York Centre for Jewish Studies Hosts Distinguished Voice of the Holocaust Aharon Appelfeld as Writer-in-Residence March 10-20

TORONTO, March 7, 2000 -- Israeli novelist and essayist Aharon Appelfeld, a writer whose ability to express the inexpressible in a literature of the Holocaust has won him resounding praise around the world, will be writer/scholar-in-residence at York University March 10-20.

Appelfeld's visit inaugurates the Silber Family Chair in Holocaust and Eastern European Jewish Studies at the Centre for Jewish Studies at York. The distinguished author will lend his unique perspective on writing about one of the most cataclysmic events of our time -- the World War II massacre of millions of Jews -- in a series of formal and informal meetings with students, faculty and the general public.

"We are extremely fortunate to be able to host Mr. Appelfeld, whose work is so essential to humankind in grappling with the questions of how and why the Holocaust happened," said Professor Michael Brown, Director of the Centre for Jewish Studies at York. The Silber Family Chair is the first chair in Holocaust studies at a Canadian university.

Appelfeld was born in 1931 in Czernowitz, Romania, and at the age of nine, witnessed the murder of his mother by the Nazis. After escaping from a concentration camp and wandering alone in the forests for two years, he joined the liberating forces of the Soviet Army as a kitchen boy when the war ended. In 1946 he emigrated to Palestine where he fought in Israel's War of Independence. His internationally acclaimed novels, translated into 27 languages, explore the psychological, moral and spiritual dimensions of the Holocaust, most recently in The Conversion (Schocken Books, 1998).

"I don't like to use too many words. For me, the unsaid is far more important than the said," Appelfeld told Publishers Weekly in an 1998 interview. In contrast to the Holocaust of Hollywood that is packaged into neat, digestible notions of good and evil, cowardice and heroism, the concept of ambiguity is central to Appelfeld's view, and his laconic expression of thought and feeling leaves an indelible mark on all who venture to read his stories.

Appelfeld will deliver a major public lecture on the writing of fiction about the Holocaust on Sunday, March 19, at 1:45 p.m. in Curtis Lecture Hall I at York University. This will be followed by a symposium at 3:30 p.m. entitled: My First Encounter with Aharon Appelfeld in which the author will respond to interpretations of his work by novelists Jonathan Rosen and Chaveh Rosenfarb, and psychiatrist and man of letters Vivian Rakoff. Other community events include: an evening with Aharon Appelfeld for child survivors of the Holocaust on Saturday, March 11 at 8:00 p.m. in the Vanier College Faculty Common Room; a lecture in Hebrew on The Rise and Fall of the Hebrew Writer in the Vanier College Study Hall on Monday, March 13 at 8 p.m.; a lecture in Hebrew entitled My Life and Works in room 118 at Vanier College on Tuesday, March 14 at 2 p.m. All events are at the Keele Campus of York University, 4700 Keele St.

-30-

For further information, please contact:

Michael Brown, Director
Centre for Jewish Studies
York University
(416) 736-5823
michaelb@yorku.ca

Susan Bigelow
Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22091
sbigelow@yorku.ca
YU/026/00