The Highs and Lows of Sholem Aleichem: Yiddish Literature and the Pursuit of Popular Writing

press release: November 12-13, 2017, The Pyle Center, Rooms 325 & 326, 702 Langdon St.

A century after his death, Sholem Aleichem still captures the imagination. The man behind Fiddler on the Roof, he introduced work that has left an indelible imprint on American culture. But how are we to understand the legacy of this artist? Was he a writer for the masses or a stylist of the highest literary order? And what is at stake in categorizing his literary legacy? Bringing together scholars, journalists, and fiction writers, this conference will reassess Sholem Aleichem’s literary reception and remap the boundaries of popular Yiddish culture.

Sunday, November 12

9:00-9:15 Welcome: The Highs and Lows of Sholem Aleichem: Opening remarks by Sunny Yudkoff (UW-Madison)

9:15-11:00 Sholem Aleichem and the Question of Popular Writing. Introduction by Tony Michels (UW-Madison); Mikhail Krutikov (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), “Please Tickle Your Muse a Little Bit”: Sholem Aleichem and the Anxiety of Yiddish; Alyssa Quint (YIVO), Sholem Aleichem, Avrom Goldfaden, and the (Re)invention of a Yiddish Theater Audience; Jeffrey Shandler (Rutgers University), Do ligt a yid a posheter: Sholem Aleichem’s Public Image in America

11:00-11:15 Break

11:15-1:00 Popular Writing and the Question of the Canon: Introductions by Mark Louden and Pamela Potter (UW-Madison); Saul Zaritt (Harvard University), Ventriloquists and Ghost Writers: Sholem Aleichem and the Yiddish Monologue; Benjamin Schreier (Penn State), Yiddish and the Postwar Invention of Jewish American Literature

1:00-3:00 Lunch

3:00-4:30 Popular Writing and the Question of Fiddler: Introduction by Tony Michels (UW-Madison); Alisa Solomon (Columbia Journalism School), From Folkshrayber to Broadway and Back: How Fiddler Became Folklore

4:30-5:00 Break

5:00-6:30 Popular Writing, Sholem Aleichem, and the Question of Kafka: In Conversation with Sunny Yudkoff (UW-Madison); Adam Sachs, “No, he isn’t Kafka”: Some Anxieties About Sholem Aleichem, Humor, and Humorists

Monday, November 13

9:00-11:15 Popular Writing and the Question of Humor: Introductions by Philip Hollander and Marina Zilbergerts (UW-Madison); Marcus Moseley (Northwestern University), “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Idiot: Sholem Aleichem’s “Di freylekhe kompanye”; Gabriella Safran (Stanford University), “Dreyfus in Kasrilivke” and Why Newspaper Readers are Funny

11:15-12:00 Closing Remarks by Tony Michels (UW-Madison)

Free and Open to the Public