"The Shmooze" catches up with the Yiddish Book Center's director of translation initiatives, Mindl Cohen, to talk about the 2020 "Pakn Treger Digital Translation Issue." This year's anthology of newly translated work includes memoirs, stories, and other works themed to "Yiddish Comes to America." As Mindl explains, "While there are some extremely funny and touching moments in these newly translated works of Yiddish literature, there are very few rosy portrayals of 'di goldene medine,' the golden country of America. Instead, many of these works offer at best a silhouette of the American Dream, set in stark relief against the reality of the experience of immigration."

Episode 0260

May 28, 2020

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

The Shmooze recently caught up with Deb Krivoy, director of the Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival (PVJFF), to ask her for a list of past Festival favorites that can be streamed at home. The annual ten-day festival, which features screenings presented at venues across the Pioneer Valley, had to be postponed this year due to the pandemic, so while we wait for it to be rescheduled, we thought it would be fun to share those recommendations with you.

Episode 0259

May 15, 2020

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

In 2012 Caraid O'Brien interviewed actor Jerry Stiller for WABI radio. She joins us on The Shmooze to talk about that interview and her friendship with the actor. In conversation with Caraid, we learn about Stiller's life on and off the stage and how he pursued acting at a very early age at the Henry Street Playhouse. We also hear about the Jewish and Yiddish roots that may have informed some of his work, and about Anne Meara, Stiller's wife and collaborator of sixty years.

Episode 0258

May 12, 2020

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

For 106 years, Russ & Daughters has been an integral part of the history of New York City, a touchstone in the lives of generations, and the torchbearer of Jewish food in America. Niki Russ Federman--who, along with her cousin Josh Russ Tupper, is a fourth generation owner of Russ & Daughters--took time to talk with us about the history of this iconic Jewish appetizer shop and how she and Josh are carrying on the tradition of this family business by providing home delivery across the country in the midst of a pandemic. To quote Niki, "We will get through this too because we plan on being here for you for another 106 years."

Episode 0257

May 8, 2020

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Translator and Yiddish literary scholar Anita Norich and Yiddish Book Center director of translation initiatives Mindl Cohen join The Shmooze this week to talk about their respective, recently published articles about women's writing in Yiddish, "Translating and Teaching Yiddish Prose by Women" and "The Feminine Ending: On Women's Writing in Yiddish, Now Available in English." Over the course of our conversation, we talk about where and how the works of these Yiddish women writers are finally coming to the forefront of the Yiddish literary world, both through scholarship and translation.

Episode 0256

May 1, 2020

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Lesley Yalen, the Yiddish Book Center's education manager, joined The Shmooze recently to talk about her work as co-editor of teachgreatjewishbooks.org, the Yiddish Book Center's site that provides a trove of resource kits designed to help teachers bring modern Jewish literature into their classrooms. The site's resources--which cover classic Yiddish works and Hebrew poetry in English translation, American Jewish stories, and much more--are free and easy to use and share across digital platforms, making them especially well-suited to this moment.

Episode 0255

April 24, 2020

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

This week we visit with Eli Rosen to talk about his work on the Netflix hit series "Unorthodox." Eli was raised in the Hasidic community of Brooklyn and now serves as the managing director of New Yiddish Rep, as well as a Yiddish cultural consultant for film and television. Our conversation touches on all that went into the making of this series - and his role as the Yiddish consultant.

Episode 0254

April 17, 2020

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

After nearly a decade in development, the Yiddish Book Center has launched a new website that will allow users to search the full text of nearly 11,000 scanned Yiddish books. This optical character recognition (OCR) technology will enable searches that used to take years to occur in a matter of seconds, revolutionizing research in Jewish history, literature, linguistics, ethnography, and genealogy. Sophia Shoulson, the Yiddish Book Center's 2019–2020 Richard S. Herman Fellow and a senior fellow working in bibliography, joins us to talk about how she's been using Yiddish OCR for her research and some of the amazing finds she's made.

Episode 0253

April 8, 2020

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Rabbi Avram Mlotek visits with The Shmooze to talk about the tradition of the Third Seder and how, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, he's found a way to celebrate this tradition with an online international Yiddish cultural event taking place on April 12. The live event will feature a stellar ensemble of some of our leading contemporary Yiddish performing artists--Frank London, Zalmen Mlotek, Joyce Rosenzweig, Lorin Sklamberg, Susan Abbe Watts, Joanne Borts, Sarah Gordon, Michael Winograd, Shura Lipovsky, Daniel Kahn, Elmore James, and Steven Skybell--all working remotely. The Yiddish Book Center is a sponsor of the Third Seder.

Episode 0252

April 2, 2020

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Melissa Martens Yaverbaum, executive director of the Council of American Jewish Museums and curator of Project Mah Jongg, chats with us about Mah Jongg, a game more widely known than played or understood, which made a surprisingly lasting impression on American audiences, including a generation of Jewish women in the 1920s and '30s, and has endured as a cultural touchstone ever since.

Episode 0251

March 27, 2020

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts