Chana Mrocki
Memorial Mentorship
Program
די חנה מראָצקי אָנדענק פּראָגראַם
About the Program
Chana Mrocki (nee Korman) was one of the first members of SKIF in Melbourne in 1950. She participated in SKIF as a youth group leader on a voluntary basis for five years (1954-1959) and was a member of Tsukunft. She continued to do voluntary work for SKIF, helping to mentor new helfer, and preparing SKIFistn for performances including the April 19th commemoration from 1960 until her passing.
She was a fabulous teacher who was beloved by her students, colleagues and the parent bodies of the schools in which she taught.
Chana and her husband, Moishe, wrote and edited the English language section of the book ‘60 Years of the Jewish Labour Bund in Melbourne’, so that people who are not literate in Yiddish would be able to learn about our history. They worked on this text for three years.
All those who knew Chana knew her incredible dedication to Yiddish, the Bund and our community. She was an eternal teacher, acting as a mentor across several generations for members of the community.
The Chana Mrocki Memorial Mentorship has been set up to honour Chana’s legacy by cultivating specifically Bundist Yiddish Arts through providing a series of workshops, either virtually or in-person, with key prominent professionals in the field of leftist Yiddish Arts. The mentorship is designed for creating new cultural works in Yiddish on Bundist themes – this includes, but is not limited to Bundist history, political issues (past, current and future), and ideology. The workshops will be run annually, culminating in the new works being exhibited or premiered at the annual Bund yoyvl.
Who can apply?
To be eligible for this program you must be;
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18 or over
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have intermediate or advanced Yiddish language skills
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have experience in the field of social justice, politics or community work
Mentor for 2024
This year's mentor will be internationally renowned actor Shane Baker. The mentorship will be open to Australian performing artists and will take place in February / March.
SHANE BAKER is the best-loved Episcopalian on the Yiddish stage today. He has starred internationally as Vladimir in his own Yiddish translation of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, most recently at Stockholm’s Royal Dramatic Theater in their first-ever Yiddish production. The New Yorker said of his translation that the play “may finally have found its mother tongue.”
Baker has played Yiddish theater on every inhabited continent (and sometimes twice!) with such new concoctions as Isaac Bashevis Singer’s The Mirror; Avrom Sutzkever’s “Where the Stars Spend the Night”; Introducing Mitzi Manna in her First Ever Final Farewell Tour; Tevye Served Raw; and The Big Bupkis: A Complete Gentile's Guide to Yiddish Theater; as well as starring in such classics as God of Vengeance and The Megillah of Itzik Manger.
Shane serves as Executive Director of the Congress for Jewish Culture, a Yiddishist organization based in New York. In 2020, Shane received the Adrienne Cooper Dreaming in Yiddish Award. See www.congressforjewishculture.org
Program Structure
Step 1. The mentee (individual receiving mentorship) will notify the program coordinator of their goals for the mentorship
Step 2. Mentees will begin to meet with the mentor for a month of weekly compulsory sessions.
Step 3. Throughout the month, mentees will work on a new artistic piece in Yiddish which reflects the values of the Bund.
Step 4. The mentor program is finalised, with reflection on how the mentee has been able to address their goal.
Step 5. The work of the mentees is to be premiered at an event of the choosing of the Jewish Labour Bund.
Important Dates
2nd February - Applications Close
February/March - Mentorship Sessions Take Place
Apply Now
To apply, please complete the submission form below and email it to bundmelbourne@gmail.com by 5pm on Friday the 2nd of February. We will also accept applications in other formats, such as video, if this is more accessible to you.
