Short Works in Translation | Yiddish Book Center

Should We Build Our Culture Here in English? Jewish Culture in Yiddish and in English

A 1931 essay on American Jewish culture by Chaim Zhitlowsky.

"On Pride"

A critique of nationalism in a unique modernist allegory.

"Mortality"

A free verse translation of a rhymed and metrical Yiddish poem by Yehoash.

"Beards"

An early exemplar of the listicle: famous beards ranked by Abraham Goldberg.

"Fences" and "A Chimney Sweep"

Two workers poems by Moyshe Nadir.

"The Brown Dragon Has Flown" and "Once Upon a Time There Was a King"

Two poems by Leyzer Wolf that use the language of folktale to denounce fascism.

The Chained Wife, an Excerpt

An excerpt of Maria Lerner's play about the plight of the agune, or abandoned wife.

"The Ballad of Old Harlequin"

A poem about loss and the passing of time by Itzik Manger, translated by Lawrence Rosenwald.

"Repairing Love"

This excerpt from Spiegelblatt's 2003 collection Shadows Knock on the Windows explores memory and loss.

"Reyzele"

A touching story about a daughter's love for her mother by Avrom Reyzen, translated by Curt Leviant.

King Solomon, Etching by Ephraim Moses Lilien

Solomon and Shulamite

Two miniatures by Boris Sandler imaging the later years of the subjects of the Song of Songs, translated by Jordan Kutzik.

Photo by Moses Vorobeichic of carving in a Vilna shul

The Abandoned Sanctuary

An excerpt from Grade's work The Silent Minyan about life in the "shul hoyf" in prewar Vilna.

"A Stretch of Time" and "News"

Two poems by Ephraim Auerbach, translated by Ollie Elkus.

"Be Hallowed" and "Mode"

Two poems from Glatstein's 1953 collection, "Father's Shadow," translated by Andrew Sunshine.

Still from the classic Soviet cartoon, "The Hedgehog and the Fog"

"Daddy's Day"

A story by Boris Sandler written from the perspective of a young girl spending the day with her father, translated by Jordan Kutzik.

"A New Year's Eve State of Mind"

Arn Riklis offers his perspective on New Years, 1936; translated by Ri J. Turner.

"The Esrog"

A Sukkos story by Sholem Aleichem, translated by Curt Leviant.

Woodcut of Mordechai Gebirtig by B. Smener

"Our Town is Burning" and "A Beam of Sunlight"

Two poems by Mordechai Gebirtig, translated by Murray Citron.

"Reb Yudl Shloboner" or "The Beautiful Minke"

The story of a young couple’s secret love and the unintended consequences this secret has for the lovers, their families, and even their entire town.

Hersh David Nomberg reclines on the grass while posing for the camera with his friends

"In the Mountains"

What could possibly go wrong with a love triangle in the mountains of Austria?

"A Letter on the Subject of Education"

The first English translation of Sholem-Yankev Abramovitsh's "A Letter on the Subject of Education."

"The World in the Year 2058"

A 1958 answer to the question: "How will our lives look like in the middle of the 21st century?"

"A New House"

A Rokhl Korn story exploring themes central to the author's life and work: wandering, home, and the capacity of aesthetic creation.

On Bloody Paths

Three translated chapters of S. Cohen's memoir detailing the hardships and horrors he experienced fighting in the Great War.

A portrait of the Yiddish poet Rokhl Korn by Bialystok-born artist Benn, from her book <em>Af der sharf fun a rege</em>.

Destined to Create

What produced the poetic impulse in her as a child, and what gives rise to a poet in any era? The Yiddish poet Rokhl Korn offers a deeply personal answer.

Days of Terror, An Excerpt

An excerpt of survival under the occupation of Belgium during World War II.

An illustration of the Yiddish writer Mendele Moykher-Sforim

"What's the Meaning of Hanukkah?"

An original translation of a Mendele holiday story. Stay for the O.Henry-esque twist

Kaganovski: Two Sketches

Two sketches by Yiddish novelist and prose writer Froyim Kaganovski, one of interwar Poland’s most prominent writers.

Berdyczewski: Three Stories

Translations of three of Micha Josef Berdyczewski's works by James Adam Redfield.

A photograph of the Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem

"Haman and Mordecai"

Sholem Aleichem biographer Jeremy Dauber included "Haman and Mordecai" in his list "If You Read Just Ten Stories by Sholem Aleichem. . ." This is its first-ever English translation.

"The Cleaver's Daughter"

A short story by famed, path-breaking Yiddish poet Avrom Sutzkever, published in 1975.

A photograph of the Yiddish writer Getsl (George) Selikovitch

"The Institute for Facial Reform (A Fantastical Story)"

A short story by the Yiddish writer Getsl (George) Selikovitch about the search for beauty.

An illustration of the Yiddish writer Yoshua Perle

Everyday Jews, Chapter One

Chapter one of Yoshua Perle's classic novel Everyday Jews, part of our New Yiddish Library Series.

Ne’ilah: Two High Holiday Stories

Translations of two Yom Kippur-themed stories by Rosa Palatnik.

"We Moofe" from Motl, the Cantor's Son

The unfinished final chapter of Motl, the Cantor's Son, the last thing Sholem Aleichem ever wrote, newly translated by Larry Rosenwald.

A lineart portrait of the Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem

"My First Jewish Novel, Stempenyu"

The prologue and first chapter of Sholem Aleichem's classic Jewish romance, newly translated by Daniel Kennedy.

Postcard of women in bathing suits "Romping on the Beach at Coney Island"

"Coney Island": A Dadaist Sound Poem by Victor Packer

The sounds of 1930s Coney Island come alive in this brilliant radio poem, newly transcribed and digitized from an acetate disc.

Yiddish writer Yenta Mash reading from her work and looking at the camera, in a yellow room, beside a table and chairs.

"On the Landing"

A story of tension and intensity, from the writer Yenta Mash. (Photo courtesy of the Yiddish Forward.)

Yiddish writer Joseph Opatoshu lounging on a fur rug

"Mr. Friedkin and Shoshana: Wandering Souls on the Lower East Side"

Joseph Opatoshu's take on the tormented personal life of a young Hebrew teacher in New York.

"A Tale"

A playful poem.

"Does It Mean I Long for You?"

A poem to lost love.

An image of the private library of the Yiddish literary critic and essayist Moyshe Shtarkman

"From Eternity to Eternity": Thoughts and Considerations in Honor of Passover

An essay by the Yiddish critic Moyshe Shtarkman written in honor of Passover, translated by the linguist Ross Perlin.

"I Have Seen"

A poet's perspective.

"Tsipke"

An unflinching look at poverty and the disdain, cruelty, and brutality meted out even among Jews to other Jews, and the story of an unlikely couple finding each other.

An Excerpt from Pioneers: The First Breach

An excerpt from Pioneers (Pionern).

At A Ball

Should a Girl Go to a Ball Alone? –Modern Women. –A Companion and a Chaperone. –Rules for Accepting an Invitation to Dance. –Ball Deportment for Girls.

Untitled [From My Days (1952)]

A question to the wind.

1915 postcard from Lemberg (Lwów), the city in which Dvoyre Fogel spent most of her life. Shows a city square with a large monument in the center, people bustling, horses, streetcars.

"Circular Landscapes"

Dvoyre Fogel's take on "lyric poetry of the urban condition," a living landscape in words.

"Persistence," an oil canvas by Samuel Bak; image courtesy of Pucket Gallery

"Tall Tamare"

An Abraham Karpinowitz story translated by Helen Mintz, as part of her new collection, Vilna My Vilna. Karpinowitz recreates prewar Vilna with subtle artistry and painstaking accuracy: streets, businesses, libraries, people, slang.