Meredith Lewis, director of content, education, and family experience for PJ Library in North America, visits with us during Tent: Children's Literature - the week-long retreat for emerging and mid-career writers and author-illustrators of board books, picture books, early chapter books, and middle-grade fiction. She talks about her work with PJ Library, Jewish children's literature, and what's been happening at the Yiddish Book Center's Tent: Children's Literature workshop.

Episode 0219

May 12, 2019

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Episode 0218: "Dr. Pamela Nadell on 'America's Jewish Women'" by Yiddish Book Center

This week on The Shmooze, Lisa Newman talks to Mikail Krutikov, Professor and Chair of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Preston R. Tisch Professor of Judaic Studies at the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Professor Krutikov discusses the life and work of enigmatic Yiddish writer Der Nister (“The Recluse”). Professor Kruitkov will be leading the weekend program “Between Fantasy and Reality: The Writings of Der Nister” at the Yiddish Book Center from May 3 to 5. To learn more about the program and register, visit: https://secure2.convio.net/nybc/site/Ticketing?view=Tickets&id=7841

Episode 0217

April 12, 2019

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

This week on The Shmooze, Lisa Newman speaks with Alana Newhouse, Founder and Editor of Tablet Magazine about her book, "The 100 Most Jewish Foods: A Highly Debatable List." Newhouse speaks powerfully to the role that food has always played in the religious, cultural, and political lives of Jews throughout the world. She also shares some of the background about the book’s essays, recipes, stories, and contributors who include: Ruth Reichl, Joan Nathan, Michael Solomonov, Yotam Ottolenghi, Tom Colicchio, and Maira Kalman, among others.

Episode 0216

April 5, 2019

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

This week, Lisa Newman talks to Smith College senior Abigail Weaver about "Grains of Wheat," her play about the Jewish intellectuals, known as the Paper Brigade, who worked to hide stores of cultural materials from Nazi forces in the Vilna ghetto. "Grains of Wheat" is the product of Weaver's years of interest in Yiddish, including a class visit to Vilna, and combines her Theater and Jewish Studies majors. Weaver discusses the tensions inherent in writing a work of historical fiction, the fortitude of the Paper Brigade, and what poet and Paper Brigade member Avrom Sutzkever called the "paper chain" of documents stretching from before World War II to modern day.

Episode 0215

March 21, 2019

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Alyssa Quint joins us this week to talk about her new book, “The Rise of the Modern Yiddish Theater.” Quint, a senior scholar at YIVO Institute and a contributor to the Digital Yiddish Theater Project, examines the beginnings of Yiddish-language theater and delves into one of Yiddish theater’s brilliant and polarizing figures, Avrom Goldfaden. Born in 1840, Goldfaden came from humble beginnings to become an immensely popular playwright and producer, drawing both the respect and ire of fellow Yiddish intellectuals like Sholem Aleichem.

Episode 0214

March 20, 2019

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

This week we visit with Ira Fuchs. Ira began writing plays in college. After graduating from college Ira spent 45 years working in computer technology. In 2016, he returned to writing plays and enrolled in a six week play writing workshop at Hollins University. One assignment was to write a full-length play, in three days, based on a news article published that day. In the "New York Times" was a story about the discovery of an escape tunnel in the Ponar death pits outside of Vilnius. Ira shares the story behind "VILNA" which will have a five-week Off-Broadway run beginning March 11th.

Episode 0213

February 26, 2019

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Heather Valencia joins us from Scotland to talk about her newly published translation of "Seeds in the Desert." Available for the first time in translation, Mendel Mann’s stories follow his life in reverse, from Israel in the 1950s to his experiences in the post-War Soviet Union and his childhood in Poland. Heather talks about Mann’s indelible portraits of survivors as they confront the past and struggle to create a meaningful existence in the fledgling state of Israel.

Episode 0212

February 14, 2019

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Debra Caplan, Yiddish theater historian and Assistant Professor of Theater at Baruch College, joins us this week to discuss her book, "Yiddish Empire: The Vilna Troupe, Jewish Theater, and the Art of Itinerancy." We chat about the Vilna Troupe in its early years, their groundbreaking production of The Dybbuk, and more.

Episode 0211

February 8, 2019

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Director Andrea Simon joins us to discuss her documentary, Angel Wagenstein: Art is a Weapon. This extraordinary film focuses on the life of Angel Wagenstein, Bulgarian anti-fascist fighter in his youth and film director and author in his later years. Simon speaks with us about Wagenstein, and how his story informs a larger narrative.

Episode 0210

January 31, 2019

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts