Diti Ronen & Tal Ronen, Anne Birkenhauer: Little Thrush

A soundscape of speech and double bass

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  Diti Ronen – Person mit Brille liest in ein Mikrofon und hält ein Buch mit der Aufschrift "POEMS". Im Hintergrund blauer Vorhang.

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  Tal Ronen – Person mit Cello in edlem Ambiente, goldene Beleuchtung; trägt Anzug, Hemd und Schiebermütze, schaut lächelnd zur Seite, lila Samtsofa im Hintergrund.

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  Anne Birkenhauer – Ältere Person mit Brille und gelbem Oberteil, sitzt drinnen. Im Hintergrund große Fenster.© Gershon Molad.

With Diti Ronen—author, Hebrew reading

Tal Ronen—double bass

Anne Birkenhauer—translation, German reading, and moderation

 

A labor camp near Elbing, a few weeks before the end of World War II. A shot rings out. A small thrush plummets from the sky. For five starving women, the bird becomes their last meal—and a fleeting moment in which not only the body survives, but also dignity, compassion, and humanity.

 

Decades later, the Israeli poet Diti Ronen sets out to uncover her mother’s story. Auschwitz, Stutthof, several labor camps, and a death march had left deep wounds; they were hardly ever spoken of. What remained were fragments of memory, isolated images, and a profound silence. From these, the daughter created the long poem “Little Thrush”—a poetic voice for what her mother could never bring herself to say throughout her life.

The title itself speaks to this process of remembrance. Diti Ronen’s mother spoke only broken Hebrew and always referred to the bird using a grammatically “incorrect” gender. In the German translation, it was deliberately rendered as a thrush. Thus, the bird remains female—just as vulnerable and endangered as the five women whose fates the poem preserves.

At the Jewish Culture Days, “Little Thrush” becomes a polyphonic space of remembrance. Diti Ronen reads her poem in Hebrew, while Anne Birkenhauer reads the German translation. Tal Ronen’s double bass creates a musical resonance chamber in which the unspeakable becomes audible. Thus, three generations come together: the mother’s memory, the daughter’s language, and the grandson’s music. Literature and music enter into a powerful dialogue and give voice to the silence.

Diti Ronen is one of the most significant voices in contemporary Israeli poetry. The poet and editor has received numerous awards, including the Art Prize (2024), the ACUM Award (2022), and the Kugel Award (2016).

Tal Ronen lives in New York as a double bassist. He moves between jazz tradition and contemporary music and has collaborated with artists such as Frank Wess, Jimmy Cobb, James Moody, Max Roach, and Sheila Jordan. As the bassist for Grammy-winning singer Catherine Russell, he regularly performs on international stages such as Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Village Vanguard, and Birdland.

Anne Birkenhauer has lived in Jerusalem as a literary translator since 1989. She has translated works by Jehuda Amichai, Dan Pagis, Agi Mishol, David Grossman, Zeruya Shalev, Aharon Appelfeld, Tomer Gardi, and many other authors into German. In 2018, she was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her contributions to the promotion of Hebrew literature.

Next date:

• Date Tuesday, 17/November/2026 20:00
• Venue Neue Synagoge Berlin
• Address Oranienburger Straße 28-30, 10117 Berlin-Mitte