Ted Merwin visits on The Shmooze this week to discuss his recently published book "Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli." Merwin, the founding director of the Milton B. Asbell Center for Jewish Life and associate professor of Religion and Judaic Studies at Dickinson College, goes against the grain (so to speak), considering the role of the deli for the second and third generations: the children of Jewish immigrants.

Episode 0206

December 19, 2018

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

David R. Gillham, the New York Times bestselling author of "City of Women," joins us on "The Shmooze" this week to discuss his forthcoming novel, "Annelies." He shares a glimpse into the past six years which he has spent researching Anne Frank, recognizing her as the cultural icon whose diary painted a vivid picture of the Holocaust, and also as a person — a precocious young girl with a rich inner life and tremendous skill as a writer. David R. Gillham discusses what it means to approach her story through fiction, and to produce a narrative about the person and the writer that Anne Frank might have become.

Episode 0205

December 13, 2018

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Gerri Chanel, a prize-winning freelance journalist, joins us this week to discuss "Saving Mona Lisa: The Battle to Protect the Louvre and its Treasures from the Nazis." In her compelling book, Gerri follows heroic efforts in France to protect the Louvre’s masterpieces during World War II.

Episode 0204

December 6, 2018

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Jamie Bernstein joins us to talk about her recently published memoir "Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein." We hear from Jamie about her experience growing up in the mid-twentieth century with parents Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre. Our conversation touches on everything from life with the famous maestro to Jewishness, family traditions, and the story behind her memoir’s title.

Episode 0203

November 29, 2018

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

Yiddish Book Center fellows Sophia Shoulson and Sarah Quiat searched the Center’s collection for Thanksgiving-related content. They join us on "The Shmooze" to share what they discovered, and from Yiddish cookbooks to a children’s story featuring a turkey, we learn how food, stories, and traditions figured into the Jewish immigrant’s experience.

Episode 0202

November 21, 2018

Yiddish Book Center

Amherst, Massachusetts

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