The Shmooze, The Yiddish Book Center's Podcast

Hello Mazel is a subscription service that delivers handpicked Jewish goodies—from Margarita mix to a towel that says "shvitsy"--right to your doorstep. We sat down with Yoav Schlesinger, the founder of Hello Mazel, to learn about the inspiration behind this Jewish-themed subscription box and how they pick treats that every Jewish grandmother would approve of. Episode 0136 February 24, 2017 Yiddis...

Over the course of his decades-long career, Bob Dylan has produced some of the most powerful political songs of the era. Born Robert Allen Zimmerman, he grew up in a traditional Jewish family in Hibbing, Minnesota. Seth Rogovoy, author of Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet, joins us to talk about Dylan's Jewish roots and how he went from leading sing-alongs at summer camp to becoming one of the most...

Yiddish theater is experiencing an almost renaissance, with new productions of old Yiddish plays hitting the stage for the first time in decades. The Digital Yiddish Theatre Project was founded in 2012 by experts in the field of Yiddish theater, from historians and literary scholars to performers and musicologists. Joel Berkowitz, one of the founders, talks about how the project began and how it a...

Artist Amy Kurzweil joins us this week to speak about her critically acclaimed graphic memoir "Flying Couch." The memoir brings together Amy's own coming-of-age story with the story of her mother, a child psychologist, and her grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, demonstrating the importance of family in the formation of one's identity. Episode 0133 February 2, 2017 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Mass...

The Brooklyn-based Matzo Project, founded by summer camp friends Kevin Rodriguez and Ashley Albert, aims to make matzo less stale. They, along with a number of other foodie companies in Brooklyn, are introducing fresh contemporary takes on the foods that Jews know and love. Kevin joins us this week to talk about the origins of the company, the matzo-making process, and the unique flavors that The...

The stories collected in the newly published Have I Got a Story for You—discovered after many hours of combing through Der Forverts' archives—represent a departure from classic Yiddish literature and a new form of Yiddish mass media that would take the Jewish immigrant community by storm. Ezra Glinter, editor of the collection (a 2016 National Jewish Book Award Finalist), joins us to speak about t...

Playwright and journalist Max Sparber was raised in a Reform Jewish household, attended an Orthodox high school, and, in college, majored in Jewish studies. After college, while living in Omaha, Nebraska, he set out to learn one thousand Yiddish words in a year—and in the process, discovered the richness of Yiddish culture. Max chronicles his efforts to teach himself Yiddish on his blog "Dress Bri...

Author Lesléa Newman joins us to speak about her prolific writing career and how her books and poetry are informed by her being Jewish and a lesbian. She discusses her popular book of short stories, "A Letter to Harvey Milk," and shares a poem from her newest collection, "I Carry My Mother." Episode 0129 January 4, 2017 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

Blume Lempel was born in what is now Ukraine, spent time in Paris as a young woman, then fled to New York just before the Second World War, where she wrote works of Yiddish fiction until her death in 1999. Ellen Cassedy and her translation partner, Yermiyahu Ahron Taub, have brought Lempel’s unique storytelling to light in their recent publication Oedipus in Brooklyn and Other Stories. Cassedy joi...

In the wake of the Ottoman Empire, Jews living in Salonica were forced to reimagine their communities and rethink their place in the newly formed nation-state of Greece. Devin Naar joins us this week to speak about his new book, Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece, and about how access to previously confiscated archives helped to inform his understanding of these communit...

The Yiddish Book Center’s newest exhibit, Balka’s Lower East Side, features art that transcends the moment during which it was created. Curator Laura Kruger joins us to speak about the origins of the collection and the unique look that the pieces provide into what it was like to live on the Lower East Side in the twentieth century. Episode 0126 November 29, 2016 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massac...

Macaroni and cheese flowcharts and schnitzel costume patterns are just two of the many things you can find in Molly Yeh’s (Tent: Food NYC ’14) new cookbook “Molly on the Range.” Hear how she brings together the many aspects of her identity into reimagined Jewish recipes that are guaranteed to make your holiday cooking special. Episode 0125 November 21, 2016 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Masschusett...

What makes photography a particularly Jewish craft? That question fueled renowned photographer Penny Wolin’s eight-year project to capture the essence of American Jewish photographers, which eventually led to her newest book, Descendants of Light: American Photographers of Jewish Ancestry. Episode 0124 November 14, 2016 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

In the Yiddish Book Center’s new Great Jewish Books Book Club, which launches in January, club members will explore great works of modern Jewish literature with like-minded readers from around the world. Josh Lambert, the Center’s academic director, talks about the details of the club and how it came to be, and gives you a sneak peek of the first title that book club members will receive. Episode...

Episode 0122: Finding Babel by Yiddish Book Center

In the late nineteenth century, Jews celebrated the New Year by sending each other illustrated postcards with hopes and wishes for the upcoming year. Hannah Pressman, affiliate faculty and communications director for the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington, shares the unique history of these cards, the companies that produced them, and the nostalgia that they inspire....

Marjorie Ingall discusses her new book, Mamaleh Knows Best: What Jewish Mothers Do to Raise Successful, Creative, Empathetic, Independent Children, which turns the negative stereotype of the Jewish mother on its head to show the many positives of a Jewish style of parenting. Ingall is a columnist for Tablet and a contributor to the New York Times Book Review. Episode 0120 October 6, 2016 Yiddish B...

Henry Sapoznik speaks about his recent project, Attractive Hebrews: The Thomas Lambert Yiddish Recordings, 1901-1905. Some of the earliest known Yiddish recordings, they document the difficulties that many Jews faced in determining their place in America. Sapoznik, the director of the Mayrent Institute at the University of Wisconsin Madison and a Peabody Award winner, played a major role in the kl...

As Josh Kogan-Zajdman wrapped up his seventh and final week in the 2016 Steiner Summer Yiddish Program, he talked about growing up with Yiddish-speaking grandparents in Mexico, who inspired his interest in the language and culture, and about his surprising personal connection to the Yiddish Book Center’s recent acquisition of books from a school in Mexico. Episode 0118 September 13, 2016 Yiddish B...

Boxing historian Mike Silver, author of "Stars in the Ring: Jewish Champions in the Golden Age of Boxing: A Photographic History," talks about the all-but-forgotten history of Jewish boxers from the 1890s to the 1950s. Silver reminds us that Jewish boxers and entrepreneurs dominated the sport in the 1920s and '30s, and he discusses the ways in which boxing helped Jews assimilate to life in the Uni...

Hankus Netsky tells us about his recent book, "Klezmer: Music and Community in Twentieth-Century Philadelphia," a portrait of the folk music and traditions of the city’s Jewish community. A musical ethnographer and teacher, Netsky is a founder of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, which will play at Yidstock ’16. Episode 0116 June 30, 2016 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

The queen of Yiddish cabaret, Eleanor Reissa, is a Brooklyn-born native Yiddish speaker whose work in theater as a director, actor, writer, and choreographer garnered her a Tony Award nomination and propelled her into the front ranks of Yiddish theater and music. Episode 0115 June 9, 2016 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

The new website sholemaleichem.org considers the life and work of the great Yiddish writer on his hundredth "yortsayt." Sholem Aleichem biographer Jeremy Dauber and filmmaker Sam Ball, driving forces behind the site, talk about the project’s use of exciting multimedia and interactive resources, and about the writer’s formidable legacy and the sometimes surprising ways his work continues to influen...

Over his career, Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer worked with dozens of female translators, with whom he developed close—and often complicated—relationships. Filmmaker Asaf Galay talks about his documentary "The Muses of Bashevis Singer," which includes interviews with a number of those women, and about the writer’s particular approach to translating his work for an English-reading audience. E...

Author and scholar Ilan Stavans talks about his latest book, "The New World Haggadah," a contemporary take that focuses on the Jewish experience from Moses to the Americas, and discusses why a multicultural, multilingual "Haggadah" is so important for today’s seder. Episode 0112 April 6, 2016 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts