Ver Vet Blaybn? (Who Will Remain?) (A Film)

A New Feature-Length Documentary Film from the Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project

The Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project is excited to present Ver Vet Blaybn? (Who Will Remain?) a feature-length documentary film that follows one woman’s journey to understand her grandfather, the Yiddish writer Avrom Sutzkever.

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A film by Hadas Kalderon, Emily Felder, and Christa Whitney.

Film Synopsis

Attempting to better understand her grandfather Avrom Sutzkever, Israeli actress Hadas Kalderon travels to Lithuania, using her grandfather’s diary to trace his early life in Vilna and his survival of the Holocaust. Sutzkever (1913–2010) was an acclaimed Yiddish poet—described by the New York Times as the “greatest poet of the Holocaust”—whose verse drew on his youth in Siberia and Vilna, his spiritual and material resistance during World War II, and his post-war life in the State of Israel. Kalderon, whose native language is Hebrew and must rely on translation of her grandfather’s work, is nevertheless determined to connect with what remains of the poet’s bygone world and confront the personal responsibility of preserving her grandfather’s literary legacy. 

Woven into the documentary are family home videos, newly recorded interviews, and archival recordings, including Sutzkever’s testimony at the Nuremberg Trial. Recitation of his poetry and personal reflections on resisting Nazi forces as a partisan fighter reveal how Sutzkever tried to make sense of the Holocaust and its aftermath. As Kalderon strives to reconstruct the stories told by her grandfather, the film examines the limits of language, geography, and time.

Film Screenings and Special Events

We will announce public screenings as they are scheduled.

Upcoming Screenings
February 19th, 2024  — 8:30 PM Central Time at the Yavne School Auditorium in Mexico City. Hosted by La Kehile, the Ashkenazi Community of Mexico *Mexico premiere*

Past Screenings

February 7, 2024 , 7-8:45 PM —University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee 
UWM Union Cinema
November 17, 2023 — Orchard Cove Senior Retirement Community in Canton, MA 
November 12, 2023, 3 p.m. EST — Yiddish Culture Festival 2023 at Haverford College in Haverford, PA 
November 8, 2023, 7:15 EDT — Lafayette College in Lehigh Valley, PA 
November 7, 2023, 7 p.m. PDT — Temple Kol Emeth in Palo Alto, CA 
November 2, 2023, 7 p.m. EST — C. H. Booth Library in Newtown, CT
June 28, 2023 — Viver com Yiddish/Lebn far yidish at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (virtual)
June 21, 2023, 6:30 p.m. CEST — Vienna, Austria (details to come) *Austrian premiere*
June 9, 2023, 2 p.m. CEST — Jewish Culture Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark *Danish premiere*
June 7, 2023, 7 p.m. BST — JW3 London Jewish Community Centre *UK premiere*
April 18, 2023 — Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, California
April 17, 2023 — Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel
January 27, 2023, 2 p.m. — Tel Aviv Cinematheque 
January 27, 2023, 2 p.m. — Pakruojo Sinagoga (Pakruojis, Lithuania)
Wednesday, November 16, 2022, 7 p.m. — YIVO Institute for Jewish Research *New York premiere*
Tuesday, November 15, 2022, 7 p.m. — Amherst Cinema
Thursday, November 3 — Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee)
Tuesday, August 23, 2022, 6 p.m. EEST — Šiaulių "Laiptų galerija" (Šiauliai, Lithuania)
August 16, 2022, 6 p.m. EEST — Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania (Vilnius, Lithuania)
July 23 - August 21, 2022 — International Activism Film Festival
June 9, 2022 — Madrid International Independent Film Festival
June 6, 2022, 2:30 p.m. — Philadelphia Independent Film Festival
April 28, 2022, 12 p.m. — Kiryat Motzkin (Israel)
April 27, 2022, 8 p.m. — Kibbutz Alumim (Israel)
April 1, 2022, 12:30 p.m. — 13th Annual EPOS International Art Film Festival (Tel Aviv) *Cinematic premiere*
March 26, 2022, 10:15 a.m. — 10th Annual Maryland International Film Festival (Hagerstown, MD)
March 6, 2022, 4-6 p.m. — Johns Hopkins University Hillel (Baltimore, MD)
February 10-20, 2022 — 32nd Annual San Diego International Jewish Film Festival *US West Coast premiere*
     view the A Celebration of Avrom Sutzkever's Yiddish Poetry special event 
February 5-9, 2022 — 19th XIX Punta del Este Jewish Film Festival (Uruguay)
November 25, 2021 — Switzerland International Film Festival (virtual)
November 22-28, 2021 — St. Andrews Film Festival (Scotland, virtual)
November 2021 — Melech International Film Festival *Israeli premiere*
November 7-21, 2021 — 33rd Annual Boston Jewish Film Festival (virtual) *Massachusetts premiere*
      view the directors' talk balk with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Larry Hott
August 22-30, 2021 — KlezKanada (virtual) *Canadian premiere*
+ August 25 5:30 PM Eastern: live talkback
August 11-15, 2021 — NHDocs (New Haven, Connecticut, virtual) *New England premiere*
July 28-20, 2021 — Museum Talkies International Film Festival (Kochi, India, virtual)
June 26-27, 2021 — Kyiv International Film Festival (Kyiv, Ukraine, virtual)
May 23-30, 2021 — JxJ 2021 Festival (Washington, DC, virtual) *Midatlantic premiere*
       view the directors' talkback with Sutzkever scholar and translator Justin D. Cammy
May 9-15, 2021 — Boca Raton Jewish Film Festival (virtual)
April 14-29, 2021 — 24th Annual Miami Jewish Film Festival (virtual) *World premiere*
       view the filmmakers' talkback with Hadas Kalderon, Christa Whitney, and Emily Felder
       view the Zen and the Art of Yiddish Film discussion hosted by The Betsy Hotel
March 21, 2021 — Yiddish Book Center (Members & friends sneak peek)

Are you interested in bringing Ver Vet Blaybn? to a film festival you organize? Email [email protected] for a screener and press kit.

Film Team

Christa P. Whitney, Producer and Co-Director
Christa is the director of the Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project, a growing collection of more than 1,000 in-depth video interviews about Yiddish language and culture with people of all ages and backgrounds. Originally from Northern California, Christa discovered Yiddish while studying comparative literature at  Smith. She has studied Yiddish language at the Vilnius Yiddish Institute, the Workers Circle, and the Yiddish Book Center. For the past ten years, she has traveled near and far recording oral history interviews, while also managing a video archive and producing documentary films and web features about all aspects of Yiddish language and culture. Christa was recently named on the 2020 Forward 50 list of “people we needed in a year we definitely didn’t.”

Emily Felder, Editor and Co-Director
Emily Felder is a documentary film editor whose work has been screened in museums, libraries, and schools across the country. She studied anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she became invested in archaeology, visual ethnography, and nonfiction storytelling. She worked as the premiere technical assistant for the Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project, and as an assistant editor at Florentine Films/Hott Productions on feature-length documentaries broadcast on PBS. She is now an editor and videographer based in Los Angeles, where she continues to make films.

Hadas Kalderon, Producer
Hadas Kalderon is the granddaughter of renowned poet Avrom Sutzkever. She is an actress, theater maker, playwright, and director who is currently serving as the artistic director of the National Youth Theatre. Hadas is also an associate producer of the award-winning documentary Black Honey, the Life and Poetry of Avraham Sutzkever.

Executive producer: Jesse Abraham
Key cast: Hadas Kalderon, Mira Sutzkever, Avrom Sutzkever
Narration: Ruth Wisse
Cinematography: Dror Lebendiger (Israel), Addie Reiss (Lithuania), and Nitzan Moshe (The Twin Sisters

Directors' Statements

Christa Whitney: It was reading Avrom Sutzkever in my first semester at Smith College that introduced me to the world of Yiddish literature. Back then, I never could have predicted that this interest in Yiddish would lead me on adventures all over the world and eventually to this film. Reading Sutzkever feels like a return to an intellectual and emotional home within Yiddish culture, so working on this film came with intense pressure as well as pleasure. I am not alone in my fascination with this writer and the world of his youth in pre-war Vilna, so it is my hope and honor to share this writer’s wild life story and endless well of inspired poetic work with a wider audience through this, my first feature-length documentary film.

Emily Felder: I was drawn to tell this story not only as a documentary filmmaker but also as a Jewish woman. This film examines the significant testimony of a Holocaust survivor and explores the challenges of intergenerational cultural transmission and the inherited trauma therein. As an American Jew whose family experienced this historical injustice and shares in its collective memory, I am humbled to illuminate Avrom Sutzkever as a key literary figure in the evolution of secular Jewish expression and identity.

Reviews (Advance Praise)

Who Will Remain? is that rare documentary that soars above the power of its subject matter. The subject here is the life and poetry of Avrom Sutzkever, the renowned Yiddish poet who survived the Vilna ghetto, fought with the partisans against the Nazis in Lithuania, and gave birth to the revival of Yiddish as an art form in Israel. The film employs three standard documentary techniques to create a portrait of the poet nearly as powerful as the poetry itself. The first technique is a quest—the literal journey of Sutzkever’s actress granddaughter, Hadas Kalderon, to uncover his past in Lithuania. The second is narration and archives that set the temper of the times and the poet’s personal history. The third, which is the most powerful, is the readings of Sutzkever’s poetry by the master himself, in Yiddish. The poetry—rhythmic, rhyming, imaginative—is accompanied, almost musically, by the brilliant editing, which, at times, is poetry itself. Though set against the cruelties of the Holocaust, the film is a lyrical tribute to the power of art. By the midpoint Sutzkever’s own words and voice provide a philosophical thrust that elevates the film beyond history and biography. “It is easier to go to death accompanied by a poem. Poetry means freeing oneself from emotion and even freeing oneself from personality. But freeing oneself from one’s personality through poetry is something only one with a poet’s personality can do. The more realistic a poet is the further he is from reality. The more fantastical a poet is, the closer he is to reality.” Who Will Remain? is fantastical and therefore realistic. It is a tribute to an artist, a celebration of the power of Yiddish, and an unforgettable documentary experience.

—Larry Hott, co-founder, Florentine Films, twice Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker

Ver vet blaybn? (Who will remain?) is a truly wonderful documentary about the last of the Mohicans of the Yiddish poetry, the great Avrom Sutzkever. I highly recommend to everybody to watch this movie and hope that it will make people aware of the beauty and riches of the Yiddish culture which is so dear to me.

—Evgeny Kissin, classical music composer and performer; Yiddish poet

Ver Vet Blaybn? follows the quest of Avrom Sutzkever’s granddaughter, an Israeli actress Hadas Kalderon, to bring the legacy of the great Yiddish poet and champion of Yiddish culture back to his native city of Vilnius and restore “the golden chain” of memory. Sutzkever’s story is presented in her and the poet’s own voices, in addition to the insightful narration by scholar Ruth R. Wisse; this polyphony makes the documentary powerfully emotional. It was created by the Yiddish Book Center that makes it its mission to answer the title question—Who will remain? What will remain?—by gathering and presenting testimonies of the Yiddish culture and making sure that it will, indeed, remain.

—Lara Lempert, head of the Judaica Research Center at the Department of the Documentary Heritage of the Martynas Mazvydas National Library of Lithuania

This elegant documentary film features the Yiddish poet Avrom Sutzkever (1913-2010) awarded the Israel prize for Literature 1985. Born in Vilna/Vilnius, Lithuania, Sutzkever’s verse and prose sing songs of love for the city of his youth and express defiance as he survived the Holocaust in the Vilna Ghetto. Sutzkever carried his poems in his pockets when he escaped the ghetto in 1943 with his wife Frida to join the forest partisans. “Deep were and will be your roots” writes Sutzkever; words which inspired his granddaughter Hadas Kalderon, an Israeli actor, to travel from Tel Aviv to Vilnius to retrace Sutzkever’s life. Kalderon walked the streets that Sutzkever knew to the site where the great synagogue stood to the theatre where Sutzkever organized performances of his poems. Kalderon rehearses her own performance of Sutzkever’s poetry to be staged in the same Vilnius theatre. Sutzkever celebrates Jewish culture in Yiddish – important because Sutzkever refused to popularize his verse through translation and yet gained acclaim and recognition internationally. This film directed by Christa P. Whitney and Emily Felder is produced by the Yiddish Book Center. Congratulations to the directors and producers for bringing to light the voice of a poet who otherwise would remain forgotten. 

—Luda Popenhagen, former Professor of Performing Arts and Global Languages and Cultures, California State University 

Ver Vet Blaybn?, the new film about Abraham Sutzkever, and the personal journey of his granddaughter actress Hadas Kalderon is both moving and beautifully done. Congratulations to Christa Whitney and Hadas Kalderon for this important and poignant tribute to the Yiddish language's most important poet.

—Zalmen Mlotek, artistic director of the National Yiddish Theater-Folksbiene

Hadas Kalderon poses the question on all our minds, “Why didn’t I ask this when my grandparents were alive?” It’s universal but when one of the grandparents is Avrom Sutzkever the question takes on a new and deeper resonance. Fortunately for Kalderon, her grandfather’s poetry and his much-documented life give her more answers than most of us get. Her quest and journey, augmented by family videos (the Sutzkevers at home!), trips to Vilna and Berlin, her grandfather’s writings and more, offer new insight into this great poet that resonates for all.

—Sheva Zucker, author Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature & Culture, Vols. I & II; Editor-in-Chief, Emeritus, Afn Shvel magazine

A wonderful movie about the life of Avrom Sutzkever, the legendary Giant of Yiddish Poetry, and the story of his granddaughter, the Israeli actress Hadas Kalderon. On a visit to Vilna she explores the actual places of her grandfather's early life, and tries to come to terms with the long shadows of the Shoah. Very rare footage shows us Sutzkever in his last years. Kalderon's eloquent voice reveals a huge sense of loss and the third generation's mature acceptance of what cannot be replaced. Highly recommended. 

—Samuel Bak, artist and survivor of the Vilna Ghetto

Awards and Selections

  • Best Editor for a Feature Documentary from Golden Arts' Best Film Awards
  • Bronze Award from Latitude Film Awards
  • Finalist for the Madrid Film Awards
  • Best Feature Documentary from the Luleå International Film Festival Award
  • Award of Recognition for Documentary Feature film and Award of Merit in Jewish film from IndieFEST Film Awards
  • Award of Recognition for Documentary Feature film from ImpactDOCS Film Awards
  • Semifinalist for the Serbest International Film Festival (Kishinev)
  • Semifinalist for the Dumbo Film Festival (New York)
  • Semifinalist for the Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival
  • Finalist for the Near Nazareth Film Festival (Afula)
  • Finalist for the Continental Film Festival (Barcelona)
  • Finalist in Documentary Feature Film for the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival
  • Awards of Best Director Feature Film, Best Debut Filmmaker Feature Film, and Best Film Made by Women from the Kerala Museum's Museum Talkies International Film Festival (Kochi)
  • Best International Documentary for the Northern London Documentary Film Festival
  • Highly Commended Nominee in Best Documentary, Best Jewish-American Film, and Best New Filmmaker awards for the American Jewish Film Festival - The JEWZYS
  • Finalist for Montreal Independent Film Festival
  • Finalist for the Continental Film Festival
  • Best Documentary at the MELECH Tel Aviv International Film Festival
  • Best Documentary at the Switzerland International Film Festival
  • The Antonio Ripoll Award for Best Editing (of a feature film) at the St. Andrews Film Festival
  • Nominee for the South America Awards (Brazil)
  • Finalist for Boden International Film Festival
  • Nominee for Toronto Independent Film Awards
  • Best Documentary Film Editing for a Featurette at the Madrid International Independent Film Festival (Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente de Madrid — FICIMAD) (Spain)
  • Nominee for International Activism Film Festival award
  • Mason Multi Media Documentary Award from the Oral History Association

Official Selections

  • Miami Jewish Film Festival *WORLD PREMIERE*
  • Boca Raton Jewish Film Festival
  • Roma Cinema DOC festival
  • JxJ (formerly the Washington Jewish Film Festival) *MIDATLANTIC PREMIERE*
  • NHDocs: The New Haven Documentary Film Festival *NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE*
  • Golden Harvest Film Festival (Tokyo)
  • Seattle Film Festival
  • Redwood Film Festival
  • Iconic Images Film Festival (Vilnius/Turkey)
  • Wolves Independent International Film Festival (Lithuania)
  • Kyiv Film Festival (Ukraine)
  • Orlando Film Festival
  • Northern London Documentary Film Festival
  • Kerala Museum's Museum Talkies International Film Festival (Kochi)
  • Boston Jewish Film Festival *MASSACHUSETTS PREMIERE*
  • MELECH Tel Aviv International Film Festival *ISRAELI PREMIERE*
  • Switzerland International Film Festival
  • St. Andrews Film Festival (Scotland)
  • San Diego International Jewish Film Festival *WEST COAST PREMIERE*
  • T.I.F.A. - Tietê International Film Awards (São Paulo, Brazil)
  • Five Continents International Film Festival (Venezuela)
  • Darbhanga International Film Festival (India)
  • EPOS International Art Film Festival (Tel Aviv)
  • XIX Punta del Este Jewish Film Festival (Uruguay)
  • Toronto International Womens Film Festival
  • Boden International Film Festival (Sweden)
  • Septimus Awards (Amsterdam)
  • Maryland International Film Festival (Hagerstown, MD)
  • Open Window International Film Challenge (Kolkata, India)
  • Berlin International Art Film Festival
  • Philadelphia Independent Film Festival
  • Anatolia International Film Festival (Turkey)
  • International Activism Film Festival

Press Coverage


‘Who Will Remain?’ Filmmaker’s ode to legendary Yiddish poet to screen in Palo Alto by Alix Wall J. The Jewish News of Northern California (April 11, 2023)
Award-Winning Documentary on Acclaimed Yiddish Poet Comes to Amherst Cinema by Steve Pfarrer Daily Hampshire Gazette (November 11, 2022)
כ’וועל לעבן און שטאַרבן מיט ייִדיש (I Will Live and Die with Yiddish) by Lea Szlanger
Yidishe Branzhe (May 1, 2022)
העיר שלי: הר געש של שלווה בעיר התוססת במדינה. המקומות של הדס קלדרון (My City: A Volcano of Serenity in the Country's Most Vibrant City. Hadas Kalderon's Places) by Hadas Kalderon
TimeOut Israel (March 30, 2022)
Hybrid San Diego International Jewish Film Festival kicks off this Wednesday by Beth Accomando
KPBS Public Media (February 7, 2022)
Cinema Junkie: Preview of 32nd San Diego International Jewish Film Festival by Beth Accomando 
KPBS Public Media (February 7, 2022)
"אין נאצים בשירה של סבא שלי. הוא אמר שהיופי מרפא" ("There are No Nazis in My Grandfather's Poetry. He Said Beauty Heals) by Lior Soroka 
Haaretz (January 30, 2022)
אָנלײַן־שמועס מיט רעזשיסאָרינס פֿון פֿילם וועגן אַבֿרהם סוצקעווער
Online discussion with directors of film about poet Avrom Sutzkever

The Yiddish Daily Forward (November 12, 2021)
Not Just Talking Heads: Yiddish and Jewish Eastern Europe in Recent Documentary Films by Sandra Chiritescu
In Geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies (November 8, 2021)
Doc Talk: Keeping the past present at this year’s Boston Jewish Film Festival by Peter Keough
Boston Globe (November 4, 2021)
Documentary Film Traces Life, Works of Yiddish Poet Avrom Sutzkever 
San Diego Jewish World (October 28, 2021)
Yiddish Book Center Revives Poet’s Legacy Through Film by Rich Tenorio
JewishBoston (April 20, 2021)
Yiddish films to screen during Miami festival by Sergio Carmona
South Florida Sun Sentinel (April 15, 2021)
צוויי וואָכן לאַנג וועט מען קענען זען די נײַע ייִדישע פֿילמען אָנלײַן
For two weeks, these Yiddish films will be available online

The Yiddish Daily Forward (April 12, 2021)
The Miami Jewish Film Festival goes hybrid for 2021 by Sarah Brown
Forward (April 6, 2021)
Miami Jewish Film Festival represents 'wide array of voices' by Sergio Carmona
South Florida Sun Sentinel (March 25, 2021)
HGMS Screens Ver Vet Blaybn? (Who Will Remain?) by Lizy Mostowski
A blog of the Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (February 24, 2021)
ווער וועט בלײַבן?“ — נײַער דאָקומענטאַר־פֿילם וועגן אַבֿרהם סוצקעווער"
"Who Will Remain?'' — New Documentary About Abraham Sutzkever

The Yiddish Daily Forward (May 17, 2019)
The Gems of Yiddish Cinema by Rokhl Kafrissen
Tablet (May 22, 2019)

Learn More

Press contact: Christa Whitney

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The Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project is a growing collection of more than 1,000 in-depth interviews with people of all ages and backgrounds, whose stories about the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture offer a rich and complex chronicle of Jewish identity. Learn more about and explore the Wexler Oral History Project collection.

This film is made possible in part by the generous support of Jesse M. Abraham.