Yiddish Book Center

For decades, Yehuda Amichai was Israel’s semiofficial national poet. His poetry deftly blended ordinary speech with the resonances of the biblical tradition. In this recording from the Jewish Public Library of Montreal, Amichai intersperses a reading of his work with explanations, proving again that interpretation and the quest for meaning is a part of the poetic tapestry.

Molly is my distant cousin, but that’s not why I chose this interview. I love Molly on the Range. Everything I’ve made from the book has been fun, not too difficult, and delicious. Hear Molly talk about her background and her time at the Yiddish Book Center—and also hear Shmooze host Lisa Newman’s joy as she asks questions.

The stars of the Jewish cultural world descended on the Jewish Public Library OF Montreal: Abraham Sutzkever, Saul Bellow, and, of course, Yehuda Amichai. But to me, the true mark of the JPL’s vibrancy is the odd bits of programming preserved by our Frances Brandt Archive. This concert, held as part of the library’s pop culture series, features Dr. Jack Cohen, who was a plastic surgeon and “one of a handful of classical whistlers in North America.” Enjoy!

H. D. Nomberg began publishing poems and short stories in 1900 and went on to become one of the most influential Yiddish writers of his generation. His translator, Joachim Neugroschel, was a prolific translator of Yiddish, French, German, Italian, and Russian and a recipient of three PEN translation awards. This fantastic story originally appeared in Pakn Treger no. 26, Summer 1996.