Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

Celebration Of The Arts

A 1925 silent movie about boxing, a pop-musical tragicomedy focused on obsessive behavior and a play that examines the life of a glamorous Hollywood actress may not seem like three things that have much in common, but they are all part of the National Yiddish Book Center’s second annual Paper Bridge Summer Arts Festival.

The two-week event has something for everyone, with an impressive lineup of musical performances, film screenings, readings, theatrical productions and storytelling that explore Jewish culture. “The Rosenbach Company,” a musical by cartoonist Ben Katchor and composer Mark Mulcahy, uses projected cartoon images and live actors and musicians to tell the story of early 20th-century rare-book dealer and collector Abe Rosenbach and his brother, Philip. The famed Folksbiene Troupe heads to the region for a performance of “Mama’s Loshn Kugel,” a Yiddish revue (with English translation) of classic songs and sketches from the Yiddish theater. Filmmaker Frederick Wiseman introduces and discusses his film “The Last Letter” (2002, in French with English subtitles), which is based on the experiences of Vasily Grossman, a war correspondent during World War II whose mother was killed by the Nazis, as were all the Jews from his hometown. The Socalled Orchestra joins forces with acclaimed clarinetist David Krakauer in concert, performing a unique musical blend of klezmer, jazz and hip hop. Michael Wex discusses his book “Born to Kvetch” (St. Martin’s Press, 2005), which examines the history, evolution and culture of Yiddish. The life story of Hollywood actress and famed acting teacher Stella Adler, daughter of Yiddish stars Sarah and Jacob Adler, is dramatized in a staged reading of a play by Sidra Rausch. The festival closes with a live performance of Paul Shapiro’s original score for “His People” (1925), a silent film by Edward Sloman. The film is set on New York City’s Lower East Side and tells the story of two brothers: Morris, who is studying to be a lawyer, and Sammy, who is secretly training to be a boxer.

Among the other activities offered during the festival are a tour of the National Yiddish Book Center’s warehouse, which houses 1.5 million Yiddish books, and a tour of the book center’s Yiddish Writers Garden.

National Yiddish Book Center, Hampshire College, 1021 West St., Amherst; July 9-20; $8-$15; for schedules and further information, call the listed number or visit the Web site. (413-256-4900 or www.yiddishbookcenter.org)

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.