connecting point is visiting Hampshire County we are at the year issue book
centre
in amherst and we are joined now by Susan
Bronson the executive director huge box in our hostess so for today thank you so
much
really nice welcome thrilled to welcome you it's a always a pleasure and it's a
pleasure to welcome the community
through your shower to the bookseller let's talk about this unique place
you dish book centre originally called the National Yiddish for tennis
sir in 1980 by an amazing gentleman who is your founder your president
Aaron lansky who came up with this idea to try and find N Save
whatever you dish books might be out there
around the world right he he was a he was a graduate student 23 years old
just trying to find a used book for his class and
discovered in the course of his studies that he couldn't find any response they
weren't around
I and discover the people were actually just throwing them away because the
language
people weren't reading language people weren't speaking the language in
families know when
known knew what to do with these books anymore so he set out what he thought
was going to be a brief sabbatical from graduate school to
to collect a few years book so he and his fellow students could have them
and here we are thirty-four years later on
in the course of that process he saved he and many many volunteers around the
world save more than a million
use books essentially rescuing the entire
tire devious literature arm and
E many years later also built this incredible building where we are today
which is much more than just a place that holds books were
a museum a cultural center and educational center
and so that that little that little
event I'm just trying to find a year this book turned into an entire life's
work and the rescue
love what would have been lost cultural had heritage in Treasure
after the events of World War two holocaust
the Jewish population of Europe all but destroyed and dispersed
saving yiddish books really took on a special meeting and poignancy
with thing well it certainly did I i mean i think it's interesting in what
Aaron landscapers are found early says is that it's in a way shocking that
that Jewish people who call themselves the people the book would
be throwing out these books but in the context of the times
when people were trying to become more american and nobody was speaking yiddish
anymore I mean there was no country to return to
where yiddish was spoken on and the State of Israel was founded in
and Hebrew was its founding language so you wish
seem to be a dying language in people no longer felt the need to study edition in
fact
tried to push it away and in the process of culture rating becoming Americans
on but I think as be has become clear in the last couple decades
with the rescue of those books has been a real renaissance and a real
renaissance
interest in yes literature and Eunice culture it was the spoken languages for
a thousand years and it was
the language through which to use first encountered the modern
world arm and is in fact a great literature
on so this active cultural rescue really
are means that this whole treasure is there for new generations to explore and
in fact
many of our visitors now are the very same people whose parents or
grandparents may have
decided they didn't need these books anymore or
on didn't know who was going to read the books anymore and when they walk in this
building many people cry
because is such a deep and meaningful experience just to see that these books
were saved in that this heritage will say
I know your goal here at the age book center is is not too
not to warehouse these books but to get
will get his books into the hands %uh new
potential readers here and around the world well that's true and in fact is
even broader than that I mean we have
in addition to saving the books we digitize them they're all available
online through the Internet Archive in through our own website
which in and of itself is is phenomenal its its we're really digitizing entire
literature and will likely be the first
completely art digital it completely the world completely
a the words first completely
Digital literature pardon me on and we want to open those books up for new
generations and not and and we want to do so metaphorically as well as
as physically in the sense that we we are we are doing work to translate these
books because many people
don't know yiddish in won't know yiddish in only 2 percent of the literature has
ever been translated
so we have an initiative to translate the books but we also want to do so in
the broader sense if opening up the culture that those books contain to a
broader audience through
all the programs that we have here including exhibits
and concerts and lectures and a whole host
education programs for visitors of all ages
from high school age we have school field trips for schools throughout the
region
we have a program for high school students call great Jewish books a
summer residential program
we have a program for college students where they're here for seven weeks
learning it later
nearish and Jewish culture we've program for twenty-somethings call tent
we're seminars into Scott culture offered it institutions around the
country
and we do all kinds of projects for adults this weekend we have a weekend
course
on Sholem Aleichem the greatness writer are we recently had a week-long your
school for adults
so we try to on we try to open up this culture and introduce it to people of
all ages
and we continue to expand our educational outreach
so it's quite exciting actually the range activity
it's amazing in the research and reading I did to prepare for discussion
discovered that chances are if you find a yiddish speaker today
it is probably a young person probably someone under
30 years the region and again you're trying to appeal to that group right
well it is interesting I'm a course like I would say more like there's a big gap
there are still
a generational people still alive who spoke yiddish is children their parents
came to this country as immigrants they spoke initials children
and so we get adults coming in who know some additional a little Eunice remember
yiddish many of our members
are still have some yiddish but then there's sort of a lost generation of
which I am one
where on where'd he no one learn Kiddush
and now there are all young people all over the country who were interested in
learning edition I think there been a variety of articles recently about how
your dishes now
being reestablished in colleges and universities around the country which is
you know something that one ever would've predicted twenty years ago but
yes I mean we have
I think all the people love coming here and seeing how many young people
can speak to them in years and I think they still find it kinda shocking
like how how is this 22-year-old speaking to me in yiddish
but yes indeed it's it's a wonderful and fascinating
thing gotta talk to you as we conclude about an event
that you've had here for a little while now summer event
a music festival yes yet stock coming up in
in mid-july klezmer in New yiddish music it's amazing fun idea
right well i hack yet stock is an idea we had a few years ago a way of trying
to create
on some energy we always put on cultural programs he always have concerts here
but I thought you know if we put together a festival where we have a
buncha concerts here over a period of days
let's get a lot of people in the door and let's find a way to
really expose all these artists who are taking this traditional music form a
klezmer music which many people today have heard about there was a whole
klezmer revival
in the last couple decades but they're really building on that and bringing
into new kinda musical forms
so we've this is our third year and we've got a great line up its july 17th
to 20th
you can buy a Festival Pass income for the whole weekend are you can get a
ticket for just one concert
we have are to have the greatest klezmer bands
in the world playing here one is our klezmer conservatory
band which was one of the forerunners in the klezmer music revival and we have
the klezmatics which was another very early
are and they're still you know incredible and
what a great experience and we also have on dance workshops
and our song workshops and lectures so it's really a great event
and I encourage you if you're interested to call now because our
we do sell out so it's a it's a it's a great event and it's a wonderful
excuse to come and see this place because I will tell you that
if you if you haven't been here which I know now you have but people walk in the
building
and there inevitably surprised and say wow I had
I had no idea on that this is what this place was the picture a little bookstore
some sort of a
are a little library and we are really an incredible facility and I encourage
everyone to come and visit
houses in Branson executive director the ish book centre thank you so much
thank you for having