28 April 11 • 2019
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Comedian Nate Fridson will be
supporting a cause close to his
heart when he performs at the
annual Send a Kid to Tamarack
(SK2T) event April 28 at the
Berman Center for Performing
Arts.
Fridson was a Tamarack camper
from the late 1990s into the 2000s
and then a counselor at Camp Maas
after that. A Huntington Woods
native, Fridson is a rising star
from the Detroit comedy scene.
Aside from playing clubs in New
York, Atlanta, Baton Rouge and
elsewhere, he recently traveled
to Japan to perform for the U.S.
troops stationed on Okinawa.
“This means a lot to me to
perform at SK2T this year,” he said.
“I don’
t get back to camp much,
so it’
s nice to be able to connect
with the organization in a different
way. SK2T is a very important
program in that it helps kids share
in the life-shaping experiences that
Tamarack provides.
“At camp, I fell in the mud,
learned how to make a candle and
even got to see a bear one time.
Some of these stories might come
out at the show — who knows?”
He’
s also pleased to be working
with some old friends organizing
the event, which begins at 6:30 p.m.
SK2T will include a silent
auction, small plates and
entertainment. For tickets, go to
tamarackcamps.com/sk2tevent.
All proceeds help support the
Send a Kid to Tamarack Annual
Campaign and Tamarack’
s mission
of providing enriching Jewish
camping experiences for children
and families respectful of financial
ability. ■
Comedian Fridson
To Headline
Tamarack Camps’
Annual Fundraiser
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Thanks to our
paramedics, the
only empty chair
at his Seder table
will be Elijah’s.
As we celebrate our freedom this Passover holiday,
please consider a gift that will make Israel stronger too.
Israel’s emergency medical services organization,
more than 8.8 million people.
Save a life in Israel this Passover with a gift to support
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Donate on AFMDA.org/passover or call 888.674.4871.
Saving lives. It’s in our blood – and in yours too.
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This coming fall, the Frankel
Institute for Advanced Judaic
Studies will bring together a group
of Yiddish scholars, poets, transla-
tors, language teachers and cultural
leaders to discuss and research
around the theme of “Yiddish
Matters.”
The University of Michigan has
emerged as one of the world’
s lead-
ing centers for Yiddish studies, so it
is fitting that the Frankel Institute
will be a site for fresh explorations
of the linguistic, literary, historical,
political and social significance of
the language and the varying cul-
tures it has engendered and contin-
ues to animate.
“I am absolutely thrilled to be
working with a group of schol-
ars and intellectuals with such
wide-ranging expertise and experi-
ence,” says Julian Levinson, the head
fellow of this year’
s group. “Yiddish
studies has become an incredibly
dynamic field, and we’
ll have folks
from history, anthropology, linguis-
tics and literary studies, as well as
translators working on new projects.
I look forward to sharing our col-
lective work with the broader com-
munity, within the university and
beyond.”
The 2019-2020 fellows include
scholars from Israel, America and
Poland. Some are just beginning
their careers, having studied the
language at summer programs and
in graduate school. Others were
born into Yiddish-speaking families,
and, having studied disparate topics
during their graduate years, subse-
quently returned to their mother
tongue to emerge as the world’
s
leading scholars of Yiddish language
and culture. They work on a wide
range of topics, including Yiddish
space, food, poetry, and fiction in
the Americas, Europe and Israel.
Several scholars examine Yiddish
as a language of catastrophe; others
celebrate the joy of Yiddish life. ■
Frankel Institute Fellows
To Focus on Yiddish