Thursday, April 5, 2007

There's No "Fool" in "Jew"



On a day known for absurdity and shenanigans, Jews gathered in the Minsk Jewish Campus to obstinately celebrate a heritage of braininess. While the rest of the world played preposterous pranks on neighbors, Jews, in their usual stiff-necked fashion, did just the opposite. The April Fools’ production in the Minsk Jewish Campus, contrarily entitled “Yiddishe Khokhma,” Yiddish for “Jewish Wisdom,” defiantly exalted Jewish wit throughout the ages through song, poetry, and of course smart jokes only.

Apparently people at the Minsk Jewish Campus weren’t the only Jews in Minsk diametrically opposing April Fools’ Day. The synagogue on Daumana Street also hosted a gathering of Jewish folk singers and poets who shared their favorite classic verses with an intimate crowd in the synagogue study.

1 comment:

BEING HAD said...

We had great discussions about our "heritage of braininess" here in Pinsk last September at the start of the school year. I wouldn't go so far to say that there were discipline problems, more like a lack of seriousness. The Jewish side of the faculty though was appalled. How could Jewish students not understand? And eventually, it was exactly the same thought as you mention here, that Jews have the capacity for greatness and intelligence that won the students over. A little pride never hurts. But that there wasn't the knowledge of who Jews are in the world was also telling. Such is the struggle here in the FSU.