Starting with Theodor Adorno’s much-quoted proposition that ‘After Auschwitz it is barbaric to write poetry’, this talk will explore the tension between confronting the reality of the Holocaust and responding artistically through the medium of poetry to human experience. By focusing on individual poems by survivors such as Paul Celan and Primo Levi and … Continue reading No poetry after Auschwitz
Set in the 1830s, the story centres on Rosina da Silva, the sophisticated eldest daughter of a wealthy Jewish Italian family living in a small enclave of Sephardic London Jews. When her father is murdered on the street and leaves behind numerous debts, she refuses an arranged marriage to an older suitor, declaring that she … Continue reading The Governess
With Bristol holding its first Limmud event in June 2018, it’s time to hear what makes Limmud so remarkable. Founded in 1980, Limmud has spread all over the world, empowering Jews of every stripe and type to take control of their own learning. It has pioneered modes of participatory leadership and how different Jews … Continue reading From Buenos Aires to Bristol – The history of Limmud, the global Jewish educational phenomenon
Norman (Richard Gere), a New York fixer, knows the right people and can get things done. When an Israeli dignitary named Eshel (Lior Ashkenazi) comes to the city, Norman decides to impress the man by buying him some very expensive shoes. It works and he establishes a strong connection to the man, but a few … Continue reading Norman: the moderate rise and fall of a New York fixer
“The novelty of our time that so many individuals have experienced the uprooting and dislocations that have made them expatriate and exiles.” The words of Edward Said encapsulate the widely-held view that exile was emblematic of the modern world. This talk will focus upon three artists featured in the exhibition ‘Out of Chaos’ at the … Continue reading Painting Exile: R. B. Kitaj, Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff
There can hardly be any more extraordinary story from the Hollywood golden age than that of Hedy Lamarr; an assimilated Austrian Jew, a very beautiful star with a moderate acting talent but an untutored brilliance in science and engineering.. Her tragedy was that she was in the wrong business, precisely that business that promotes beauty … Continue reading Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr story
Dating back to the time of King Solomon, some of the oldest Jewish communities in the world are to be found in India. In 2016, Sonia Jackson joined a tour of Indian Jewish sites and synagogues organised by Maidenhead Synagogue and led by Ralphy and Yael Jhirad. She will give an illustrated talk about … Continue reading The Jews of India
“Set within the New York Hasidic community in Borough Park, Brooklyn, Menashe follows a kind but hapless grocery store clerk trying to maintain custody of his son Rieven after his wife, Lea, passes away. Since they live in a tradition-bound culture that requires a mother present in every home, Rieven is supposed to be adopted … Continue reading Menashe
What does it mean to be a Jewish poet? Can a non-Jew, like Micheal O’Siadhail, write about the Holocaust? (See The Gossamer Wall, Bloodaxe 2002). Maybe the Irish and the Jews have enough in common to be able to immerse themselves in each other’s histories. Does a writer and in particular a poet have to … Continue reading Belonging and belongings: Jewish poetry in the UK today
Canadian director Christian Duguay explores the horrors of World War Two from the perspective of two young Jewish boys living in Nazi-occupied France in Un Sac De Billes (A Bag of Marbles). Based on the acclaimed memoirs of the same name by Joseph Joffo, A Bag of Marbles is a lavishly shot production that is … Continue reading A bag of marbles (un sac de billes)
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