By Eileen Wingard
(Photo: Wikipedia)
SAN DIEGO — Hayyim Nahman Bialik (1873-1934), recognized as the father of modern Hebrew poetry, will be brought to life by local Jewish educator and scholar, Gabriella Hartstein Labson at 7 p.m., Tuesday evening, January 21, in the Astor Judaica Library, Lawrence Family JCC at Executive Drive and Genesee in La Jolla. It will be the first of the Jewish Poets – Jewish Voices series this year.
During her student days at the Hebrew High School in Monkash, Czechoslovakia, Labson became fascinated by the works of Bialik. After a remarkable journey, told in her autobiography, My Righteous Gentile, and in the Yale Strom documentary, Letter from Wedgewood, Gabriella arrived in America and settled in Philadelphia, where she earned her master’s degree in Hebrew Poetry from Gratz College, writing her dissertation on the poetry of Hayyim Nahman Bialik.
Like Bialik, Gabriella is a strong Zionist. Bialik’s first Hebrew poem, expressing longing for Zion, was published in Odessa under the sponsorship of Achad Ha-Am. As a result of pogroms and persecution, Bialik wrote poems of “wrath and sorrow,” protesting not only the cruel enemy, but the humiliating passivity of the Jewish masses. His call for resistance and retaliation inspired the organization of Jewish defense groups. He became the spiritual leader of the Zionist movement, calling for the restoration of the Jewish homeland.
Bialik was not only well-educated in secular subjects, but he was also a Talmudic scholar. Gabriella, too, is steeped in Jewish learning. The daughter of a rabbi and granddaughter of a chief rabbi of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, she continues to be an active member of Tifereth Israel Synagogue, attending the morning minyan and chanting regularly from the Torah.
Gabriella recently presented this Bialik program in celebration of her 99th birthday at Tifereth Israel Synagogue. “I love my old age,” she remarked, “just as I loved my youth.” With bright, sparkling eyes, a mind as sharp as many half her age, Gabriella is always inspiring .
In addition to Gabriella’s insights into Bialik’s life and influences and her introductions to each of Bialik’s poems, the program will feature the Havurat Zemer choir, under the direction of Ravi Raz, singing three songs with texts by Bialik. In my capacity as a violinist, I will play several melodies to which his poetry has been set.
Members of the Jewish Poets – Jewish Voices Committee, Michael Horvitz, and Sara Appel-Lennon will also be reading Bialik’s poems, as will Gabriella’s son, Stanley Auspitz, and my daughter, Myla Wingard.
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Wingard is a freelance writer and former violinist with the San Diego Symphony. She may be contacted at eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com