#shtetls

[elirab]

My Upcoming Talk at the Great Park

My Upcoming Talk at the Great Park

http://elirab.me/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Chaim-Bargman.m4v

Chaim Bargman has been a beloved guide and genealogist for international Jewish-interest tourists in the Kaunas (Kovno) area for decades, and was immortalized in the late Dan Jacobson’s Heshel’s Kingdom (1998).

With a previous speaker, Dr Samuel Kassow in Seattle WA

With Professor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Program Director of…

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[elirab]

Litvaks On The Move!

Litvaks On The Move!

Let us know your shtetls’ names

(Map – my thanks to Dovid Katz)

We can then update you on the activities in those towns.

For example, there are numerous Jewish projects currently taking place in Seduva, Zagare, Birzai, Plunge, Kedainiai, Joniskis, Kupiskis, Kaunas and Vilnius.

We are also interested in the towns that your Litvak forefathers settled in, after leaving.

Please email your list…

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[beatriceredtree-blog]

Dance, Dance, Dance (A$$)

I’ve just spent the last few hours working on a dance playlist, under the pretense of making my birthday party playlist, but also because it’s fun to pick out my favorite dance songs and then to arrange them in absolutely perfect order. It’s funny how dance songs, by their nature, are the songs that are most shared. Dancing is the easiest way of connecting with people over music, and so it doesn’t matter how much sad, quiet, or weird stuff I own, I’m only going to share the uptempo booty-shakers. Not that I’m complaining — I’m really excited to bust moves to this new playlist.

There’s a story in my family about how my great grandmother came to America from her shtetl in Poland just because she wanted to dance. I don’t know how much truth there is to the story, and it’s doubtable for many reasons, but I like the idea of dance being a basic human right, worthy of sacrificing just about everything for.

In Jewish tradition, men and women have to dance in separate groups, and at ceremonies, the men always hog the dance floor. I really hope this Fiddler on The Roof clip is an accurate portrayal of what my ancestors’ lives were like: 

As the story goes, my great grandmother heard that in America, women were allowed to dance whenever and however they wanted (and with men!) and she was so excited by this possibility that she saved some money, divorced her husband, and hopped on a boat to America, just to dance. I’m sure I've inherited those genes.