Ilan Stavans stopped by the studio this week to discuss “My Mexican Shivah,” a film based on one of his stories. An exploration of family tensions, the film is set in Polanco, a Jewish quarter of Mexico City, and documents a man’s death and the celebration of his life that follows. The gentle comedy engages the complexity of Mexican-Jewish identity in the context of death rituals.

Episode 0201

November 14, 2018

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Marvin Zuckerman joins "The Shmooze" this week to discuss his translation of Bernard Goldstein’s "Twenty Years with the Jewish Labor Bund: A Memoir of Interwar Poland." Along the way, he shares stories about his childhood in the Bronx, where he learned how to read and write Yiddish in the Workmen’s Circle afterschool programs and spent time in the company of figures like Chaim Grade, Naftali Gross, and Avrom Reyzen.

Episode 0200

November 8, 2018

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Rebecca Lepkoff (1916-2014) was one of the great twentieth century photographers. Her work particularly chronicled the life of New York City’s Jewish neighborhoods. Her husband Eugene and son Daniel dropped by our studio to talk about Rebecca’s life and work from their unique vantage point.

Episode 0199

November 1, 2018

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

The Shmooze caught up with David Stromberg over dinner at an outdoor café in New York where we learned about his latest book, "In the Land of Happy Tears: Yiddish Tales for Modern Times," a collection of newly translated Yiddish stories for readers of all ages. David is a self-described Yiddish-activist who worked hard to bring these largely overlooked works to publication. In our conversation, he shared the backstory to these works, Yiddish publishing, and how he found his way to editing this collection.

Episode 0198

October 19, 2018

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Professor Deborah Dash Moore, who will lead the Yiddish Book Center's upcoming weekend course (October 26-28, 2018), discusses the cluster of New York Jewish photographers who pictured the city, their home, in the middle decades of the 20th century. As young men and women, mostly the children of immigrants, they picked up cameras and walked the streets, capturing its human drama.

Episode 0197

September 30, 2018

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

In a collection of stories newly translated from the Yiddish by Ellen Cassedy, prize-winning author Yenta Mash traces an arc across continents, upheavals and regime changes, and the phases of a woman’s life from girlhood to old age. Cassedy speaks with us about Yenta Mash – a master chronicler of exile, Mash’s work brings much to the literature of immigration and resilience.

Episode 0196

September 12, 2018

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Steve Weintraub left the dance floor long enough to join us in studio to talk about Yiddish dance. Steve teaches dance workshops around the world, including at the annual Yidstock: The Festival of New Yiddish Music. In our conversation, we learn how Steve found his way to Yiddish dance, how he studied its roots, and how he documented its elements.

Episode 0195

August 23, 2018

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Hankus Netsky, chair of New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Improvisation Department and founder and director of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, dropped by the studio to chat about the roots of Yiddish music and his work as a musician, teacher, and ethnomusicologist. As always, our conversation with Hankus is expansive, insightful, informative, and peppered with some great anecdotes.

Episode 0194

August 21, 2018

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, MA

In a conversation with Shachar M. Pinsker we learn about the place of coffeehouses in the creation of modern Jewish culture from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. Shachar’s newly published book, "A Rich Brew: How Cafes Created Modern Jewish Culture," tells the story of the role of the coffeehouse as central to the modern Jewish experience in a time of migration and urbanization, from Odessa, Warsaw, Vienna, and Berlin to New York City and Tel Aviv, and why Jews became their most devoted habitues.

Episode 0193

August 2, 2018

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, MA

This week we visit with Yiddish vocalist Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell and pianist/accordionist Dmitri Gaskin. Together they explore diverse idioms and styles to create their signature contemporary and idiosyncratic new music - set to the works of some of the greatest poets in the Yiddish language. In a lively conversation, we learn about what drew them to Yiddish music and how they’ve been drawing from the roots of Yiddish literature and music to create their unique and amazing work.

Episode 0192

July 20, 2018

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, MA