Strauss/Warschauer Duo to Take Part in Manger Tribute, NYC, June 23, 2002

[Warschauer <Warschauer...>]

The Strauss/Warschauer Duo will be performing as part of a tribute to Itsik 
Manger.  The press release is below.  Hope to see you there!  


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------  

June 3, 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: REBECCA FAULKNER
           TEL: 212-219-0903
EMAIL: rfaulkner (at) eldridgestreet(dot)org

ITZIK MANGER TRIBUTE


Writers, Actors, Musicians & Scholars Pay Tribute to Prolific and Playful Poet

Sunday, June 23, 2002 at 3 PM

Lower East Side, New York . . . On Sunday, June 23, at 3 PM, the Eldridge 
Street Project, in conjunction with the National Yiddish Book Center, 
presents a special literary program that will pay tribute to one of the most 
preeminent Yiddish poets, Itzik Manger.  This is the second annual program in 
the Eldridge Street Project’s Great Yiddish Writers Series, of interest to 
both general audiences and Yiddish mavens.  The event will feature some of 
the foremost Jewish writers, scholars, musicians and actors , who will 
participate in staged readings, talks, and musical presentations that will 
introduce many to the life and works of this “modernist folk bard.”  The 
Itzik Manger tribute will take place at the landmark Eldridge Street 
Synagogue, the first great house of worship built in America by Eastern 
European Jews.

Itzik Manger was born in 1901 in Czernowitz, Rumania and died in Israel in 
1969.  He was a poet and a ballad writer who wrote, like many a Yiddishist, 
with a humorous yet poignant voice that many critics agree sounded. . .   “lik
e sea-worn glass, there are bright gleams of humor strewn throughout the 
poems. . . . , but the humor is often edged with satire or lightly moistened 
tears.”  The participants in the program represent a range of connections to 
Manger—from Lillian Lux, an actor who knew and worked with the poet, to 
Leonard Wolf, a Manger translator, who will perform with actor Suzanne Toren. 
 Other participants include Aaron Lansky, founder of the National Yiddish 
Book Center, who will discuss Manger’s use of creative anachronism; noted 
scholar Jeremy Dauber, Altran Professor of Yiddish Language and Literature at 
Columbia University, who will talk about Manger and the Bible; actor Debra 
Barone; and musicians Jeff Warschauer and Deborah Strauss, who will perform 
some of Manger’s poems that have been set to music.
The Eldridge Street Synagogue  is a particularly meaningful venue for this 
programs.  The Eastern European Jews who settled on the Lower East Side came 
from towns similar to those Manger wrote about and Synagogue was spiritual 
home to thousands of Yiddish speaking immigrants, many of whom would have 
been fans of the popular and distinguished writer.

The not-for-profit Eldridge Street Project was established in 1986 to restore 
the Eldridge Street Synagogue to its original grandeur without destroying the 
poignant reminders of its founders’ century-long presence and traditions; and 
to breathe fresh life into the building with arts and educational programs 
that awaken multi-cultural audiences to its aesthetic, historical, and 
spiritual significance; promote inter-group relations; and underscore the 
necessity of preserving America’s past for future generations.  The Manger 
Tribute, part of the Eldridge Street Project’s Garden Cafeteria Series, is 
supported , in part, with public funds from the Literature Program of the New 
York State Council on the arts.
    
Admission and directions: Tickets for the Itzik Manger Tribute Program is are 
 $6 for adults, $4 for students and seniors. Space is limited and 
reservations are required.  For tickets or more information, please call 
212-978-8800.  The Eldridge Street Synagogue is located at 12 Eldridge Street 
(between Canal and Division Streets), a short walk from the East Broadway 
stop on the F train, the Canal Street stop on the J, M, Z, N, R, Q, W, and 6 
trains; the Canal Street stop on the #15 bus, and the East Broadway and 
Market Street stop on the #9 bus.  

###

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+