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Read by Lawrence Pressman
Chronicling the ongoing jealousies between two side of a family, a young man is persuaded to used his literary gifts to write letters to his grandmother in the voice of his deceased father. |
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| PROGRAM #14 |
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| "The Magic Barrel" by Bernard Malamud |
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Read by Elliott Gould
Directed by Jeremy Kagan
Bernard Malamud's first collection of short stories," The Magic Barrel ," won the National Book Award in 1959 and is still considered one of his finest works. In this title story, a rabbinical student seeks the advice of a traditional matchmaker to find a wife. |
| "Dalfunka, Where the Rich Live Forever" by Isaac Bashevis Singer |
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Read by Theodore Bikel
Directed by Jeremy Kagan
Chelm is the legendary town of Jewish folklore, populated by fools and innocents. Isaac Bashevis Singer captures its humor and the charm of these well-loved folk tales as the town elders figure out how a rich man can have eternal life. |
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| PROGRAM #15 |
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| "Bloodshed" by Cynthia Ozick |
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Read by Isaiah Sheffer
For prolific essayist and fiction writer Cynthia Ozick, the clash between secularism and religious practice is a vibrant literary theme. In this story a man seeks out his former college girlfriend, now living in a religious community in upstate New York, only to confront his own internal spiritual conflict and rage. |
| "Death of Tsaritsa" by Ida Fink |
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Read by Christina Pickles
Directed by Isaiah Sheffer
Translated from the Polish, this story is a moving portrait of life in Nazi-occupied Poland. Treachery and betrayal are constant companions to a young woman in hiding. |
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| PROGRAM #16 |
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| "Shprintse" by Sholom Aleichem |
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Read by Leonard Nimoy
Directed by Jeremy Kagan
Sholom Aleichem's timeless character, Tevye the Milkman, reimagined in Fiddler on the Roof, meets every disaster with unshakable faith. This chapter from Sholom Aleichem's collection tells a cautionary tale about the conventions of sex and class. |
| "My Brother Eli's Drink" by Sholom Aleichem |
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Read by Joseph Gordon-Levitt
The irrepressible Mottel is orphaned at a young age. Yet, even in adversity, the boy finds merriment in the challenge of earning a livelihood in a poor East European village. |
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| PROGRAM #17 |
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| "Julia" by Ida Fink |
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Read by JoBeth Williams
The mingled resilience, integrity and despair of those World War II survivors who outlive their loved ones is the theme of this compelling story. Ida Fink chronicles the life of an extraordinary woman in a time of dread and danger. |
| "Bryna's Mendl" by I.L. Peretz |
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Read by Jerry Stiller
Directed by Isaiah Sheffer
I.L. Peretz , one of the creators of modern Yiddish literature, exposes the truth behind the conventional stereotype of the self-sacrificing woman in a traditional Jewish family. |
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| PROGRAM #18 |
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| "The Four Questions" by Allegra Goodman |
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Read by Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grode
This humorous chapter from Allegra Goodman's The Family Markowitz describes a family gathering of three generations--the suburban grandparents, the professional parents and their grown up children--all connected and disconnected from each other in a modern American setting. |
| From "I Love Gootie" by Max Apple |
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Read by Arye Gross
Popular American writer Max Apple remembers his grandmother, a bewitching storyteller, who could conjure up a great world out of a muddy Lithuanian village and make it come alive for a small boy in a Michigan town. |
