By GREER FAY CASHMANElena Mosuc in Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’ in Bucharest(photo credit: GA’ASH GOLF)
■ All roads led to Masada last week, where the Israel Opera presented La Traviata.The huge audience was made up of people from all over the country, many of whom arrived in special buses. Some of those who came by private car decided not to risk falling asleep at the wheel driving home in the wee hours, and stayed overnight at one of the Dead Sea hotels.Seen among the opera lovers at the premiere were many diplomats, who came primarily from Herzliya Pituah and Kfar Shmaryahu. There were members of the business, academic and political communities from Haifa, Netanya, Tel Aviv and points elsewhere, among them Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat; philanthropist and businesswoman Galia Albin with her new significant other, producer Eitan Even; former Jerusalemites such as lawyer Yehuda Raveh and his wife, Tammy, who wears a number of official hats; and of course, people who still live in Jerusalem – most notably Yair Stern, director-general of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, who came with his wife, Dasi.This was the fourth consecutive year in which the Israel Opera had brought a production to Masada, and Dov Litvinoff, the head of the Tamar Regional Council, of which the Dead Sea area and Masada are a part, was naturally thrilled that the opera had attracted so many people to the area. La Traviata was the first opera performed in the Land of Israel in 1923.■ In a country in which culture vultures endlessly proclaim that Yiddish is a dying language, the Yiddishpiel Theater is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Even though founding prime minister David Ben-Gurion outlawed Yiddish, it survived together with many of the Holocaust survivors – for whom it was, if not always a first language, a key language of communication.In 1987, Shmuel Atzmon-Wircer, a Polish-born actor and director who had been a child Holocaust survivor and had already made a name for himself on the Hebrew stage, founded Yiddishpiel with the encouragement of then-Tel Aviv mayor Shlomo Lahat.Atzmon’s mission was to preserve Yiddish as a living language, after having been invited by the great Yiddish comedian Szymon Dzigan to direct a number of his productions.Fortunately, many young Russian actors who wanted to break into theater in Israel, but didn’t know Hebrew and didn’t have the right connections, found their way to Yiddishpiel. In a number of cases it was because they vaguely remembered hearing their grandparents speak Yiddish, and they wanted some connection with their Jewish heritage.Initially they just learned their lines, and were taught pronunciation by Atzmon’s wife. But after a few productions they picked up on the language, and some have become reasonably fluent. Native Russian speakers also form a large part of audiences, which is why the simultaneous translations are in both Hebrew and Russian.Yiddishpiel productions have also been successfully taken abroad. Over time, the theater has put on 100 productions, the current one being Yidl Mitn Fidl, initially a Yiddish film classic made in Warsaw in 1936 and starring Molly Picon, the great American star of stage and screen. Three years ago, Atzmon, who was already past 80, handpicked singer and actor Sassi Keshet, who had appeared in several Yiddishpiel productions, to take over from him; Atzmon remains honorary president of Yiddishpiel.Under Keshet, Yiddishpiel has become somewhat more adventurous and ambitious, and is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary with Yidl Mitn Fidl, starring Tuvia Tzafir and Irma Stefanov. Like all Yiddishpiel productions, this is a traveling show, playing tomorrow and Sunday at ZOA House in Tel Aviv, Monday at the Petah Tikva Cultural Palace, Tuesday at the Haifa Auditorium, Wednesday at the Yad Lemaginim Theater in Yagur, and Thursday in Jerusalem. Further performances in July are scheduled for Netanya, Ashdod and other parts of the country.The fact that Yiddishpiel can attract audiences all over Israel indicates that reports of the demise of Yiddish are not only premature, but possibly entirely false. On a trivia note, both Keshet and Tzafir, before taking on Hebrew surnames, had surnames that were not uncommon to Polish and Russian Jews. Keshet’s was Kosovsky and Tzafir’s was Kozlowski.■ At the recent meeting of the board of governors of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the new $13 million complex funded by US donors was dedicated at Sde Boker and will be known as the American Associates Village at BGU. Already home to some 20 graduate students of the Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies, the complex will eventually be able to house at least 150 additional international students.“We decided we needed to tackle this issue, and the result is the American Associates Village at Sde Boker,” said Alex Goren, who chairs the BGU American Associates board and is also one of its past presidents. Along with Carol Saal, another former AABGU president and current vice chair on BGU’s board of governors, Goren envisioned the idea of first-class housing facilities for students and their families. The first to make a major gift towards the project was Steve Breslauer of Houston, who named a building for the Soref Foundation; another generous supporter was chairman emeritus Robert Arnow. Altogether, some 500 donors contributed to the construction of the village that was designed by Linenberg- Rozen, a leading Israeli architectural firm
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