February 2020: Handpicked

Each month, the Yiddish Book Center asks a member of our staff or a special friend to select favorite stories, books, interviews, or articles from our online collections. This month, we’re excited to share with you picks by Lisa Newman.

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Lisa Newman is the Yiddish Book Center's director of communications, co-editor of Pakn Treger, and host of The Shmooze. As a non-Yiddish speaker, she's constantly scouring our website for English-language recordings, lectures, articles, oral histories, and other materials that open up the culture and provide background for her work, and she's very curious about Yiddish and modern Jewish culture.  

After delving into her selections, scroll down to read a short interview with Lisa about her choices.

Grace Paley Reads at the Yiddish Book Center

In November 2002 Grace Paley attended the Yiddish Book Center's Great Jewish Books Conference as a writer-in-residence. How amazing it is to hear Grace read her work in this archival recording--her literary voice I know but to hear her own voice is truly something quite special.

Echoes from the Borscht Belt: Through a Contemporary Lens

In this conversation with photographer Marisa Scheinfeld, we learn about her work chronicling the ever-evolving landscape of the Borscht Belt, documenting the dramatic decline of the resorts of New York's Catskills region.

Arthur Klein "Childhood Adventures"

One of the many wonderful excerpts from Arthur Klein's oral history. Arthur was a Brooklyn-born Navy veteran, retired hairdresser, and former Yiddish Book Center docent--he's sorely missed. His oral history reminds me what a great storyteller he was--you hear it when he talks about how he would entertain himself as a kid, including by sneaking into the theater and making skateboards.

"An Old Woman with Young Dreams" By Yente Serdatsky, translated from the Yiddish by Jessica Kirzane

"An Old Woman with Young Dreams" was published in the Forverts on November 11, 1920, and was never reprinted. Narrated by a flâneuse who observes the city and its people, like many of Serdatsky's stories this one offers a picture of the day-to-day lives of immigrant women in New York, their unfulfilled longings and small pleasures.

Q&A

Lisa Newman talks to the Yiddish Book Center's director of translation and collections initiatives, Mindl Cohen, about her Handpicked choices:

Mindl Cohen: It's fascinating to learn that Grace Paley was here at the Center for this early iteration of the Great Jewish Books initiative back in 2002, which now has expanded in so many ways (the Great Jewish Books Summer Program for high school students, the Book Club, etc.). This event happened before either of us was involved with the Center . . . Does it seem like the ideas behind Great Jewish Books have changed much since then, or just expanded? 

Lisa Newman: Following the gathering there was a write-up in an issue of Pakn Treger which recapped the gathering: "The weekend took a hard look at the questions surrounding the concept of a modern Jewish canon." My short answer to 'has it changed much or expanded?'—I think the ways in which we continue to explore and teach modern Jewish literature certainly draw from that early gathering and the list of 100 of the greatest works of modern Jewish literature that precipitated it. And I think it's interesting to see how some of our thinking may have changed over the past twenty years, even as we're continuing to engage high school students, educators, and readers through our various educational programs with many of those works of modern Jewish literature that were on that list. And all of the teachers and students are continuing to consider the canon. 

MC: You've talked with so many interesting artists on The Shmooze—what was something about this conversation with Marisa Scheinfeld that stuck with you?

LN: The podcast provided a chance to speak with Marisa about her work, which at the time was on exhibit at the Center. I was intrigued about her approach. For me, many of the photographs suggested that someone had just left the scene, yet her work documented a world that was no longer—scenes of bygone days. Hotel rooms, buildings, outdoor pools . . . all in states of disrepair. I wanted to know if she set these photos up or if she documented the places as she found them--the answer is that she doesn't touch anything; her photographs are documentation of what she found. What we also explored in our conversation was viewers' reactions; many find the photographs very sad, which I understand, but I mentioned my reaction was somewhat different—in a way I think she's allowing us to put ourselves in the frame and remember what was once a very vibrant Borscht Belt. 

MC: I've watched a few of the excerpts from Arthur Klein's oral history—you're right, he's such a storyteller! Do you have any favorite memory or story about him? 

LN: Oh, so many! Arthur had the best smile and always made everyone laugh. He was a great storyteller, and he had some crazy-wonderful stories about growing up in New York. And it was apparent that he so loved being at the Center. An excerpt of his oral history is included on a video that plays in our Lee & Alfred Hutt Discovery Gallery. If I'm walking by when he's on the screen I always find myself smiling—and missing him something fierce. 

My work includes co-editing Pakn Treger, and the current issue is all about women's memoirs and the women who are translating these works. It was really exciting and important to feature their work, as it adds so much to our understanding of Yiddish literature—memoir, short stories, essays. They're powerful voices, insightful voices, and I think the work Jessica and others are finding and translating is so important.

MC: Your picks highlight some of the amazing women we come in contact with: writers, photographers, translators. I especially love that "An Old Woman with Young Dreams" is a new translation by a young scholar, Jessica Kirzane, who is one of the people doing so much to help us recover and appreciate the work of women from a century ago. Does it feel to you like we're in a moment for renewed attention to women's creative work right now, or is this something that's been ongoing (given the talk by Paley was 18 years ago!)?

LN: Ah, I hadn't thought of that, but yes. I do think that we (our translators and others) are unearthing so many amazing works by woman and maybe, yes, there's renewed attention. Although I don't think this work was ever given much attention. My work includes co-editing Pakn Treger, and the current issue is all about women's memoirs and the women who are translating these works. It was really exciting and important to feature their work, as it adds so much to our understanding of Yiddish literature—memoir, short stories, essays. They're powerful voices, insightful voices, and I think the work Jessica and others are finding and translating is so important. For me, Grace Paley is the generation that wrote in her native language, English—her writing is no different than those women writers whose work was written in Yiddish. It's also exciting to know that Jessica found her way to Miriam Karpilove's work by searching our Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library, a reminder of what's to be found and how many voices we've yet to discover. As you know all too well as our director of translation and collections initiatives—your work makes so much possible.