Translating Yiddish Novels by Women for New Audiences

Thanks to Scholars, Yiddish Works by Women are Now Available

Yiddish novels written by women have not been as widely available as those by their male counterparts, mostly because the novels were “long dismissed by publishers as insignificant or unmarketable to a wider audience.” Now scholars like Jessica Kirzane, Anita Norich, and Ellen Cassedy are working to change that. In his recent New York Times article, "How Yiddish Scholars Are Rescuing Women’s Novels From Obscurity", Joseph Berger interviewed these three scholars, all alumni of the Yiddish Book Center’s Translation Fellowship, who are finally giving these women their due.

 

The cover of "Diary of a Lonely Girl, or the Battle Against Free Love"

Diary of a Lonely Girl, or the Battle Against Free Love by Miriam Karpilove, Translated by Jessica Kirzane. Diary was a Yiddish Book Center translation project. 

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The cover of "A Jewish Refugee in New York"

A Jewish Refugee in New York by Kadya Molodovsky, Translated by Anita Norich, a current translation fellow. 

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The cover of "Oedipus in Brooklyn and Other Stories"

Oedipus in Brooklyn and Other Stories by Blume Lempel, Translated from the Yiddish by Ellen Cassedy and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub. Oedipus won the “2012 Translation Prize of the Yiddish Book Center”.

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Learn more about novels by Yiddish women writers:

 Diary of a Lonely Girl, or the Battle Against Free Love by Miriam Karpilove and translated by Jessica Kirzane

A Jewish Refugee in New York by Kadya Molodovsky and translated by Anita Norich

Oedipus in Brooklyn by Blume Lempel and translated by Ellen Cassedy and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub