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 and stories about the actors, the audiences, and the contemporary Yiddish

theater scene.

Episode 363

January 14, 2023

Amherst, MA

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, says this is the first entirely original, full-length American Yiddish drama to be produced for a general audience in seven decades.

Episode 362

December 20, 2023

Amherst, MA

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, disability, and racism. Halpern worked as a massage therapist in a hospital, and many of these stories are about those who, like her, work with their hands: workshop and factory workers, piece workers, a shoemaker, a butcher, and a hairdresser.

Episode 361

December 14, 2023

Amherst, MA

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 musical comedy that features several interlocking love triangles, including an aging composer along with his children and their lovers and friends. Reconstructed from a variety of archival materials collected at YIVO, UCLA, and the Library of Congress, the operetta will be performed by students of the Bard Conservatory Vocal Arts Program.

Episode 360

December 10, 2023

Amherst, MA

"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 collection of essays across radical politics, immigrant history, the Yiddish press, and issues of gender and ethnicity.

Episode 359

November 30, 2023

Amherst, MA

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, "Yiddish: A Global Culture."

Episode 358

November 21, 2023

Amherst, MA

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 the human spirit during one of the most devastating moments of history. The performance, presented by National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, is composed of songs that were written and performed in ghettos, clandestine cabarets and theaters, forced labor camps, and partisan encampments.

Episode 357

November 14, 2023

Amherst, MA

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 her willingness to dwell on uncomfortable emotions. Faith shares how Gorshman’s stories follow the trajectory of 20th-century Jewish life in Eastern Europe, from the Lithuanian shtetl to the Russian Revolution, through the kibbutz and collective farms, to Central Asia during wartime, and back to mid-century Soviet life.

Episode 356

November 2, 2023

Amherst, MA

"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 they view this massive exhibition, David notes, “We’ve created a bright, colorful space full of powerful stories and wonderful objects that make you think but also touch the heart and soul; I want people to see this exhibition and feel inspired, surprised, moved, informed, and entertained.”

Episode 356

September 21, 2023

Amherst, MA

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 15, 2023

Amherst, MA