Re-inventing Yiddish Culture in Italy after the Holocaust

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While few remember that the origins of Yiddish literature can be traced to the Italian Renaissance, today's Italy has seen an unprecedented revival of all "things Yiddish," including literature, theater, and music. The success of this phenomenon began in the 1980's, when Milanese playwright/songwriter Mara Cantoni, herself the heir to a centuries-old Italian Jewish heritage, started staging Yiddish-inspired plays featuring Moni Ovadia. Their artistic collaboration eventually developed in a full-fledged Yiddish and Klezmer revival at the heart of a "virtually Jewish" European renaissance and the memorialization of the Holocaust. Assisted by musicologist Francesco Spagnolo, Mara Cantoni will trace the history of the Yiddish revival in Italy, accompanied by music and videos from her work.