Give Alms to the Jewish King Lear: Eldercare in Yiddish Literature

The Jews who migrated to the United States from 1875 to 1924 were often supporting the family members they left in the Old Country — and they eagerly listened to songs and went to plays about how adult children care (or do not care) for their aging parents. Among the plays they watched were two hits based (loosely) on Shakespeare, The Jewish King Lear and Mirele Efros: The Jewish Queen Lear.

In this talk, Dr. Gabriella Safran asks how these migrants used literature to work through the questions about care that they faced in their lives.

Sunday, January 25, 2026

11am-1pm PST (Zoom)

Registration is required (by donation, no minimum)

This event is the fourth and final part of the 2025 Zhargon Speaker Series, four public, online talks that bring leading figures in Yiddish Studies and contemporary Yiddish arts and culture to share their work. The series extends classroom learning for students in the Peretz Centre's program, Zhargon: A Journey through the Histories of Yiddishkayt, and opens discussion with the broader community. Current Zhargon students do not need to register (you are automatically added).

We acknowledge the support of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation with funding provided by the Government of Canada.

About Our Speaker

Gabriella Safran is a professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and the Eva Chernov Lokey Professor of Jewish Studies at Stanford University. She has published articles and books about Russian and Yiddish literature and intellectual history, mostly before the 1917 revolutions. She is now beginning a new project involving migration and the literature of eldercare.

Her most recent monograph, Recording Russia: Trying to Listen in the Nineteenth Century (Cornell University Press, 2022), looks at how Russian subjects and visitors to the Russian Empire display their skills at listening to and recording the words of "the people." It brings together intellectual history, literary analysis, linguistic anthropology, and sound and media studies.

Image credit: Photo of Khane Kolski by Alter Kacyzne (Warsaw, 1925).