To be rescheduled: Rochambeau Library presents "Stories of Exile": "In the Land of the Postscript" by Chava Goldfarb

Using Yiddish literature as a portal, the Rochambeau Library's program will feature works in translation that explore narratives which grapple with questions of homelands, journeys, identity, and belonging. Reading groups will compare these works written in Yiddish in the early and mid-20th century to a work by a contemporary writer from a recent immigrant group. 

We will be reading three books translated from Yiddish which are published by the Yiddish Book Center. A fourth book, which focuses on a more recent immigrant group, will be included. One session will be a screening of the movie Enemies: A Love Story (1989), based on the book by Isaac Bashevis Singer. An additional session will feature a speaker from a local immigrant organization. 

There will also be an optional field trip to a performance of Paula Vogel's Indecent at the Wilbury Theater. Indecent tells the true story behind Sholem Asch’s God Of Vengeance, a Yiddish play that transferred to Broadway in 1922 and was shut down by the police, six weeks after opening at the Apollo Theater on 42nd Street, for offensive content.  God of Vengeance, written by Asch when he was in his 20’s, tells the story of a bourgeois brothel owner whose daughter falls in love with one of his prostitutes. 

The group is limited to fifteen people, and we hope you will attend all sessions.

The upcoming schedule is as follows:

July 12- Speaker

July 26- The Namesake- Jumpa Lahiri

Please register. Once you have done so, you can  request a copy of The Namesake  by calling the Library or placing a hold from the Ocean State Libraries catalog at home.

This series will run again in the Fall in the afternoon. Dates to be announced.

This reading group series is supported by a grant from the Yiddish Book Center. The Yiddish Book Center’s “Stories of Exile” Reading Groups for Public Libraries is made possible by a gift from Sharon Karmazin.