Grapevine: Tagore in translation

Prof. David Shulman reads from Rabindranath Tagore's work after unveiling bust of the Indian writer, painter, musician, educator and humanist.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Plaque of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in Calcutta 521 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Plaque of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in Calcutta 521
(photo credit: REUTERS)
IF ANYONE had told India’s Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahai that while in Jerusalem to officially unveil a bust of India’s great multi-talented writer, painter, musician, educator and humanist Rabindranath Tagore that he would hear an American-born and educated professor read from Tagore’s epic work Gitanjali in Telegu, one of the many languages spoken in India, he would not have believed it. But Prof. David Shulman, who heads the Indian Studies Department of the Hebrew University’s Faculty of Humanities, is a world-renowned expert on Indian languages. After reading the poem in Telegu, he read it again in English in accordance with Tagore’s own translation.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
Carmi Gillon, the university’s vice president for external relations, seized on something that Shulman had said earlier about the fact that in the 1960s and 1970s people in Israel used to walk around with small pocket books of Hebrew translations of Tagore’s poetry. In fact, he said, before television and computers, people read books, and for his bar mitzva 50 years ago, he had received a book of Tagore’s poems, which he still cherishes.
Gillon then proceeded to read a Tagore poem in Hebrew.
The Tagore bust by Ramkinkar Baij, one of India’s most celebrated sculptors, who created many images of Tagore, was a gift of the Government of India in celebration of 20 years of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
■ IT WAS almost déjà vu for Alesia Weston, who last week took up her appointment as executive director of the Jerusalem Cinematheque. Weston, who previously headed the international branch of the Sundance Institute, opened this year’s Australian Film Festival as her first public duty in her new role.
The film Wish You Were Here was coincidentally the film that opened the Sundance Festival in January of this year, so Weston was familiar not only with the film but also with its director Kieran Darcy Smith who, together with his wife, Felicity Price, wrote the script. Price, who is also an actress, plays the female lead.
Cinematheque founder Lia Van Leer, who would never miss an opening night, came attired in a layered look of her usual signature colors of lilac and lavender.
Among those at the pre-premiere reception in the garden of the Cinematheque were Army Radio Chief Yaron Deckel and Albert Dadon, founding chairman of the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange, which sponsors the Australian Film Festival in Israel and the Israel Film Festival in Australia.
The Australian Film Festival takes place annually in June-July in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa.
■ FOR THE first time in the 20-year history in the B’nai B’rith Journalism Award for Excellence in Diaspora Reportage, citations were given to foreign correspondents.
The original prize is in memory of Wolf and Hilda Matsdorf, German-born social workers who migrated to Sydney, where they lived for many years, and then moved to Jerusalem. Wolf Matsdorf, who also worked as a journalist in Australia and Israel, was passionately dedicated to B’nai B’rith and towards enhancing relations between Israel and the Diaspora. When he established the prize, it was with this in mind.
The outright winner of the contest was Channel 2 news reporter Lee Abramovich for her moving documentary about Orthodox American Jews who make the gift of life to Israelis whom they’ve never met before by donating a kidney that saves the recipient from certain death. Since the airing of the documentary last July, with its special focus on a New York donor and an Israeli recipient, Abramovich said that Israelis had also been inspired to become donors, and 21 Israelis have donated kidneys in that 11-month period.
The general media citation to a foreign correspondent in memory of Luis and Trudi Schydlowsky went to Associated Press correspondent Diaa Hadid who, during the Libyan revolution, searched out the ruins of the once-glorious Dar-al-Bishi synagogue in Tripoli.
A similar citation in the Jewish category went to Jana Jerozolimski Beris who, by remote control, continues to edit and contribute to the Uruguayan Jewish weekly Semanario Hebreo, which was founded by her late father, Joseph Jerozolimski.
Journalism is a genetic factor in the Jerozolimski family.
Beris’s brother, former Jerusalem Post staff photographer Ariel Jerozolimski, who also contributes to Semanario Hebreo, was on hand at Beit Avi Chai to take many photographs of his sister during the awards ceremony.
Beris was cited for an interview that she did with Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky. In addition to Semanario Hebreo, Beris, who lives in Jerusalem, contributes to Spanish-language print media and radio in Latin America and Europe.