Benjamin Fondane & Paul Celan: Literature & Tragedy
- RCI USA
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Presented on the occasion of the Holocaust Remembrance Day 2026
About The Event
On the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Romanian Cultural Institute presents a commemorative literary evening dedicated to the lives and works of two towering Jewish writers of Romanian origin whose voices shaped European literature in the aftermath of catastrophe.
Bringing together literature, history, and live performance, the event offers a powerful space for remembrance, reflection, and dialogue. Through scholarly insight, dramatic readings, and audience discussion, the program explores how Benjamin Fondane and Paul Celan transformed personal trauma, exile, and historical rupture into enduring works of ethical and aesthetic urgency.
The evening will open with a keynote address by Dr. Evan Parks (Columbia University), scholar of modern European and Jewish literature, who will contextualize the intellectual and historical landscapes that shaped the authors’ work, with particular attention to memory, displacement, and post-Holocaust poetics.
The program continues with public readings from selected texts by Fondane and Celan, performed by actors Cameron Darwin Bossert and Suzanne Toren. The excerpts, curated by theater director Beate Hein Bennett, highlight the enduring relevance of these writers’ voices in a world still grappling with violence, exile, and the responsibility of memory.
Join us in honoring two essential authors, victims of prejudice and violence, whose works continue to challenge, unsettle, and illuminate our understanding of history and humanity.
Meet the Special Guests
Dr. EVAN PARKS is the Director of Education for The Bronfman Fellowship. Evan’s research treats modern European literature and culture, especially the entanglement of German and Jewish intellectual traditions. He is also interested in correspondences between Jewish diaspora writers and Hebrew literature. Evan is a Visiting Scholar at NYU’s Center for the Humanities, and is currently completing a book that explores tensions between the post-Shoah poet Paul Celan and his philosophical readers, especially Hans-Georg Gadamer, Theodor W. Adorno, and Jacques Derrida. As an educator, Evan is interested in the intersection of liberal education and Jewish learning. He taught at Columbia University’s Department of Germanic Languages and Core Curriculum, where he was a finalist for the University’s highest teaching honor, the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching. Evan served as Faculty for the Bronfman Fellowship for four years (2019, 2021, 2023, and 2024). Evan received his Ph.D. in German and Comparative Literature from Columbia University and holds a B.A. in European Cultural Studies from Brandeis University. He was a 2020-21 Fellow with the Leo Baeck Institute London. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Evan was a Bronfman Fellow in 2005. He lives in Manhattan with his partner Eliana and daughter Selah.
