From the DDD

I recommend going to the whole thing if you want the treats, the event takes place in a reserveable room in the library (302, W.W. Hagerty Library).

“Harvest of Blossoms: The Poetry and Life of Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger”

The Judaic Studies Program will present “Harvest of Blossoms: The Poetry and Life of Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger” a reading, lecture and book signing by Irene Silverblatt, PhD, professor of cultural anthropology at Duke University, today, May 26, 2009, at 2 p.m. in room 302, W.W. Hagerty Library (33rd and Market Streets).

Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger died in an SS labor camp in 1942 at the age of 18. In the course her life cut short, she composed 57 poems in German that miraculously survived. This lecture will explore her life, the multilingual city of Czernowitz and her gripping poetry.

Irene and Helene Silverblatt are the editors of this first translation into English of Meerbaum-Eisinger’s poetry, Harvest of Blossoms: Poems from a Life Cut Short (Northwestern University Press, 2008). They are the daughters of Hilda Schrager Silverblatt, surviving first cousin of Selma. Irene ’s books also include Modern Inquisitions: Peru and the Colonial Origins of the Civilized World (Duke University Press) and Moon, Sun and Witches (Princeton University Press).

The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. Books will be sold by the Pennsylvania Book Center (34th and Sansom Street).

Support for this event comes from the Louis and Bessie Stein Foundation, the Milton and Miriam Handler Foundation, and the Friends of Judaic Studies.

For more information, contact Kathy.carll@drexel.edu or 215-895-6388.