New Yiddish Film and the Transvernacular

After a silence of over half a century, a body of Yiddish-language films (broadly defined to include movies, television, and web series) have appeared in Yiddish since 2005. Translated from an English or Hebrew script into Yiddish dialogue, these films showcase fluently spoken dialogue delivered by and for non- or non-fluent Yiddish speakers. While the Yiddish in these films can be described as “postvernacular”—a mode where the language’s primary mode is symbolic—they also point to a novel use of Yiddish as a communicative language derived via translation. This study identifies two distinct streams: (1) films that employ Yiddish to match a given historical context, including the television series Shtisel (Ori Elon and Yehonatan Indursky, 2013-) and the multilingual feature film, Félix et Meira (Maxime Giroux, 2014); the prologues to A Serious Man (Coen Brothers, 2009), and The Cobbler (Tom McCarthy, 2015); the Yiddish-language feature films Homeland (Dani Rosenberg, 2009) and The Pin (Naomi Jaye, 2014); (2) films that employ Yiddish as a new expression of Jewish culture, including the comedy web series YidLife Crisis (Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman, 2014-present). The analysis proposes a new concept: “Transvernacular Yiddish,” or communicative Yiddish derived through translation from another language. This study suggests that transvernaculity offers a new stage in the development of Yiddish.

https://ingeveb.org/articles/new-yiddish-film-and-the-transvernacular


**************** ****************

Long read but fascinating!

Otto Warmbiers family kept his Jewishness under wraps while North Korea held him hostage

WASHINGTON — The family of Otto Warmbier, the American college student who died on Monday, days after his release from 17 months of captivity in North Korea, was advised to keep his Jewish background and identity concealed while officials tried to negotiate his release.

That was because the North Korean justification for his imprisonment centered on a dubious claim that Warmbier had stolen a propaganda poster in a Pyongyang hotel lobby on orders from the Friendship United Methodist Church in Wyoming, Ohio, to bring it back “as a trophy” in exchange for a used car worth $10,000.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/otto-warmbiers-family-kept-his-jewishness-under-wraps-while-north-korea-held-him-hostage/

BDE Otto Warmbier

LGBT CONTINGENT INFILTRATED BY PROTESTERS AT CELEBRATE ISRAEL PARADE

On Sunday, the LGBT contingent of the Celebrate Israel Parade—made up of five Jewish LGBTQ organizations and the only openly gay group present on this day—marched proudly in one of New York City’s largest annual Jewish gatherings. At one point, the soundtrack accompanying their contingent was a popular Jewish techno song by Israeli pop artist Hashem Melech, which was blared from the parade’s sound system. The group of about 90 participants waved Israeli flags overhead. Most of them wore pride shirts; some of them were just teenagers for whom this was their first time marching in such an event.

Then, at around 1:45 in the afternoon, the music went silent.

According to Mordechai Levovitz, one of the organizers of the LGBT contingent as well as three others present, a female protester interrupted the sound system, causing it to go silent. Then, as seen in footage below, an estimated five protesters from Jewish Voice for Peace, a fringe group that advocates the total boycott of the state of Israel, disrupted the LGBT group. What many people described to me as a “whirlwind” ensued. Four of the five people that had been marching with the LGBT group took off the pride shirts that were given out to the marchers, revealing red shirts that said “Celebrate the end of apartheid all together.” They formed a barricade around the group, held up signs that read “Queer Jews for a free Palestine” and “No pride in apartheid,” which they also began chanting. The five were arrested.

Rebecca Vilkomerson, the Executive Director of Jewish Voice for Peace, said the LGBT marching contingent was “a carefully chosen target.” She explained that the protest was organized by “a group of queer Jews who feel strongly about gay rights not being used to pinkwash the occupation

Rest of article at link: http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/236292/lgbt-contingent-infiltrated-by-protesters-at-celebrate-israel-parade?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=post&utm_term=LGBT+Contingent+%E2%80%98Infiltrated%E2%80%99+by+Protesters+at+Celebrate+Israel+Parade&utm_content=june2017


This really angers me. They didn't need to infiltrate a group. Bunch of weak asses can hold a protest and need to infiltrate a group? Really?