The 22nd Hasekura Seminar/Special Lecture, Center for Northeast Asian Studies, "Unexpected Neighbors: The Japanese behind the Scenes of Yiddish Literature"
| Date | September 25,2024 5-6p.m. |
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| Place | Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University Room403MAP |
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For those who participate in the event online, please register from the link below by September 23.
abstract
While Soviet authorities promoted the project of a Jewish autonomous entity in the Russian Far East (Birobidzhan) between 1928 and 1949 as an initiative to attract an industrious population to aid regional development, they also strategically envisioned it as an outpost on the volatile Manchurian border. The establishment of Manchukuo by the Japanese, armed clashes along the Manchurian-Soviet frontier, and the Pacific War’s repercussions had a profound influence on the discourse among the Jewish newcomers, largely expressed through Yiddish—the official language of the autonomous region. The paper explores how these geopolitical tensions were reflected in Birobidzhan’s Yiddish literature, offering new insights into the intricate dynamics between the Soviet Union, Japan, and the Jewish community during this fraught period.
Speaker: Ber Kotlerman (Bar-Ilan University and Tohoku University)
Ber Kotlerman is Professor at the Department of Jewish Literature, Bar-Ilan University, Israel, where he heads the Rena Costa Center for Yiddish Studies and holds the Sznajderman Chair in Yiddish Culture and Hasidism. He is the author and editor of several monographs and collections in the field of Eastern European Jewish (Yiddish) Culture and Jewish-Asian Connections.
Commentator;Akao Mitsuharu (National Museum of Ethnology)
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