In Front of the Iron Curtain: Yiddish in East Germany

Presented by David Shneer, UC Boulder

In 1951, a Dutch Jewish Yiddish cabaret singer and Holocaust survivor who was the last person to see Anne Frank alive moved to East Berlin to build music in the Communist utopia. Over the course of her 35 years as the Yiddish diva of the Communist world, Lin Jaldati sang for large official Stalin-era concerts and inspired Yiddish folk music collectives in East German factories. In this presentation, Professor David Shneer will present the life story of Jaldati and her daughter, Jalda Rebling, who picked up where her mother left off, and suggest what it says about Jewish life in Europe--in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust and today.