The exchange of letters between Paul Celan and his childhood friend Ilana Shmueli certainly belongs among the most important and touching in all of Celan’s correspondence. He wrote to her on November 4, 1969, half a year before his death: “Your letters are so true, so straightforward, they could not be truer or better. I need them, I need you as you are...”
Ilana Shmueli knew Paul Celan from her youth in Chernivtsi – long before the Shoah. However, the two did not see each other again until 1965 in Paris. This correspondence dates from that time. It is an impressive document of a mutual love, of affection and of reciprocal trust. The two meet again in Israel, where Celan is trying to learn Hebrew. This encounter and the long conversations with each other become a kind of turning point in the life and poetry of Paul Celan. The correspondence and Celan’s trip to Israel are significant testimony to a European-poetic-intellectual reception of Israel that has yet to be matched in the poetic world.
An event as part of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, 2023.
 
Ensemble: Roman Salyutov, musical direction and orchestra
Narrators: Hanno Dinger and Britta Shulamit Jakobi

Free admission as of 6:00 p.m.

Advance booking is essential: Tel.: +43 1 535 04 31-1510 or e-mail: events@jmw.at

We recommend wearing an FFP2 mask.