UNIVERSITY NEWS - FEBRUARY 2004

MEDIA CONTACT: Andrew LaPlant
561-297-3022, alaplant@fau.edu

FAU Friends of Yiddish Present “Kultur: A Celebration of Yiddish Culture”

Boca Raton, FL (February 27, 2004) – The Florida Atlantic University Friends of Yiddish present “Kultur: A Celebration of Yiddish Culture.” The March events will include performances from cantors, storytellers and skits. All the events will take place on the Boca Raton campus, 777 Glades Road. The Kultur dates and locations are:

Tuesday, March 2 – “Cantors Perform Yiddish Art Songs” will be held at the Wimberly Library on the fifth floor at 2:00 p.m. Members of the Cantor’s Assembly of the Southeastern Region, Cantors Morton Kula and Isaac Goodfriend, will perform a special vocal recital of Yiddish Art Songs with piano accompaniment. Many of the songs featured can be found in the newly acquired Meisels collection of the Jewish Music Archives in FAU’s Judaica Collection.

Wednesday, March 3 – “Ladino Kultur ‘Los Pregoneros’” will be at the Wimberly Library on the fifth floor at 3:00 p.m. Hosted by Dr. Marianne Sanua, a Ladino acting troupe will perform “Los Pregoneros.” The troupe will perform a series of skits and songs in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) with English translation provided.

Sunday, March 7 – “Jewish Folktales with Peninnah Schram” will be read in the General Classroom South Building Room 119 at Noon. Peninnah Schram is an internationally known storyteller, teacher, author, and recording artist. She is the author of seven books of Jewish folktales, including Jewish Stories One Generation Tells Another and Stories Within Stories: From the Jewish Oral Tradition. Schram is a recipient of the prestigious Covenant Award for Outstanding Educator (1995) awarded by The Covenant Foundation. In 1999, she received The Circle of Excellence Award from the National Storytelling Network for "a body of work which is nationally recognized as a shining example of quality in the art form of storytelling performance." Most recently, Peninnah has been awarded the National Storytellers Network 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award "For sustained and exemplary contributions to storytelling in America."

Wednesday, March 24 – “A Yiddish Sing-a-Long” will be at the Wimberly Library on the fifth floor at 3:00 p.m. Yaakov Hersher will lead the Sing-a-Longs to standards from American Yiddish theatre, folk songs from Europe and Klezmer instrumentals.

The Friends of Yiddish is a group of individuals interested in promoting the study of Yiddish language and culture at FAU. Membership is $10 to support the purchase of Yiddish books for the Molly Fraiberg Collection at FAU, student programming in Yiddish and other events.

For more information, call 561-297- 3787, visit: http://www.library.fau.edu/depts/spc/yiddish.htm or e-mail: lysca@fau.edu.-FAU-