This week, The Shmooze visits with editor and author Stephen Shepard to talk about his literary memoir "A Literary Journey to Jewish Identity: Re-Reading Bellow, Roth, Malamud, Ozick, and Other Great Jewish Writers." Over the course of our conversation, we consider his encounters with a few writers who influenced his sense of Jewish identity, the idea of the Jewish-American writer, and what it's like to re-read some of these authors.

Episode 0230

September 12, 2019

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Allen Lewis Rickman, producer, director, and performer of Yiddish theater, joins The Shmooze to talk about his work translating Yiddish for the stage and screen--from his work on the Cohen Brothers' "A Serious Man" to his recent translations and performances of two little-known Yiddish plays, "Breach of Promise" and "One of Those," to his production "Tevye Served Raw."

Episode 0229

August 25, 2019

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Alexander Dickow visited with The Shmooze to talk about "Asymptote's" recently published Yiddish poetry in translation feature that he co-edited with Asymptote's Editor-In-Chief Lee Yew Leong. Alexander is a bilingual poet and translator who works in French and English and is a scholar of modern and contemporary French and Francophone literature and film. His poetic works include "Appetites," "Trial Balloons," "Rhapsodie curieuse," and "Caramboles."

Episode 0228

August 18, 2019

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

This week on The Shmooze we visit with Anita Norich to talk about the recently published "A Jewish Refugee in New York" by Kadia Molodovsky, translated by Anita Norich. Anita is Professor Emerita of English and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, where, in addition to translating Yiddish literature, she teaches, lectures, and publishes on a range of topics concerning modern Jewish cultures, Yiddish language and literature, Jewish American literature, and Holocaust literature.

Episode 0227

August 9, 2019

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Caraid O'Brien joined us in the studio this week. Caraid is a writer, Yiddish translator, and performer who first began learning Yiddish as a Yiddish Book Center intern in 1994. Early in her career she received three new play commissions from the Foundation for Jewish Culture for her translations of classic Yiddish plays. Most recently, she translated the memoirs of Klara Klebanova, a Russian-Jewish revolutionary maximalist. Over the course of our conversation, we learn that Caraid studied Yiddish theater and performance with Luba Kadison Buloff, the last surviving member of the Vilna Troupe, and we hear about her current work translating "Sholem Asch: Plays of My People," a collection of four dramas that explore Jewish identity from the acclaimed playwright of "God of Vengeance."

Episode 0226

July 31, 2019

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Nadia Valman, Reader in English Literature at Queen Mary, University of London, visits with us to talk about her walking tour of Zangwill's Spitalfields, the Jewish immigrant neighborhood of Victorian Spitalfield. Nadia is the author and co-editor of numerous books including "The Jewess in Nineteenth-Century British Literary Culture and the Routledge Companion to Contemporary Jewish Cultures" and is currently researching the literature of east London.

Episode 0225

July 18, 2019

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Seth Rogovoy, Yidstock's artistic director and the author of "The Essential Klezmer," joins us to talk about Yidstock 2019, the Yiddish Book Center's annual summer music festival. In conversation, Seth talks about the 2019 line-up, the roots of Jewish music, and how he found his way to klezmer.

Episode 0224

June 27, 2019

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Mindl Cohen joins us on The Shmooze to talk about the "2019 Pakn Treger Digital Translation Issue," a collection of letters and stories about letters. The pieces included in this year's anthology provide a window into the personal lives of Yiddish writers; illustrate aspects of day-to-day communications; and remind readers of the great distances across which relationships can stretch.

Episode 0223

June 20, 2019

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Chava Rosenfarb's daughter and translator, Goldie Morgentaler, visits with us this week to talk about the recently released "Confessions of a Yiddish Writer and Other Essays." The book is a collection of personal and literary essays by Chava Rosenfarb, translated by Goldie Morgentaler, ranging from autobiographical accounts of her childhood and experiences before and during the Holocaust to literary criticism that discusses the work of other Jewish writers. Goldie Morgentaler is a Canadian Yiddish-to-English literary translator and a professor of English literature.

Episode 0222

June 13, 2019

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Hankus Netsky joins us to share the finds that he and Yiddish Book Center staff unearthed as they cleared out a closet at the Yiddish Book Center. Known to staff as "Hankus's Closet," the closest has served as an archive for Yiddish sheet music, Yiddish records, and other music-related treasures.

Episode 0221

May 30, 2019

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts