As journalists writing in the wartime Polish ghettos, Peretz Opoczynski and Josef Zelkowicz captured the anxiety and uncertainty of daily life for Jews with breathtaking immediacy. Professor Sam Kassow, coeditor of "In Those Nightmarish Days," a collection of their work recently published by the Yiddish Book Center’s New Yiddish Library, discusses the important contributions the two men’s reporting make to our understanding of this place and time.

Episode 0111

March 15, 2016

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Last summer, educators from around the country came to the Yiddish Book Center for our inaugural Great Jewish Books Teacher Workshop, where they worked together to develop curricula to bring modern Jewish literature and culture into their classrooms. Here, three of those teachers tell us what brought them to the workshop and how the program will shape their teaching.

Episode 0110

December 30, 2015

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Though it has a long and varied history, the town of Oświęcim, Poland, is notorious for one thing: Auschwitz. Yet for centuries prior to World War Two, Jews and non-Jews lived side by side there. Shiri B. Sandler, curator of the exhibit "A Town Known as Auschwitz"--now at the Yiddish Book Center--discusses the rich history of the town and its Jewish residents from the sixteenth century through the post-war period.

Episode 0109

December 10, 2015

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Tina Wasserman, author of "Entree to Judaism: A Culinary Exploration of the Jewish Diaspora" and "Entree to Judaism for Families: Jewish Cooking and Kitchen Conversations with Children," visits with us to discuss some traditional Hanukkah recipes and the histories behind them.

Episode 0108

December 7, 2015

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

At the Great Jewish Books Summer Program, high school students spend a week at the Yiddish Book Center delving into both classic and new works of modern Jewish literature. Two members of the Great Jewish Books class of 2015 talk about the engaging conversations they had in class, the fun of bonding with other students with shared interests, and the surprising things they discovered about the literature and themselves.

Episode 0107

November 15, 2015

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

In 1938, Fania Lewando, the chef and owner of a popular vegetarian restaurant in Vilna, Lithuania, published hundreds of her recipes—from traditional Jewish dishes to vegetarian versions of holiday staples—in a cookbook. Culinary anthropologist Eve Jochnowitz tells us how the book was rediscovered decades later and how she came to translate it from the original Yiddish, making its delicious contents available for the first time to English-speaking cooks.

Episode 0106

November 4, 2015

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Filmmaker Erik Anjou's latest documentary, "Deli Man," tells the story of third-generation deli man Ziggy Gruber. In our conversation with Anjou, he tells us about the film, which also profiles other iconic delis and their owners; the place of the delicatessen in Jewish tradition; and what inspires people like Ziggy to keep that tradition alive.

Episode 0105

September 2, 2015

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

For much of the twentieth century, the Red Apple Rest offered respite to countless weary vacationers traveling Route 17 between New York City and the resorts of the Catskills. Elaine Freed Lindenblatt, daughter of the iconic restaurant's founder, talks about "Stop at the Red Apple," her new memoir of that time and place.

Episode 0104

July 26, 2015

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Saul Dreier and Ruby Sosnowicz's recently founded Holocaust Survivor Band has become an overnight sensation. Drier and Sosnowicz took time out of their touring schedule to tell us how they returned to music late in life - and how this is all playing out.

Episode 0103

June 11, 2015

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Curator Eddy Portnoy shares the story behind "Yiddish Fight Club," a new exhibit at YIVO about Jewish boxers and wrestlers. The exhibit looks at the rich, if surprising, history of Jewish brawlers and the colorful Yiddish slang of that world.

Episode 0102

June 2, 2015

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts