Estraikh, Mazurkiewicz-Meisarosh, Beinfeld: "August 12, 1952"

This show recalls the tragic events in the USSR of August 12,
1952. Popularly known as "Night of the Murdered Poets", the
event itself, as well as associated themes -- such as Yiddish
language and culture in the Soviet Union, Soviet Bloc, and in
leftist circles -- is being remembered on this special
broadcast by two distinguished guests, Gennady Estraikh and
Jana Mazurkiewicz Meisarosh.




The so-called Night of the Murdered Yiddish Poets took place
on August 12, 1952, when thirteen leading Jewish political,
cultural, and intellectual figures of the Soviet Union, among
them five highly distinguished Yiddish writers, were executed
in the Lubyanka Prison in Moscow, after having been arrested,
imprisoned, and falsely accused of espionage and treason,
part of a broad anti-Jewish campaign in the postwar USSR.




Gennady Estraikh is the Rauch Clinical
Professor of Yiddish Studies at New York University, where he
teaches and writes about Yiddish intellectual history. He is
the former managing editor of Sovetish Heymland and writes
regularly for the Yiddish Forward (Forverts). He has been the
author or editor of numerous scholarly works. His books
include Yiddish in the Cold War (Routledge, 2008); Uncovering
the Hidden: The Works and Life of Der Nister (Routledge,
2014); and his latest Transatlantic Russian Jewishness:
Ideological Voyages of the Yiddish Daily Forverts in the
First Half of the Twentieth Century (Academic Studies Press,
2020). He spoke to us from his summer residence in Oxford,
England, via Zoom.




Jana Mazurkiewicz Meisarosh is the founder
and CEO of YAAANA (yaaana.org), and a Ph.D. candidate at the
University of Michigan. She is working on her dissertation on
Yiddish Theater in Communist Warsaw. Originally from Poland,
Jana holds a Master of Arts degree in Polish Philology and
Jewish Studies from the University of Wrocław. She spoke to
us via Zoom from her home in San Diego.




Sholem Beinfeld, regular contributer to the
Yiddish Voice, joins as co-host to lead the interview and
provide additional commentary. He is Professor of History
(Emeritus) at Washington University (St. Louis) as well as
Co-Chief Editor of the Comprehensive Yiddish-English
Dictionary. He spoke via Zoom from his home in Cambridge.




Music:


Emil Gorovets: In Vinter Farnakhtn, words by Dovid
Hofshteyn, music by Emil Gorovets, musical arrangement and
piano accompaniment by Zalmen Mlotek

Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an
instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing
Waltz





Air Date: August 12, 2020