They Called Me Mayer July

"...a remarkable, illustrated book"

Monique Polak’s review in The Gazette (Montreal), December 29, 2007.

The need to remember also fuels They Called Me Mayer July, a remarkable, illustrated book, co-written by Mayer Kirshenblatt and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, a father-daughter team. Kirshenblatt, who was born in Apt, Poland, in 1916, moved to Canada in 1934; he took up painting only when he retired in his 70s. His daughter, a professor at New York University with an interest in folkloric studies, encouraged him to paint his memories of Apt.

What emerges in this volume - through Kirshenblatt's paintings and the narration he supplies to accompany them - is far more than a portrait of a town. He and his daughter recreate a richly populated world, seen largely through the eyes of a child.

Everyone in Kirshenblatt's Apt had a nickname. His was Mayer July because July (Tamez in Yiddish) was the hottest month of the year and the boy was considered a hothead. Malkele Drek (drek is Yiddish for excrement) earned her unfortunate nickname when she fell into a latrine. Kirshenblatt remembers Malkele was pretty enough, but that her nickname discouraged potential suitors. In his characteristically understated style, Kirshenblatt tells us Malkele "disappeared with everyone else."

Though Kirshenblatt, his parents and brothers came to Canada well before the Second World War broke out, his paintings and story are an important contribution to Holocaust studies. The Nazis tried to annihilate European Jewry systematically. When Kirshenblatt was a boy, Apt was predominantly Jewish; today, all that's left of its Jewish past is a rundown cemetery. But Kirshenblatt has brought Apt and its inhabitants back to life. "I consider myself a storehouse of memories," he writes.

May 14, Conversation with Mayer, Barbara, and Dave Isay

Mayer is joined by Barbara, for a conversation with Dave Isay, Founder and President of StoryCorps, about the role of memory in the creative process. The conversation will also explore how nearly forty years of father and daughter interviews resulted in the exhibition They Called Me Mayer July.

Thursday May 14, 6:60-8:00 pm
The Jewish Museum
1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street
New York, NY
Hours and admissions: http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/HoursAdmission

In May 2009, The Jewish Museum is partnering with StoryCorps to record interviews at the StoryCorps Recording Booth in Lower Manhattan. For more information, please contact 212-423-3240.

Polish translation of They Called Me Mayer July

We are delighted that They Called Me Mayer July will appear in Polish. The Museum of the History of Polish Jews (Warsaw) bought the translation rights. The Polish translation should appear by the end of 2011.

Barbara will make an illustrated presentation about the Museum of the History of Polish Jews on Wednesday May 6, 6:30 pm at Temple Emanu-El, One East 65th Street, NYC.
http://www.emanuelnyc.org/calendar_detail.php?event_id=244209

The Museum of the History of Polish Jews is dedicated to presenting a millenium of the history and civilization of Polish Jews in the very place where they lived and died. Barbara is head of the international core exhibition planning team and will present recent developments in the creation of the Museum's innovative multimedia narrative exhibition.

Mayer July exhibition opens at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Poland in July 2009

An exhibition of digital prints of Mayer's paintings will open at the Galicia Jewish Museum during the Krakow Jewish Culture Festival in July 2009 and will travel throughout Poland. The exhibition is available for travel in North America, Europe, and other parts of the world and is suitable for a wide variety of venues. Please contact Kate Craddy, director of the museum.

Save the date! May 10, 2009, Mayer's exhibition opens at The Jewish Museum (NYC)

They Called Me Mayer July exhibition opens to the public at The Jewish Museum in New York City on May 10, 2009. Almost 100 works will be shown, together with a toy theater created by Jennifer Romaine in collaboration with Mayer and film of a toy theater performance, and a new film by Slawomir Grunberg, which documents Mayer's return to Opatow and the warm reception he received from the Polish people who live there today.

Hot off the press! Boxed notecards....

Pomegranate has done a beautiful job of creating a boxed set of notecards. Twenty assorted full-color 5 x 7" blank note cards (five each of four styles) with envelopes and decorative box. Purchase online from Pomegranate or at The Jewish Museum's gift shop during Mayer's exhibition, which opens to the public on May 10.

"...a stunning and gripping volume"

They Called Me Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Before the Holocaust is a stunning and gripping volume. The book is difficult to categorize: part art book, part memoir, part ethnography, part history; it defies and transcends conventional genres. It promises to stimulate attention across a wide array of interests and demographics. Some will flip through the book, admiring Mayer Kirshenblatt’s evocative paintings of Jewish life in interwar Poland.Others will study his meticulous instructions on subjects ranging from how to harness a horse to how to make a dreydl. Still others will peruse the author’s recollections of his early education in Apt, or of his emigration by steamship to Canada. My four-year old daughter, whose readings I never thought I would be referencing in an academic book review, loved the painting “Boy with Herring” and marveled at the idea of carrying home a fish wrapped in newspaper with brine dripping from the head and tail. Two generations removed, my parents both picked up the book and read it cover to cover during their week-long visit a few weeks ago. I can think of few books that could garner this much attention from such diverse readerships.

"...amazing book," Nancy Miller

I'm making my way through your amazing book. I am completely fascinated by it all--the paintings, of course, but the narrative--and the effects of documentation. As you know my ancestors come from farther east and emigrated earlier--but I find the details illuminating....

That's really what does it, the herring, all the how-to-make drawings--a dreydel!!!My maternal grandfather was someone who also could figure out how to make anything. I don't think we know enough about that kind of creativity and resilience.

You are so lucky to have this legacy and to have been able to record it for posterity.

Mazel tov,
All my admiration,

Nancy
October 25, 2008

"...absolutely stunning," Blu Greenberg

I have been wanting to contact you ever since my visit to Berkeley last November. I found your father's paintings and accompanying narratives to be absolutely stunning. What a remarkable talent he has! I felt privileged to walk through the streets of Apt with him,  almost as an insider. While viewing the exhibit, I did not have time to read through all of the narratives, but when I returned home, I sat down and did not move for hours, until I had read every page.  It is an extraordinary gift to Jews after the Shoah, and it will be a treasure for years to come.

 

What a beautiful thing  you have done as a daughter!  I have long admired your work, and now add to that admiration a new dimension--an appreciation of what a special human being you are.

 

May you and your father be blessed with many years to come.

 

Blu Greenberg
April 28, 2008

"... a marvelous book," Kristin G. Congdon, Journal of Folklore Research

This book would have been compelling if it had been only words or paintings with little description. But with both text and images, we have a treasure. Having studied that which many of us call “memory painting” for almost three decades, I now understand the full power of this genre. This is a marvelous book. I believe it will certainly live on long after all of us are gone. It’s that important.

Mayer July (Mayer Kirshenblatt) was a small, rebellious child, who grew up before World War II in Apt, the Yiddish name for Opatów, a small town in Poland. He played hooky often, which allowed him the time to explore his hometown, keenly learning about the work, play, and ritual aspects of his neighborhood. Encouraged by his daughter, co-author Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Mayer July tells the story of his youth in text and paintings. What is most striking about this lengthy book is how well he remembers life in his Jewish hometown.

In reading this amazing autobiography, we learn about varied customs, including writing petitions, performing black weddings, engaging in ritual baths, getting a circumcision, preserving eggs in limewater, and the shaving of corpses. Mayer July meticulously describes his town’s landscape, the buildings, trees, markets, cemeteries, and orchards. We get an understanding of what goes on in the town’s photography studio and soap and candle factories. We learn about fiddle players, singers, cellists, professional water-carriers, actors, postmen, chimney sweeps, dogcatchers, rope makers, tinsmiths, milk ladies, thieves, and wigmakers. The book is full of folklore about murders, plagues, rituals, ghosts, miracles, farewell gifts, menstruation, and the importance of looking after the dead.