Online lecture “The personality of Izi Kharik and Yiddish literature in Belarus”

Translator Wolf Rubinchik and artist Andrey Dubinin examine the work of Izi Kharik, a Jewish writer from Zembin town, executed by the Soviet authorities in 1937. Through the poet’s artistic and ethnographic work about the Jewish wedding and the colorful Yiddish language in which the work is written, you can learn about the life of the town, the habits and relationships of its inhabitants. Izi Kharik’s great-grandfather was once a famous badhen (master of ceremonies) in Zembin. The poem also contains interesting details about the life of klezmers – Jewish musicians. This work has not been fully translated, and the speaker reads and comments on his own translation. Both speakers also discuss the problems of translations from Yiddish and the meanings and sounds of the Yiddish language lost in incorrect translation. You can see more materials about Zembin here.

July 2021

Location – Barysaw.

Language – Belarusian.

Translation – Polish, consecutive. No subtitles.