I had the opportunity to attend the third panel of the Global Jewish Modernism Lab Conference on Friday, February 10th, which contained two presentations.
The first was by Monique Balbuena, who presented on “Transnational Sephardic Poetry”. Balbuena explored the use of Ladino as a written language and the lack of significant cultural production in the language. It was most interesting to hear about the Sephardic poets who are reviving the language through their works, like Clarisse Nicoidski. The course Mapping Jewish Modernism introduced me to the topic of Jewish modernist literature for the first time, so everything is still new to me. Hearing about Nicoidski’s bilingual English-Ladino book of poems, “Ojos, las manos, la boca” was therefore truly eye-opening, since I had never encountered this kind of bilingual poetry before I was struck by how these poems deal with the loss of connection and celebrate the Sephardic Jewish experience through memories, traditions, and the search for identity, themes that we have seen repeatedly in works we have discussed in class.
The second presentation, given by Saskia Ziolkowski, delved into the significance of Modern Jewish Italian Writing as World Literature. Ziolkowski discussed what constitutes Jewish literature and its importance in the Italian context, using the author Elsa Morante as an example. The discussion touched upon the tension between Jewish identity and the feeling of not belonging, alienation, and rejection that comes with having multiple or even split identities (e. g. being Jewish, Italian etc.). To me, it seemed like being Jewish was often deemed insignificant in Italy, I was disheartened by this realization. At the same time, I was thrilled to see that the presentation highlighted the importance of Jewish Italian Literature.
Overall, the panel provided enlightening insights into the issue of Jewishness in literature and the tension it creates in terms of identity. Through the works of Sephardic poets and Jewish Italian writers, the panel demonstrated the importance of preserving cultural heritage and exploring the connection between language, identity, and history. The most valuable message I received from attending the panel was that specific languages like Ladino and specific identities like Jewishness in Italian literature have been sidelined. By discussing these topics, we gain enlightening information about those obscured minorities. I not only learned about important writers and their formative works, but I also saw how it ties in well with what we have been learning in the Mapping Jewish Modernism Course throughout the semester. We read several texts where the challenges faced by Jewish writers like Franz Kafka or Jewish protagonists like Leopold Bloom emphasize the importance of a modern Jewish canon in literature just as much as this panel did.
