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

Roger Horowitz, author of the recently published Kosher USA: How Coke Became Kosher and Other Tales of Modern Food, shares a few backstories from his book about the history of keeping kosher in America. He reveals how iconic products such as Coca Cola and Jell-O tried to become kosher, what made Manischewitz wine the first kosher name-brand product to gain a wide non-Jewish audience, and more.

Episode 0140

March 24, 2017

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Eric Byron joins us this week to speak about the Ellis Island sound archives, which include a collection of Yiddish phonographic recordings dating from the 1890s to 1930s. Byron shares the history of these recordings, which we were made for an audience of newly arrived immigrants, and cranks up his Victor phonograph to share a few treasures from the collection.

Episode 0139

March 16, 2017

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

This week we sat down with the Yiddish Book Center's own Eitan Kensky to talk about our newest publication, The Abandoned Book and Other Yiddish Stories. The book features thirty original translations of Yiddish works by both famous and lesser-known authors, culled from the many translations that have appeared in our magazine, Pakn Treger, since its second issue. Eitan talks about the fun and challenge of poring over back issues of the magazine to pull together a cohesive collection, and about the complex and often surprising process of finding new Yiddish translators and of Yiddish translation itself.

Episode 0138

March 10, 2017

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

This week we sat down with Judah Cohen, an ethnomusicologist who focuses on the ways that Jewish communities are brought together by the music that they create and celebrate. From a young age, Judah was fascinated by the role music can play in shaping one's sense of self. Now, in his work, he explores how Jewish sound relates to Jewish identity.

Episode 0137

March 3, 2017

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Hello Mazel is a subscription service that delivers handpicked Jewish goodies—from Margarita mix to a towel that says "shvitsy"--right to your doorstep. We sat down with Yoav Schlesinger, the founder of Hello Mazel, to learn about the inspiration behind this Jewish-themed subscription box and how they pick treats that every Jewish grandmother would approve of.

Episode 0136

February 24, 2017

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts