The Shmooze, The Yiddish Book Center's Podcast

Yermiyahu Ahron Taub joins "The Shmooze" to talk about his latest translation, a collection of short stories by Yiddish writer Frume Halpern. These psychologically insightful stories present the lives of protagonists who are working-class poor, social outcasts, and experiencing illness, disability, and racism. Halpern worked as a massage therapist in a hospital, and many of these stories are about...

Ronald Robboy and Alex Weiser visit with "The Shmooze" to talk about their collaboration on the performance of the music of "Shir Hashirim (The Song of Songs)," a 1911 operetta by Joseph Rumshinsky and Anshel Shor. "Shir Hashirim" is a musical comedy that features several interlocking love triangles, including an aging composer along with his children and their lovers and friends. Reconstructed fr...

"The Shmooze" visits with Anna Elena Torres, Kenyon Zimmer, and Ayelet Brinn, editors and contributors to an expansive new volume of essays exploring suppressed histories of Jewish anarchism. "With Freedom in Our Ears: Histories of Jewish Anarchism" is a rich collection of essays across radical politics, immigrant history, the Yiddish press, and issues of gender and ethnicity. Episode 359 November...

On "The Shmooze," Kristen Morgenstern, a senior studying history and theater at Middlebury College, tells the story behind her zine "Irena Klepfisz: The Life of the Fighter." The zine was selected for inclusion in the Yiddish Book Center’s core exhibition, "Yiddish: A Global Culture." Episode 358 November 21, 2023 Amherst, MA

Avram Mlotek visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about the upcoming performance of Amid Falling Walls, for which Avram created the libretto. "Amid Falling Walls" (Tsvishn falnkike vent) is a groundbreaking musical that pays homage to the perseverance of the human spirit during one of the most devastating moments of history. The performance, presented by National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, is compos...

This week "The Shmooze" visits with translator Faith Jones to talk about her recently released "Meant to Be and Other Stories," by Shira Gorshman (White Goat Press). Shira Gorshman is most notable for her unflinching examination of women’s lives and her willingness to dwell on uncomfortable emotions. Faith shares how Gorshman’s stories follow the trajectory of 20th-century Jewish life in Eastern E...

"The Shmooze" sat down with chief curator and writer David Mazower for the first in a series of conversations about the Yiddish Book Center’s landmark permanent exhibition, which opens on October 15, 2023. In describing what visitors will encounter when they view this massive exhibition, David notes, “We’ve created a bright, colorful space full of powerful stories and wonderful objects that make y...

This week on "The Shmooze," editors Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel and Alyssa Quint talk about "Women on the Yiddish Stage," a series of publications that amplifies the voices of women who served as creative leaders in the historical Yiddish theater. Episode 354 June 15, 2023 Amherst, MA

On a visit with "The Shmooze," photographer Marisa Scheinfeld talks about her work on The Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project. The resulting work will create a series of markers to commemorate the Borscht Belt era. Episode 353 June 8, 2023 Amherst, MA

Curt Leviant, professor, novelist, and translator, speaks with "The Shmooze" about his life translating the work of Sholem Aleichem and Chaim Grade, and he shares some stories about his encounters with Nobel laureates. Episode 352 May 16, 2023 Amherst, MA

"The Shmooze" sits down with Seth Rogovoy to talk about what’s in store for the Yiddish Book Center’s 11th annual Yidstock: The Festival of New Yiddish Music (July 13–16). Once again curated by Yidstock artistic director Seth Rogovoy, this year’s festival will bring some audience favorites, including Merlin Shepherd, Nigunim Trio, and Lorin Sklamberg, along with rising stars making their Yidstock...

Meryl Frank visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about her recently released book, "Unearthed: A Lost Actress, a Forbidden Book, and a Search for Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust." "Unearthed" is the story of Meryl’s search for details about the life and untimely death of Franya Winter, a renowned actor in prewar Vilna. Through archives across four continents, chance encounters and miraculous disc...

Award-winning children’s book author Nancy Churnin talks with "The Shmooze" about her illustrated children’s book "Dear Mr. Dickens," which tells the true story of Eliza Davis. In Eliza Davis’s day, Charles Dickens was the most celebrated living writer in England. But some of his books reflected a mindset that was all too common at the time: prejudice against Jewish people. Eliza was Jewish and wa...

Caraid O’Brien, one of the foremost contemporary interpreters and translators of Sholem Asch’s work, talks with "The Shmooze" about the Theater J class she’s teaching—Prostitutes, Criminals, and the Walking Dead: Sholem Asch’s Underworld Trilogy in Translation. The class is based on her translations of three of Asch’s seminal works, "God of Vengeance," "Motke Thief," and "The Dead Man" (forthcomin...

This week on "The Shmooze," two of New York’s finest vocalists, Eleanor Reissa and Cilla Owens, chat about their upcoming performance alongside the Paul Shapiro Quartet. Eleanor and Cilla have interpreted music for decades as soloists and bring their experiences and talents together for a foot-tapping, heart-grabbing concert. The upcoming concert salutes the rich contribution of Jewish women in Yi...

Following the release of "Birth and Later Years: New and Collected Poems, 1971–2021," poet Irena Klepfisz sat down to speak with "The Shmooze" about her life, work, and the release of her collected poems. Irena was born in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1941. She survived the war hiding in an orphanage and later in the Polish countryside with her mother. After the war they lived in Łódź and Sweden before se...

"The Shmooze" caught up with Max Weinreich to talk about his interest in and work with the Great Jewish Books Club. Max, a postdoctoral researcher in mathematics at Harvard University, comes to Yiddish through his family ties to the language. His great-grandfather, also named Max Weinreich, founded the field of Yiddish sociolinguistics and was one of the three co-founders of YIVO. His grandfather,...

On "The Shmooze" from London, a visit with Dr. Sima Beeri to chat about her recently published "And what about the taste?" This book is the second part of a larger project to research and document her family’s roots and heritage. The first part deals with her family’s history in the 20th century, while the second part focuses on documenting recipes from her own and her husband’s family together wi...

We caught up with Aaron Bendich this week to chat about his latest venture, the launch of his new record label imprint, Off Beet, a spin-off of his radio show Borscht Beat. To quote Aaron, he will be “releasing music from the fringes of musical expression.” We spoke about what’s behind this exciting new record label and what inspired him to create Off Beet. Episode 343 December 22, 2022 Amherst, M...

Joshua Mack and Gabriel Sanders sat down with "The Shmooze" to share a preview of what’s on for the 2022 New York Jewish Book Festival. On Sunday, December 11, the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City will present its first-ever New York Jewish Book Festival, featuring talks, panels, and author signings. Joshua and Gabriel tease out some of what’s planned for the daylong event. Episode 342 N...

Anita Norich visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about her translation of Chana Blankshteyn’s "Fear and Other Stories." Yiddish writer Chana Blankshteyn (~1860–1939) was a woman who may be almost entirely forgotten now but was widely admired during her long and productive life. The mere existence of these stories is itself a remarkable feat as the collection was published in July 1939, just before t...

Editor Mindl Cohen sits down with "The Shmooze" to talk about the soon-to-be-released "2022 Pakn Treger Digital Translation Issue." This year’s anthology includes fourteen newly translated stories, poems, and memoirs about women’s experiences. In conversation we learn about some of the Yiddish writers whose work appears in this collection and about the translators who are bringing these works to E...

Jordan Finkin and Jessica Kirzane visit with "The Shmooze" to talk about their latest project, a trilingual (Yiddish, Ukrainian, English) volume of two works of children’s poetry. The poems in the volume were originally composed in Ukrainian by Yuriy Budiak, and shortly thereafter translated by Yoysef Ravin (who was later killed in Stalin’s purges) and republished in Yiddish. Episode 339 November...

Debra Olin's "Every Protection: Folk Culture and Motherhood in the Jewish Pale of Settlement" is currently on exhibit at the Yiddish Book Center’s Brechner Gallery. Debra sat-down with "The Shmooze" to talk about her intricate mixed-media collages created around An-sky’s probing, evocative questions on superstitions and religious rituals. Episode 338 November 2, 2022 Amherst, MA

In conversation with "The Shmooze," author Josh Lambert talks about his latest book, "The Literary Mafia." The book examines the relationships between Jewish editors and Jewish writers; how Jewish women exposed the misogyny they faced from publishers; and how children of literary parents have struggled with and benefited from their inheritances. Episode 337 October 24, 2022 Amherst, MA