The Shmooze, The Yiddish Book Center's Podcast

By Yiddish Book Center

What's The Shmooze, The Yiddish Book Center's Podcast about?

The Yiddish Book Center's podcast includes conversations with Jewish culture makers, plus news and stories related to Yiddish literature, language, and culture.

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Shmooze, The Yiddish Book Center's Podcast episodes:

05.29.2024
Episode 0371: After 80 Years Postcards Find Their Way Home to Lublin
Piotr Nazaruk and Karla McCabe joined "The Shmooze" to tell the story of the thirty-six postcards that Karla recently hand-delivered to Pitor Nazaruk at a ceremony in Lublin, Poland. Karla explains how this collection of postcards were looted from the...
05.13.2024
Episode 0370: Sivan Slapak’s Here Is Still Here
Writer Sivan Slapak visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about her debut collection, "Here Is Still Here." The stories provide a layered exploration of human connection and the complexities of identity. In conversation, Sivan shares how these stories—which take readers...
04.21.2024
Episode 0369: Yiddish Culture in America
"The Shmooze" visits with Sebastian Schulman for a chat about Yiddish culture in America as we celebrate American Jewish Heritage Month. In conversation he shares some of what he’s found on the Yiddish Book Center’s website related to the Jewish...
03.13.2024
Episode 0368: in a dark blue night: two song cycles on Yiddish/Jewish New York
Alex Weiser visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about his latest work, "in a dark blue night," consisting of two connected song cycles. The first, “in a dark blue night,” sets to music modernist Yiddish poetry about New York City...
03.12.2024
Episode 0367: The Yiddish Book Center’s Bossie Dubowick YiddishSchool
Sonia Bloom and Judith Liskin-Gasparro speak to "The Shmooze" about Yiddish-language learning, their work in the field, and their participation at the Yiddish Book Center’s upcoming Bossie Dubowick YiddishSchool. Episode 367 March 11, 2024 Amherst, MA
03.07.2024
Episode 0366:The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York
Ross Perlin, the co-director of the Endangered Language Alliance, visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about his new book, "Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York." The book provides a portrait of contemporary New York...
02.05.2024
Episode 0365: Across So Many Seas
Author Ruth Behar speaks with "The Shmooze" about "Across So Many Seas." Her latest book was inspired by Behar’s paternal grandmother’s side of the family of Sephardic Jews living in Spain up until the Spanish Inquisition of 1492. Behar used...
01.25.2024
Episode 0364: A Worker’s Yiddish Library on View
Marvin Zuckerman and Ruby Elliot Zuckerman join "The Shmooze" to talk about their family’s story, which is featured in the Yiddish Book Center’s new core exhibition, "Yiddish: A Global Culture." As Marvin shares, “In our one-bedroom apartment in the Bronx...
01.14.2024
Episode 0363: Telling the Story of Yiddish Theater
David Mazower, chief curator of the Yiddish Book Center’s core exhibition, "Yiddish: A Global Culture," and Caraid O’Brien, co-curator of the exhibition’s theater section, chat with "The Shmooze" about all things Yiddish theater. You’ll hear how they gathered rare artifacts...
12.19.2023
Episode 0362: Staging Mikhl Yashinsky’s American Yiddish Drama
Mikhl Yashinsky is on "The Shmooze" to talk about his new drama "The Gospel According to Chaim," the strange tale of a Jewish writer’s quixotic attempt to publish a controversial book. The New Yiddish Rep, who is producing the play,...
12.14.2023
Episode 0361: New in Translation: Yiddish Writer Frume Halpern
Yermiyahu Ahron Taub joins "The Shmooze" to talk about his latest translation, a collection of short stories by Yiddish writer Frume Halpern. These psychologically insightful stories present the lives of protagonists who are working-class poor, social outcasts, and experiencing illness,...
12.10.2023
Episode 0360: Shir Hashirim (The Song of Songs): A Yiddish Operetta
Ronald Robboy and Alex Weiser visit with "The Shmooze" to talk about their collaboration on the performance of the music of "Shir Hashirim (The Song of Songs)," a 1911 operetta by Joseph Rumshinsky and Anshel Shor. "Shir Hashirim" is a...
11.30.2023
Episode 0359: Jewish Anarchist Histories Reclaimed
"The Shmooze" visits with Anna Elena Torres, Kenyon Zimmer, and Ayelet Brinn, editors and contributors to an expansive new volume of essays exploring suppressed histories of Jewish anarchism. "With Freedom in Our Ears: Histories of Jewish Anarchism" is a rich...
11.21.2023
Episode 0358: Kristen Morgenstern’s Zine: Irena Klepfisz: The Life of the Fighter
On "The Shmooze," Kristen Morgenstern, a senior studying history and theater at Middlebury College, tells the story behind her zine "Irena Klepfisz: The Life of the Fighter." The zine was selected for inclusion in the Yiddish Book Center’s core exhibition,...
11.14.2023
Episode 0357: Amid Falling Walls: A Groundbreaking Musical
Avram Mlotek visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about the upcoming performance of Amid Falling Walls, for which Avram created the libretto. "Amid Falling Walls" (Tsvishn falnkike vent) is a groundbreaking musical that pays homage to the perseverance of...
11.02.2023
Episode 0356: Faith Jones on Translating Shira Gorshman
This week "The Shmooze" visits with translator Faith Jones to talk about her recently released "Meant to Be and Other Stories," by Shira Gorshman (White Goat Press). Shira Gorshman is most notable for her unflinching examination of women’s lives and...
09.21.2023
Episode 0355: David Mazower on Yiddish: A Global Culture
"The Shmooze" sat down with chief curator and writer David Mazower for the first in a series of conversations about the Yiddish Book Center’s landmark permanent exhibition, which opens on October 15, 2023. In describing what visitors will encounter when...
06.14.2023
Episode 0354: Women on the Yiddish Stage
This week on "The Shmooze," editors Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel and Alyssa Quint talk about "Women on the Yiddish Stage," a series of publications that amplifies the voices of women who served as creative leaders in the historical Yiddish theater. Episode 354 June...
06.07.2023
Episode 0353: The Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project
On a visit with "The Shmooze," photographer Marisa Scheinfeld talks about her work on The Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project. The resulting work will create a series of markers to commemorate the Borscht Belt era. Episode 353 June 8, 2023 Amherst, MA
05.16.2023
Episode 0352: A Life in Yiddish Translation
Curt Leviant, professor, novelist, and translator, speaks with "The Shmooze" about his life translating the work of Sholem Aleichem and Chaim Grade, and he shares some stories about his encounters with Nobel laureates. Episode 352 May 16, 2023 Amherst, MA
05.06.2023
Episode 0351: Four Days of Concerts: Yidstock 2023
"The Shmooze" sits down with Seth Rogovoy to talk about what’s in store for the Yiddish Book Center’s 11th annual Yidstock: The Festival of New Yiddish Music (July 13–16). Once again curated by Yidstock artistic director Seth Rogovoy, this year’s...
04.30.2023
Episode 0350: Writing the Story of Franya Winter
Meryl Frank visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about her recently released book, "Unearthed: A Lost Actress, a Forbidden Book, and a Search for Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust." "Unearthed" is the story of Meryl’s search for details...
03.30.2023
Episode 0349: Dear Mr. Dickens: The Story Behind the Letter
Award-winning children’s book author Nancy Churnin talks with "The Shmooze" about her illustrated children’s book "Dear Mr. Dickens," which tells the true story of Eliza Davis. In Eliza Davis’s day, Charles Dickens was the most celebrated living writer in England....
03.18.2023
Episode 0348: Caraid O’Brien on Sholem Asch’s Underworld Trilogy
Caraid O’Brien, one of the foremost contemporary interpreters and translators of Sholem Asch’s work, talks with "The Shmooze" about the Theater J class she’s teaching—Prostitutes, Criminals, and the Walking Dead: Sholem Asch’s Underworld Trilogy in Translation. The class is...
02.22.2023
Episode 0347: Di Shvester—The Sisters: Eleanor Reissa and Cilla Owens
This week on "The Shmooze," two of New York’s finest vocalists, Eleanor Reissa and Cilla Owens, chat about their upcoming performance alongside the Paul Shapiro Quartet. Eleanor and Cilla have interpreted music for decades as soloists and bring their experiences...
02.02.2023
Episode 0346: IIrena Klepfisz on Birth and Later Years: New and Collected Poems
Following the release of "Birth and Later Years: New and Collected Poems, 1971–2021," poet Irena Klepfisz sat down to speak with "The Shmooze" about her life, work, and the release of her collected poems. Irena was born in the Warsaw...
01.17.2023
Episode 0345: Max Weinreich on the Great Jewish Books Club
"The Shmooze" caught up with Max Weinreich to talk about his interest in and work with the Great Jewish Books Club. Max, a postdoctoral researcher in mathematics at Harvard University, comes to Yiddish through his family ties to the language....
01.11.2023
Episode 0344: And what about the taste? with Sima Beeri
On "The Shmooze" from London, a visit with Dr. Sima Beeri to chat about her recently published "And what about the taste?" This book is the second part of a larger project to research and document her family’s roots and...
12.22.2022
Episode 0343: Aaron Bendich on the Launch of Off Beet
We caught up with Aaron Bendich this week to chat about his latest venture, the launch of his new record label imprint, Off Beet, a spin-off of his radio show Borscht Beat. To quote Aaron, he will be “releasing music...
11.30.2022
Episode 0342: The Inaugural New York Jewish Book Festival
Joshua Mack and Gabriel Sanders sat down with "The Shmooze" to share a preview of what’s on for the 2022 New York Jewish Book Festival. On Sunday, December 11, the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City will present...
11.16.2022
Episode 0341: The Remarkable Backstory of Chana Blankshteyn’s Fear and Other Stories
Anita Norich visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about her translation of Chana Blankshteyn’s "Fear and Other Stories." Yiddish writer Chana Blankshteyn (~1860–1939) was a woman who may be almost entirely forgotten now but was widely admired during her long...
11.15.2022
Episode 0340: Women in Yiddish
Editor Mindl Cohen sits down with "The Shmooze" to talk about the soon-to-be-released "2022 Pakn Treger Digital Translation Issue." This year’s anthology includes fourteen newly translated stories, poems, and memoirs about women’s experiences. In conversation we learn about some of...
11.12.2022
Episode 0339: A Trilingual (Yiddish, Ukrainian, English) Volume of Two Works of Children’s Poetry
Jordan Finkin and Jessica Kirzane visit with "The Shmooze" to talk about their latest project, a trilingual (Yiddish, Ukrainian, English) volume of two works of children’s poetry. The poems in the volume were originally composed in Ukrainian by Yuriy Budiak,...
11.01.2022
Episode 0338: Debra Olin’s Mixed Media Considers An-sky’s Questionnaire
Debra Olin's "Every Protection: Folk Culture and Motherhood in the Jewish Pale of Settlement" is currently on exhibit at the Yiddish Book Center’s Brechner Gallery. Debra sat-down with "The Shmooze" to talk about her intricate mixed-media collages created around An-sky’s...
10.24.2022
Episode 0337: Josh Lambert on Jews and Publishing
In conversation with "The Shmooze," author Josh Lambert talks about his latest book, "The Literary Mafia." The book examines the relationships between Jewish editors and Jewish writers; how Jewish women exposed the misogyny they faced from publishers; and how children...
10.04.2022
Episode 0336: Working 9 to 5: A Women’s Movement, a Labor Union, and the Iconic Movie
This week on "The Shmooze," Ellen Cassedy, author of "Working 9 to 5: A Women’s Movement, a Labor Union, and the Iconic Movie," newly published by Chicago Review Press with a foreword by Jane Fonda. Ellen was a founder of...
09.25.2022
Episode: 0335: The Mystery of the Library of Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin
On the "The Shmooze" this week, Piotr Nazaruk. Piotr is a researcher, educator, curator, and Yiddish translator at the Grodzka Gate–NN Theatre Center in Lublin, Poland. Piotr tells the story of the vanished Library of Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, or Academy...
09.19.2022
Episode: 0334: Girl with Two Landscapes: The Wartime Diary of Lena Jedwab
Dorothée Rozenberg, daughter of Lena Jedwab Rozenberg, joins "The Shmooze" to talk about her mother’s wartime diary, "Girl with Two Landscapes: The Wartime Diary of Lena Jedwab." Lena wrote her diary in Yiddish not only because it was her mother...
08.17.2022
Episode: 0333: How the Soviet Jew Was Made
"Sasha Senderovich, author of the recently published How the Soviet Jew Was Made, sits down with The Shmooze to talk about his latest work, which has been described as “a close reading of postrevolutionary Russian and Yiddish literature and film...
08.10.2022
Episode 0332: Asaf Galay on The Adventures of Saul Bellow
This week on The Shmooze, we talk to Asaf Galay, award-winning director of films that examine modern Jewish culture and creativity. He has explored the magical literature and complex life of Isaac Bashevis Singer, celebrated ultra-Orthodox and queer Swedish pop...
08.03.2022
Episode 0331: Jake Krakovsky, Yiddish Puppeteer
"The Shmooze" visited with Jake Krakovsky, an Atlanta-based puppeteer, writer, actor, director, teaching artist, and as of late Yiddishist. In conversation, Jake recounted how he successfully turned the Yiddish story "Labzik" into a puppet film and how in the process...
07.17.2022
Episode 0330: Irving Massey Reflects On His Mother Ida Maze
Irving Massey, son of Yiddish writer Ida Maze, joins "The Shmooze" to talk about his mother, her writing, and the newly published "Dineh: An Autobiographical Novel" by Ida Maze, translated by Yermiyahu Ahron Taub (White Goat Press 2022). Irving shares...
06.13.2022
Episode 0329: Photographer Chuck Fishman: A Lens on Jewish Poland
"In conversation with Chuck Fishman we learn about his 45-year career as a freelance photographer whose work focuses on social and political issues with a strong humanistic concern. In 1975 he traveled to Poland to photograph the “dwindling remnant of...
05.18.2022
Episode 0328: Yermiyahu Ahron Taub on Translating Ida Maze’s Dineh
In conversation with Yermiyahu Ahron Taub, we hear about his latest work of translation. "Dineh: An Autobiographical Novel," posthumously published, is a Yiddish-language novel by Ida Maze, a pastorale laced with beauty and sorrow and a bildungsroman told from the...
05.05.2022
Episode 0327: Meet Misha: Host of Bard College’s Yiddish Radio Program
On "The Shmooze" this week, we talk with Misha Schaffner-Kargman, a sophomore at Bard College studying Yiddish who hosts a spot on the school’s student-run radio station, WXBC. Every Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. Misha streams two hours of...
04.19.2022
Episode 0326: What’s on Film Critic Kenneth Turan’s List?
This month the Great Jewish Books Club selection is a rich anthology of the interplay of Yiddish and American culture: "How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish." "The Shmooze" asked film critic Kenneth Turan to recommend films that...
04.08.2022
Episode 0325: The Corset Maker by Annette Libeskind Berkovits
Annette Libeskind Berkovits visited with "The Shmooze" to talk about her latest book, "The Corset Maker." The novel tells the story of a Parisian count, a Moroccan arms smuggler, and an orphaned Spanish boy who test the convictions and tug...
03.27.2022
Episode: 0324 How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish
This week "The Shmooze" visited with Ilan Stavans, co-editor of "How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish"—a Great Jewish Books Club 2022 selection. In conversation we talk about this momentous and diverse anthology of the influences and inspirations...
03.06.2022
Episode: 0323: Ripped Away
Award-winning author Shirley Vernick joins "The Shmooze" to talk about "Ripped Away," her latest book, which is based on real historical events, including the Jack the Ripper crimes, the inquests, and the accusations against immigrants. The story’s main character, Abe...
02.28.2022
Episode: 0322: Farbindungen: The Roots of Yiddish Networking
On "The Shmooze" this week we visit with "Farbindungen" Conference organizers Sarah Biskowitz and Carolyn Beard to learn about the two-day virtual conference, for early career Yiddish scholars, which aimed to build connections with by considering Yiddish networks – past...

What's The Shmooze, The Yiddish Book Center's Podcast about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Shmooze, The Yiddish Book Center's Podcast episodes:

Episode 0371: After 80 Years Postcards Find Their Way Home to Lublin

Episode 0370: Sivan Slapak’s Here Is Still Here

Episode 0369: Yiddish Culture in America

Episode 0368: in a dark blue night: two song cycles on Yiddish/Jewish New York

Episode 0367: The Yiddish Book Center’s Bossie Dubowick YiddishSchool

Episode 0366:The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York

Episode 0365: Across So Many Seas

Episode 0364: A Worker’s Yiddish Library on View

Episode 0363: Telling the Story of Yiddish Theater

Episode 0362: Staging Mikhl Yashinsky’s American Yiddish Drama

Episode 0361: New in Translation: Yiddish Writer Frume Halpern

Episode 0360: Shir Hashirim (The Song of Songs): A Yiddish Operetta

Episode 0359: Jewish Anarchist Histories Reclaimed

Episode 0358: Kristen Morgenstern’s Zine: Irena Klepfisz: The Life of the Fighter

Episode 0357: Amid Falling Walls: A Groundbreaking Musical

Episode 0356: Faith Jones on Translating Shira Gorshman

Episode 0355: David Mazower on Yiddish: A Global Culture

Episode 0354: Women on the Yiddish Stage

Episode 0353: The Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project

Episode 0352: A Life in Yiddish Translation

Episode 0351: Four Days of Concerts: Yidstock 2023

Episode 0350: Writing the Story of Franya Winter

Episode 0349: Dear Mr. Dickens: The Story Behind the Letter

Episode 0348: Caraid O’Brien on Sholem Asch’s Underworld Trilogy

Episode 0347: Di Shvester—The Sisters: Eleanor Reissa and Cilla Owens

Episode 0346: IIrena Klepfisz on Birth and Later Years: New and Collected Poems

Episode 0345: Max Weinreich on the Great Jewish Books Club

Episode 0344: And what about the taste? with Sima Beeri

Episode 0343: Aaron Bendich on the Launch of Off Beet

Episode 0342: The Inaugural New York Jewish Book Festival

Episode 0341: The Remarkable Backstory of Chana Blankshteyn’s Fear and Other Stories

Episode 0340: Women in Yiddish

Episode 0339: A Trilingual (Yiddish, Ukrainian, English) Volume of Two Works of Children’s Poetry

Episode 0338: Debra Olin’s Mixed Media Considers An-sky’s Questionnaire

Episode 0337: Josh Lambert on Jews and Publishing

Episode 0336: Working 9 to 5: A Women’s Movement, a Labor Union, and the Iconic Movie

Episode: 0335: The Mystery of the Library of Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin

Episode: 0334: Girl with Two Landscapes: The Wartime Diary of Lena Jedwab

Episode: 0333: How the Soviet Jew Was Made

Episode 0332: Asaf Galay on The Adventures of Saul Bellow

Episode 0331: Jake Krakovsky, Yiddish Puppeteer

Episode 0330: Irving Massey Reflects On His Mother Ida Maze

Episode 0329: Photographer Chuck Fishman: A Lens on Jewish Poland

Episode 0328: Yermiyahu Ahron Taub on Translating Ida Maze’s Dineh

Episode 0327: Meet Misha: Host of Bard College’s Yiddish Radio Program

Episode 0326: What’s on Film Critic Kenneth Turan’s List?

Episode 0325: The Corset Maker by Annette Libeskind Berkovits

Episode: 0324 How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish

Episode: 0323: Ripped Away

Episode: 0322: Farbindungen: The Roots of Yiddish Networking