CU Boulder’s Program in Jewish Studies and cosponsors welcome poet and professor Irena Klepfisz as Jewish Studies’ 2019 Sondra and Howard Bender Visiting Scholar.
Girls reading Yiddish and Polish newspaper in the 1930s
Klepfisz will present a public lecture titled “Yiddish, English or Maybe Both: The Evolution of an ‘Yidea,’” on campus at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21. Klepfisz’s visit is part of the Jewish Studies’ 2018–19 Community Talks Series, Yiddishkvell: An Appreciation of All Things Yiddish, made possible in part by a grant from Rose Community Foundation.
In her talk, Klepfisz will describe some of the issues she faced when she began trying to incorporate Yiddish into her English poetry and prose. What seemed easy enough (just put it in! use it!) turned out to be more difficult and raised questions about appropriateness, intelligibility and, perhaps most importantly, purpose. Klepfisz will illustrate her literary process and evolution through readings of her own work and the writings of other Yiddish women writers.
Klepfisz is a poet, essayist, translator, editor and teacher. She is serving as Jewish Studies’ 2019 Sondra and Howard Bender Visiting Scholar and will be in residence at CU Boulder Feb. 20–21. She has taught at Barnard College; in the college program at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a women's maximum-security prison; and elsewhere. Among her many other literary accomplishments, she was a founder and co-editor of the award-winning Conditions magazine, the Yiddish editor of the Jewish feminist journal Bridges, a major contributor to Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology and co-editor of The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology.
Who: Open to the public
What: “Yiddish, English or Maybe Both: The Evolution of an ‘Yidea’”
When: Thursday, Feb. 21, 7 p.m.
Where: Eaton Humanities, Room 250
About the Sondra and Howard Bender Visiting Scholar
Klepfisz is the Program in Jewish Studies’ seventh annual Sondra and Howard Bender Visiting Scholar. Her visit celebrates the Sondra and Howard Bender Visiting Scholars Endowed Fund, honoring the lives of Howard and Sondra Bender, devoted parents of four children and 11 grandchildren, including CU graduates.
Active members of the community in Washington, D.C., and Bethesda, Maryland, Sondra and Howard served on multiple boards and held leadership positions in many nonprofit organizations. They were extraordinary builders of buildings, Jewish life and education, as well as devotees of family and horse breeding. The Bender Foundation has generously endowed the Sondra and Howard Bender Visiting Scholars Fund to honor the lives of Sondra and Howard, who cherished Jewish culture, celebrated education and lived life to the fullest.
This event is hosted by the Program in Jewish Studies and cosponsored by the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures and Department of Religious Studies.
