Israeli Consul Rony Yedidia (left), Irish Consul General David Barry (center), and comic Jimmy Tingle (right) read from James Joyce’s Ulysses, while actress Elaine Theodore looks on during the Bloomsday Boston 2007 celebration, held at Bapst Library on June 16. Reading from “The Cyclops,” the narrator (Yedidia) sets the scene in a Dublin pub where Leopold Bloom (not pictured: Steven Barkhimer) speaks in defense of the Jews against the anti-Semitic outbursts of “The Citizen” (Tingle).
Bill Littlefield, Margery Eagan, Jim Braude, and Delores Handy were some of the 12 Boston-area personalities who joined six actors in reading more than two-dozen excerpts from the classic work, with many wearing Victorian-style dress. The readings were part of a larger event presented by the New Center for Arts and Culture and Boston College’s Irish Studies Program and Office of the Provost.
“The partnership is ideal to celebrate the intersection of Jewish and Irish cultures in the Boston area, through the medium of a great Irish novel, Ulysses, and its Jewish protagonist, Leopold Bloom,” said Daniel Neuman, chief executive officer and executive director of the New Center for Arts and Culture.
The day’s events included the panel discussion “A City Evolving: the Impact of the Jews and Irish in Boston,” led by Boston College history professor James O’Toole, doctoral candidate Meaghan Dwyer, Michael Feldberg of the American Jewish Historical Society, and social worker Enid Shapiro. English professor and Irish studies chair Marjorie Howes spoke on “Ulysses for the Perplexed: Making Sense of the Novel for the Common Reader,” and two films, Of Stars and Shamrocks and Bloom, were screened.
“This collaboration vividly illustrates the relevance of the Irish and Jewish experiences to each other and, equally important, to those of other diaspora communities,” said Bert Garza, provost and dean of faculties.