Literature festivals can be enticing smorgasbords. You wander around tasting bits of ideas here, slices of art there. But it is especially interesting when you can sit down to a 3-course, theme-based meal. Sunday’s events on offer at the Jewish Book Week literary festival included just that – a 3 session overview of Polish cultural life, as it was, as it is now, and where it might be heading.
The first session, “Memory and Revival,” began with a bold assertion. Jonathan Webber, anthropologist and Professor of Jewish Studies, firmly stated: “all your previous assumptions about Poland are now wrong.” Yes, for a generation Poland was a country in denial. During all his many visits up until about 20 years ago, Professor Webber never heard the word “Jew” uttered, Jewish cemeteries lay in ruins, no Jewish community existed. Yes, individuals he met would sometimes take him aside and say “I want to show you something” and sneak him up to an attic, or they would whisper, “Come close, I have a story to tell you.” Individual Poles had individual memories of Jews, but their 1000-year contribution to history and culture “officially” never existed. But then in the end of the 1980’s, three things happened. Communism collapsed. The Pope declared anti-semitism to be a sin. And a curious and courageous non-Jewish Pole, Janusz Makuch, forced his country to rediscover its forgotten Jewish heritage by establishing an annual “Jewish Culture Festival” in Krakow. Mr. Makuch was there on the stage yesterday and he spoke quite movingly about this festival, his life’s work. Out of his own interest and a childhood discovery of this hidden Polish past, a festival drawing up to 20,000 people is held every summer. Makuch hopes that his festival, which now holds over 200 events in 9 days, is a mirror that reflects Jewish culture today. People from all over the world, Jews and non-Jews alike, descend on Krakow to attend lectures, see plays, hear concerts and celebrate Jewish life through Jewish culture. And although Makuch claims that he does not believe he can achieve anything with this festival, Prof. Webber begs to differ. He explains that throughout Poland there are now bookshops and publishing houses selling books in translation about Jewish topics and by Jewish authors, Jewish Studies departments are thriving in the universities, cemeteries and synagogues are being restored. And he notes the amazing fact that of all the people attending the festival, 75-80% are not Jewish, but are, rather, people interested in Jewish life and are, for whatever personal reasons, drawn to Jewish culture. Sixty years after the Holocaust, changes are happening in Poland. And Prof. Webber was right – I, for one, had no idea.
This inspirational nod towards the future was then followed by a wonderful performance called “Time Travelling in Polish Literature,” in which the actors Henry Goodman and Beverley Klein read excerpts from Jewish literature which were interspersed with live Klezmer music. I am an unabashed fan of Klezmer, or “Yiddish” music. Yesterday’s combination of violin, accordian and tuba played new arrangements of this folk music and drew us deeply into the feelings of joy, wonder, sadness that the readings portrayed. Whether the author was a nineteenth century Rabbi or a displaced European Jew on Ellis Island in the 1970’s, the literature all had that voice of humour and pathos which can be heard throughout a century of Jewish Polish literature. There is a self-deprecating humour and a fearless imagination that pervades this literature, and the musicians and actors brought it to life brilliantly. I left feeling nostalgic for the stories of my grandparents, the cadence of their self-taught English and proud of this tradition that I too often ignore.
I went from this feeling of nostalgia and connection to a session where I was clearly not among the initiated. The novelist Maureen Freely chaired a talk by the Polish novelist, playwright and newspaper columnist Pawel Huelle. The talk was titled, “Meet the Cult Author,” and although most of the people in the audience were clearly Huelle cultists, I knew nothing about him or his work. He spoke in Polish and I was surprised at how many in the audience laughed at his jokes and nodded along with his assertions long before the translator could explain his comments. The 1984 novel that launched his career is Who Was David Weiser?, a book that dared to make a Jewish boy the hero and which dared to confront the large chunk of Polish history which had remained erased for so long. Freely read from this and another one of his Huelle’s works, Mercedes, and urged the author to describe his motives and processes. I may not have known his work, but I certainly recognized his voice. Huelle’s talk rambled from anecdote to anecdote, drawing from his life’s stories to inform his fiction. Having just listened to stories of Isaac Beshevis Singer and Bruno Schulz, Huelle’s own storytelling felt like a torch was being passed from one generation to the next. For all its modernity, the voice and the themes are the same. And perhaps, more than anything else, that sums up for me the beauty of Jewish culture. Continuity despite change. Humour despite tragedy. Courage despite fear.
Yesterday marked the end of this year’s Jewish Book Week – a week full of lectures, performances, readings, endless cups of coffees, plenty of book sales. A week for Jews and non-Jews alike. A week full of surprises but one which was as welcoming as the embrace of a long-lost uncle. I’m already looking forward to next year. In the meantime, here’s a video of klezmer music from the Krakow Jewish Culture Festival. L’chaim!
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