November 2024: Handpicked
Each month we ask a member of our staff or a special friend to select favorite stories, books, interviews, or articles from our online collections. This month’s picks are by Lisa Newman.
Lisa Newman is the director of publishing and public programs at the Yiddish Book Center. Prior to joining the Center, Lisa managed public relations and publishing projects for a variety of nonprofit and corporate clients. After moving to western Massachusetts to work for New England Monthly, she went on to work with numerous national magazine and book publishers. She has been an instructor at the Radcliffe Publishing Course and the Columbia Publishing Course and a panelist at industry events. She is a graduate of New York University.
A Nation of Little Readers
Miriam Borden, a collector of Yiddish primers, is well versed in the rich history of the 1940s and ’50s Yiddish primers in the Center’s collection. In this recording, Miriam shares the story of these well-loved school books and their owners, whose doodles, addresses, jokes, and other marginalia provide a glimpse into the inner world of schoolchildren in an educational system that today exists only in memory.
A Literary Journey to Jewish Identity: Re-Reading Bellow, Roth, Malamud, Ozick, and Other Great Jewish Writers
This conversation with Stephen Shepard presented the opportunity to discuss his literary memoir A Literary Journey to Jewish Identity: Re-Reading Bellow, Roth, Malamud, Ozick, and Other Great Jewish Writers and to ask him “Rereading these authors decades later, how did they influence your sense of Jewish identity?”
Young, Gifted, and Yiddish
Through a photographic history, bibliographer David Mazower introduces us to young Yiddish writers, including Isaac Bashevis Singer, Hinde Zaretsky, David Pinski, and Ida Glazer, and celebrates their creativity and resilience. They say a photograph is worth a million words—in this case, it’s just fun to see photographs of such prolific writers.
The Storied History of Yiddish Publishing
One of the many perks of being a co-editor of Pakn Treger is the chance to ask Zachary Baker to write a feature about the history of Yiddish publishing. In his piece, Zachary shares the rich backstory—from the editors and publishers to the complexities and challenges they faced.
Problematic, Fraught, Confusing, Paralyzing—and Fantastic
The story of the 1927 anthology that gave women Yiddish poets their due was completely unknown to me until Faith Jones penned this piece about Ezra Korman’s 1927 Yidishe dikhterins (Jewish Women Poets).
Q&A
Tell us about your selections and what they say about your relationship with Yiddish language and culture.
My work is by extension a reflection of my interest in all aspects of Yiddish culture. My choices are a few selections that inform and illustrate the richness of Yiddish culture.
What are you working on next?
I’m currently working on several forthcoming White Goat Press books, finishing the next issue of Pakn Treger, recording podcasts for The Shmooze, working on the design and production of the exhibition catalog for Yiddish: A Global Culture, and planning our upcoming public programs.