Monday, September 15
7:30 pm
The Bernard Wexler Lecture on Jewish History 2008
Beth Kaplan
Finding the Jewish Shakespeare: The Life and Legacy of Jacob Gordin
With readings by Norman Seltzer and Barbara L. Rappaport
Reception follows program
FREE

In this revelatory biography, Beth Kaplan sets out to explore the true character and creative achievements of her great-grandfather Jacob Gordin, playwright extraordinaire and icon of the Yiddish stage.

Shedding new light on Gordin and his world, Kaplan describes the commune Gordin founded and led in Russia, his meteoric rise among Jewish New York’s literati, the birth of such masterworks as Mirele Efros and The Jewish King Lear, and his feud with Abraham Cahan, powerful editor of The Jewish Daily Forward.

Kaplan manages to recapture the Golden Age, the colorful actors of Yiddish Theater and the dynamic cultural life of Eastern European Jews on New York’s Lower East Side, where Gordin was revered. This is a dynamic glimpse into Jewish history that anyone can enjoy.

Beth Kaplan is a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. An actress and writer, her essays have appeared in the Globe and Mail as well as other newspapers and magazines, and her work has been heard on CBC radio. She is the 1994 winner of the Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition.  She teaches memoir and personal essay writing at Ryerson University, and also teaches at the University of Toronto. 

The Bernard Wexler Fund for Jewish History was established in 1996. This endowment fund supports an annual lecture that brings outstanding speakers, scholarly research and contemporary issues to the forefront of learning at the 16^th Street J.

Presented in partnership with the 16^th Street J’s Leo & Anna Smilow Center for Jewish Living and Learning

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