This week we sit down with Andy Statman, one of the founders of the klezmer revival. He and Lisa talk about how he initially came to klezmer and the way that he and his fellow musicians brought this genre of music into a new light. Catch the Andy Statman Trio during this year's Yidstock on Sunday, July 16, here at the Center.

Episode 0150

June 2, 2017

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Rose Waldman joins us this week to talk about her new translation of S. An-sky's Pioneers. She and Lisa discuss An-sky’s relatable, and sometimes autobiographical, characters and how these characters grapple with their identities as Jews during the Haskalah.

Episode 0149

May 26, 2017

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

This week we sit down with Abigail Pogrebin to speak about her latest book, My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew. She and Lisa discuss the inspiration behind her book and the way her exploration of these holidays helped her understand her Jewishness in a new way.

Episode 0148

May 19, 2017

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Award-winning cookbook author Joan Nathan took time to speak with us about her newest book, King Solomon's Table: A Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from around the World. Nathan shares stories about her travels, which took her around the globe to chronicle and preserve the history of Jewish food, its roots, culture, and recipes.

Episode 0147

May 12, 2017

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

This week, we are joined by Riv-Ellen Prell, a professor at the University of Minnesota, to talk about Jewish summer camping in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. Riv-Ellen discusses how the activities at these summer camps—from religious practice to outdoor adventuring—were geared toward creating a new kind of Jewish identity in the post-war period.

Episode 0146

May 5, 2017

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

This week we are joined by Kristen Gresh, curator of the new exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston: "Memory Unearthed: The Lodz Ghetto Photographs of Henryk Ross." This exhibit, now on display, tells the intimate story of life in the ghetto through the lens of one of the few individuals who survived it.

Episode 0145

April 28, 2017

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

This week we are joined by writer and translator Curt Leviant, best known for his many novels and translations of famous Yiddish authors, including Chaim Grade and Lamed Shapiro. He speaks about the challenges of Yiddish translation and his two latest novels, and tells a surprising story involving Grade and a mistranslated expression about King Solomon.

Episode 0144

April 21, 2017

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

This week we sit down with Loli Kantor, the photographer behind our newest visiting exhibit: Beyond the Forest: Jewish Presence in Eastern Europe. Loli talks about how a visit to Poland inspired an eight-year-long project that took her into homes, synagogues, and other community centers in Poland and Ukraine, where she got to know both the elderly Jewish population as well as younger people eager to revive the largely lost Jewish culture. She also talks about the meaning behind her photographs, and how this meaning has changed now that the older generation has started to pass away.

Episode 0143

April 14, 2017

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

This week we are joined by Sandy Fox, a PhD candidate at NYU and the host of the popular Yiddish feminist podcast Vaybertaytsh. Sandy talks about her dissertation, on Jewish summer camps—which, interestingly, is not shaped by the years she spent at summer camp as a child. She also tells us what it’s like to write and produce a podcast about feminist topics—from fashion to midwifery—completely in Yiddish.

Epsiode 0142

April 4, 2017

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

This week we sit down with Alan Kaufman, owner of the Lower East Side-based shop The Pickle Guys, known for its specialty pickles and pickled fruits and vegetables. Alan reveals the secret to the perfect pickle, including the step-by-step process the pickle guys follow to achieve their signature crunch.

Episode 0141

March 31, 2017

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts