Yiddish Book Center

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Help Save Our Most Rare and Fragile Yiddish Books–A Glimpse of Collections Items in Need of Repair

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A new translation from White Goat Press–Seeds in the Desert by Mendel Mann, translated by Heather Valencia

Woman's silhouette on stage
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"The Chained Wife" an excerpt, by Maria Lerner, translated by Chloë (Zisl) Piazza

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Supporting a New Generation in Honor of the Old

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New on The Shmooze: Exploring Jewish Holidays with Abigail Pogrebin

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Yiddish Dictionaries, Large and Small

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The Yiddish Book Center's Weekend Program: The Plays of Sholem Asch

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A Focus On The High Holidays

With the arrival of the New Year and the High Holidays, we’re featuring some related pieces from our collections: an oral history in which the narrator recalls attending Warsaw’s famous Great Synagogue on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; a translation of Sholem Aleichem’s “The Esrog;” and, from Pakn Treger, an article which considers the meaning of Jewish foods. 

Great Synagogue Warsaw
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Oral History: Going to the Great Synagogue on the High Holidays

Sholem Aleichem
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"The Esrog" by Sholem Aleichem, translated by Curt Leviant

bagel
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"Well Said: Gezunt zol zayn der vos hot oysgetrakht beygl esn (Whoever thought of eating bagels should live and be well )"

אויסגעקליבן

Handpicked Mindl Cohen

Madeleine (Mindl) Cohen is the director of translation and collections initiatives at the Yiddish Book Center. Mindl has a PhD in Comparative Literature with an emphasis in Jewish Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. As an undergraduate, Mindl participated in the Yiddish Book Center's Steiner Summer Yiddish Program, and more recently she was a Yiddish Book Center Translation Fellow. Before coming (back) to the Center, she worked as the Editor-in-Chief for In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies and taught Yiddish language at Harvard University. In these Handpicked selections, Mindl showcases items from our collections connected to the poet Itzik Manger. 

Itzik Manger—a shmues mit Avrom Tabachnik

Thanks to the recordings of Avrom Tabachnik, we can listen to Itzik Manger reading a selection of his poetry and then discussing his work. Manger is among the most famous Yiddish poets, and one of the minority who came from Bukowina or Galicia. It is such a treat in a poem like “Lomir zhe zingen” to hear his southern accent.

“The Librarians” by Rachel Auerbach, translated by Seymour Levitan

It is thanks in part to Rachel Auerbach that Manger’s manuscripts survived the Warsaw ghetto; she was a member of the Oyneg Shabes underground archive in Warsaw and helped to preserve his work along with so much other valuable material. Auerbach wrote memoirs about her experience in the ghetto—here is an excerpt about the importance of reading for ghetto residents.

“Updating the Poetry of Itzik Manger” Oral History Excerpt with Murray Citron

Murray Citron gives an example of the creative decisions he makes in order to translate Manger’s poetry—including introducing new images and anachronisms, which he feels match Manger’s playful spirit. I agree!