Research Catalog

Title

Melekh Ravitsh : the eccentric outback quest of an urbane Yiddish poet from Poland / by Anna Epstein.

Author

Epstein, Anna

Publication

[Elwood, Victoria] : Real Film and Publishing, 2019.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

159 pages : illustrations, portraits; 27 cm

Summary

In 1933, a Yiddish poet Melekh Ravitsh traversed the Australian outback in search of a homeland for Europe's direly threatened Jews. On this quixotic enterprise he took 90 Box Brownie photographs, annotated in Yiddish. Decades later, his son, the artist Yosl Bergner, painted a series inspired by his father's photos. Both are represented in this amalgam of art, history, Jews and Indigenous Australians.

Subject

• Ravitch, Melech, 1893-1976 > Travel > Australia
• Bergner, Yosl, 1920-2017
• Ravitch, Melech, 1893-1976
• Painting, Australian
• Aboriginal Australians in art
• Photography, Artistic
• Aboriginal Australians > Australia > Northern Territory
• Jews > Australia
• Travel
• Alice Springs (N.T.)
• Australia

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references.

Biography (note)

• Zacharia Bergner (1893-1976), pen name Melekh Ravitch, was a Yiddish poet, journalist and cultural activist. He translated the works of his loved fellow-writer Franz Kafka. In 1933, as Fascism spread across Europe, Melech waved to his family and left for Australia, with three goals. Firstly he wanted to raise fund for Yiddish schools in Poland, and later to create a Yiddish school in Melb­ourne. Secondly he was responsible to look for empty land in Australia, in order to re­set­tle German Jews under imminent threat from Nazism. Thirdly he wanted to get his family out of Europe, quickly.After living in Melbourne, and visiting Sydney and Brisbane, Melech Ravitch crossed the Australian outback from Adelaide to Darwin. He set out for the Northern Territory, armed with a letter of introd­uction from Albert Einstein, journals to write in and a Box Brown­ie. Across the Central Australian deserts he took 90 Box Brownie photo­gr­aphs, annotated in Yiddish. Of course he travelled across the Australian outback wearing smartish clothes and shoes, complete with bow tie - perhaps because he wrote Yiddish articles describing Aus­tralia for a Warsaw newspaper.

Call Number

JFF 22-47

ISBN

• 9780648405610
• 0648405613

OCLC

1128812568

Author

Epstein, Anna, author.

Title

Melekh Ravitsh : the eccentric outback quest of an urbane Yiddish poet from Poland / by Anna Epstein.

Publisher

[Elwood, Victoria] : Real Film and Publishing, 2019.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references.

Biography

Zacharia Bergner (1893-1976), pen name Melekh Ravitch, was a Yiddish poet, journalist and cultural activist. He translated the works of his loved fellow-writer Franz Kafka. In 1933, as Fascism spread across Europe, Melech waved to his family and left for Australia, with three goals. Firstly he wanted to raise fund for Yiddish schools in Poland, and later to create a Yiddish school in Melb­ourne. Secondly he was responsible to look for empty land in Australia, in order to re­set­tle German Jews under imminent threat from Nazism. Thirdly he wanted to get his family out of Europe, quickly.After living in Melbourne, and visiting Sydney and Brisbane, Melech Ravitch crossed the Australian outback from Adelaide to Darwin. He set out for the Northern Territory, armed with a letter of introd­uction from Albert Einstein, journals to write in and a Box Brown­ie. Across the Central Australian deserts he took 90 Box Brownie photo­gr­aphs, annotated in Yiddish. Of course he travelled across the Australian outback wearing smartish clothes and shoes, complete with bow tie - perhaps because he wrote Yiddish articles describing Aus­tralia for a Warsaw newspaper. http://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com/2020/03/book-review-melech-ravitch-and-yosl.html

Research Call Number

JFF 22-47