March 14 (Tuesday) 11:00 AM in HUM 415
The Department of Jewish Studies presents a reading by acclaimed poet Iossif Ventura for its course in Jewish Literature of the Americas (JS 451). All are welcome to attend.
On June 9th, 1944, nearly 73 years ago, six-year old Iossif’s life would be irrevocably changed. Almost the entire Jewish community of Hania Crete would leave the island in the hold of a German commercial vessel, the Tanais. They were on their way to Nazi death camps, but their death would come sooner. The ship was torpedoed by the British off the coast of Santorini and all those on board drowned, among them eighty-eight Jewish children from Hania. Iossif Ventura is the last surviving member of that community and he reads from his harrowing book of indispensable poems, Tanais.
