Yiddish Book Center - Home

Why Chaim Grade?

Emma Morgenstern Feb 27, 2012

I first heard of the Yiddish writer Chaim Grade when I was at the Yiddish Book Center in 2010. There had recently been controversy over his estate, which led to a New York Times story on the subject by Joseph Berger....

Montreal Trip

Jordan Kutzik Jan 11, 2012

On Monday, December 12, I set off for Montreal with Christa Whitney, the director of the Wexler Oral History Project, and Sara Israel, one of my co-fellows, in order to pick up roughly 1,000 reel-to-reel tapes and 300 cassettes from the Jewish Public Library of Montreal so that they could be digitized as part of the Frances Brandt Online Yiddish Audio Library....

Members respond to "A shmek yidish"

Emma Morgenstern Dec 07, 2011

This week concluded our online Yiddish-learning video series, A shmek yidish—A Taste of Yiddish.  We were amazed by the videos’ popularity: within a couple weeks of launching, A shmek yidish had hundreds of...

Yiddish children's plays from Vilna

Jordan Kutzik Oct 26, 2011

Working as a fellow at the Yiddish Book Center it’s very easy to lose a minute or two from time to time amongst the wonders of the book collection just browsing through the titles . . .

Despite Weather, Summer Has Arrived

Anita Christensen May 23, 2011

Though the weather may suggest otherwise, summer has arrived at the Yiddish Book Center! This means that our calendar is filling up with interesting, inspiring, educational, and fun events...

American and European Jews: What Should the Connection Be?

Emma Morgenstern Feb 07, 2011

Last week, a film crew from French public television visited the Book Center to interview Aaron Lansky, and then some of the young people that are part of the organization. Seven of us yunge mentshn sat in front of a camera while Rachel Ertel (or Rokhl af Yiddish) asked us questions in Yiddish and English about our roles at the Book Center, how we learned Yiddish, what we are reading in Yiddish, and the reasons we are working to revive/preserve....

Our Place in the American Jewish Community

Emma Morgenstern Jan 05, 2011

Last week, at the Association for Jewish Studies Conference in Boston, I attended a panel called “Reorganizing the American Jewish Community: What Can Changes in the Philanthropic/Nonprofit Sector Tell Us About Judaism and Jewish Life?” One panelist, J. Shawn Landres, shared statistics regarding Jewish nonprofit startups in the past ten years, which came out of....

On the Spot: An Oral History with Ilene Gelbaum

Emma Morgenstern Dec 08, 2010

I didn’t know anything about Ilene Gelbaum except that she was visiting the Book Center from California with her husband, and she wanted to tell her story for the Wexler Oral History Project. Ilene turned out to be a gifted storyteller with many stories to share. She talked about everything from meeting her husband in high school in Brooklyn, to her stint in the Peace Corps in Sri Lanka, to the five thousand (!) babies she delivered in her 40-year career as a midwife.