Attempting to better understand her grandf ather Avrom Sutzkever\, Israeli actress Hadas Kalderon travels to Lithuani a\, using her grandfather&rsquo\;s diary to trace his early life in Vilna and his survival of the Holocaust. Sutzkever (1913&ndash\;2010) was an acc laimed Yiddish poet&mdash\;described by the \;New York Times \;as the &ldquo\;greatest poet of the Holocaust&rdquo\;&mdash\;whose verse drew on his youth in Siberia and Vilna\, his spiritual and material resistance during World War II\, and his post-war life in the State of Israel. Kalde ron\, whose native language is Hebrew and must rely on translation of her grandfather&rsquo\;s work\, is nevertheless determined to connect with wha t remains of the poet&rsquo\;s bygone world and confront the personal resp onsibility of preserving her grandfather&rsquo\;s literary legacy.
\nAfter the film there will be a Q&\;A via Zoom with one of the director s\, Christa P. Whitney
\nChrista P. Whitney is an oral historian and documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on language\, culture\, and iden tity. Originally from Northern California\, she discovered Yiddish while s tudying comparative literature\, Jewish studies\, and dance at Smith Colle ge. Since 2010\, she has traveled near and far in search of Yiddish storie s as the director of the Yiddish Book Center&rsquo\;s Wexler Oral History Project\, a growing collection of more than 1\,300 in-depth video intervie ws. These full-length oral histories and curated excerpts are freely avail able online to all who seek a fuller understanding of the place of Yiddish in Jewish past\, present\, and future. In recognition of this work\, Chri sta was named on the 2020 Forward 50 list of &ldquo\;people we needed in a year we definitely didn&rsquo\;t.&rdquo\; Her personal research focuses o n Yiddish cultural transmission among descendants of Yiddish writers and J ewish history in the Samogitia region of Lithuania. Among other things\, s he is currently working towards an MBA from the Isenberg School of Managem ent at UMass.
\nIn partnership with YIVO Chicago.
\n\nhttp s://northbrook.libnet.info/event/10748840 URL;VALUE=URI:https://northbrook.libnet.info/event/10748840 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR