Edward Serotta is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker who was born in Savannah, Georgia. He specializes in Jewish life in Central and Eastern Europe, and since 1991 has been the director of the Central Europe Center for Research and Documentation (Centropa, www.centropa.org), a not-for-profit organization in Vienna that uses advanced technologies to preserve Jewish memory. He is the author of three books, Out of the Shadows (1991), Survival in Sarajevo (1995), and Jews, Germany, Memory (1996), which have had accompanying exhibitions.
Yom Kippur, when the narrow alleys of the shulhoyf
cradle the small shtibls, pious and scared,
householders hurry with their taleisim
and old men shuffle along in their socks—
I feel the narrow…
David Tevele Schiff (d. 1791) was the rabbi of the Great Synagogue of London from 1765 until his death. At the time of his appointment, the rabbi of the Great Synagogue was also considered to be the…
On the roads of Siberia
Someone may still uncover a button, a lace
Of my torn shoe,
A leather belt, a shard of a clay mug,
A page of the holy book.
On the rivers of Siberia
Someone may still…