Peretz Markish and the Destruction of Soviet Jewish Culture
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120th Anniversary of Peretz Markish’s Birth
Symposium
Presented by YIVO, Center for Jewish History, and the Moscow Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center. Sponsored by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. Admission: $10 |
The aftermath of World War II not only created the Cold War between the United States and the USSR, but witnessed the gradual rise of anti-Jewish sentiment behind the so-called “Iron Curtain.” Poet and playwright Peretz Markish—the only Yiddish writer to be awarded the Order of Lenin—produced an enormous body of work with wide literary range, including lyric, epic poetry, and prose. An early supporter of the Communist regime, Markish was later caught up in Stalin’s attack on Jewish cultural activities in the late 40’s and early 50’s and executed along with other Jewish writers on August 12, 1952. Join Jonathan Brent (YIVO), Gennady Estraikh (NYU), and David Markish, son of Peretz Markish, for a discussion of Markish's Yiddish writing, biography, and the political context surrounding the 1952 murders. A brief documentary on Markish will be screened and Yiddish actor Shane Baker will read excerpts from his most famous work "Di Kupe."
About the Participants
Jonathan Brent is the Executive Director of The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City. From 1991 to 2009 he was Editorial Director and Associate Director of Yale Press. He is the founder of the world acclaimed Annals of Communism series, which he established at Yale Press in 1991. Brent is the co-author of Stalin’s Last Crime: The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors, 1948-1953 (Harper-Collins) and Inside the Stalin Archives (Atlas Books). He is now working on a biography of the Soviet-Jewish writer Isaac Babel. Brent teaches history and literature at Bard College.
Gennady Estraikh is the first Albert B. Ratner Visiting Scholar in East European Jewish Literature at YIVO in fall 2014, and Clinical Associate Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and Rauch Associate Professor of Yiddish Studies at New York University. An internationally recognized authority on Yiddish language and literature and Eastern European Jewish history, Estraikh has worked at the Oxford Institute of Yiddish Studies and the London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies. He is the author of numerous publications including, Soviet Yiddish: Language Planning and Linguistic Development (Oxford University Press); In Harness: Yiddish Writers’ Romance with Communism (Syracuse University Press); and In Yiddish Literary Life in Moscow (in Russian, forthcoming). He is also the co-editor of The Captive of the Dawn: The Life and Work of Peretz Markish (Legenda); 1929: Mapping the Jewish World (NYU Press, National Jewish Book Award); Uncovering the Hidden: The Works and Life of Der Nister (Legenda); and Soviet Jews in World War II: Fighting, Witnessing, Remembering (Academic Studies Press), among others. He is on the editorial boards of several serials and periodicals, including East European Jewish Affairs.
Born on September 24th, 1938 in Moscow, David Markish is the son of Yiddish writer, Peretz Markish. In 1952, Peretz Markish was accused of high treason and shot. In 1953, one month before Stalin’s death, the Markish family was sent into exile to Kazakhstan for ten years. In the summer of 1955, they were released and allowed to return to Moscow. David Markish immigrated to Israel in 1972.
David Markish is an award-winning author of over 20 books that have been translated from Russian into Hebrew, English, French, German and other languages and published world-wide.