Works of two Jewish poets of past to be read Feb. 17

By Eileen Wingard

Eileen Wingard
Eileen Wingard

LA JOLLA, California –Two great Jewish poets of the past, Rachel Blawstein and Saul Tchernichovsky, will be featured at the Tuesday evening, “Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices” program February 17, 7 p.m. at the Astor Judaica Library of the Lawrence Family JCC.

Tchernichovsky’s life and poetry will be introduced by the eminent Judaic Scholar, Dr. Yehuda Shabatay, recently retired from the Judaic Studies Department at San Diego State University.

Shabatay, who received his jurisprudence degree from the Hebrew University Law School in Jerusalem and his doctorate in Hebrew Literature, Bible, and History from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, first came to San Diego as the Director of the Bureau of Jewish Education.

My daughter, Myla Wingard, who received her masters degree in the Hebrew Bible from Harvard Divinity School and worked on the staff of the Brandeis-Bardin Institute for many years, will be introducing the first renowned woman poet in modern Hebrew literature, Rachel Blawstein. She signed her poems simply, Rachel.

The poetry will be read in both English and Hebrew. In English, the participating readers will include, Sara Appel-Lennon, Bonnie Baron, Suzi Finkelstein, Michael Horvitz, Adira Rosen, and Rochelle Schwartz. The Hebrew readers will be Geula Hebron, Shani Hebron, Ovadia Lev and David Zilberberg. Reading in both English and Hebrew will by Danny Dabby and Debbie Cohen.

The Hebrew-singing choir, Havurat Zemer, under the direction of Rivi Raz, will perform two songs with lyrics by the two poets. English translations will be read by Karen Beeri, Tamar Grossman, Judith Landau and Ann Spector.  Assisting instrumentalists will be Shai Barkai, piano, Ronit Levinson, flute, and Eileen Wingard will play violin.

Following the program, there will be a reception. Unlike the other “Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices” evenings, there will be no open microphone. There is no charge for these evenings of poetry.

The next two scheduled evenings are March 31, featuring local Jewish educators, including Dr. Lawrence Baron, former head of the Judaic Studies Department at SDSU, and Rabbi Baruch Rock of the San Diego Jewish Academy.

The final evening of the year will be Tuesday, May 12, featuring the poetry of Jamie Lynn Finkelstein, Tony Kunewalder, of blessed memory, and Harriet Wingard.

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Eileen Wingard is a former violinist with the San Diego Symphony and now is a freelance writer specializing in the arts. As mentioned above, four members of her family will be participating in this and upcoming events: herself, daughters Myla and Harriet Wingard, and granddaughter Adira Rosen.  Your comment may be posted in the space provided below.