PODCAST · arts
The Shmooze, The Yiddish Book Center's Podcast
by Yiddish Book Center
The Yiddish Book Center's podcast includes conversations with Jewish culture makers, plus news and stories related to Yiddish literature, language, and culture.
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410
Episode 410: Boom and Chains: A Yiddish Novel in Translation
Adi Mahalel visited with "The Shmooze" to speak about his translation of Hanan Ayalti’s "Boom and Chains". The novel provides a rare glimpse of the Jewish political left before the creation of the State of Israel and vividly illustrates the physical and mental toll of making a life in Mandatory Palestine. In conversation we discuss how author Hanan Ayalti’s own journey resembles that of Zalmen, the novel’s main character, and reflects his disillusionment with early Labor Zionism. Episode 410 April 30, 2026 Amherst, MA
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409
Episode 409: Returning: A Search for Home Across Three Centuries
This week on The Shmooze we visit with Nicholas Lemann. A veteran New Yorker correspondent, Lemann grew up in New Orleans, the son of German Jews in a world of gilded privilege. Yet in contrast to his parents’ generation, which always sought to downplay their religious background, Lemann was intrigued by his roots, thinking he wanted to be like Jack Burden, the ever-curious reporter in Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men. In conversation he talks about his recently released book, Returning, which tells both a personal family history and reveals much about Jewish life in the twenty-first century. Episode 409 April 22, 2026 Amherst, MA
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408
Episode 408: Crude Creatures: Confronting Representations of Black People in Yiddish Culture
Author Gil Ribak visited with "The Shmooze" to discuss his latest book, "Crude Creatures." The book draws on a mixture of previously unexplored Yiddish press, theater, and literature from Eastern Europe and the United States to examine how Black Africans and African Americans were depicted by Jews from the late nineteenth century through 1929. Episode 408 April 1, 2026 Amherst, MA
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407
Episode 407: The Last Women of Warsaw
Author Judy Batalion visited with "The Shmooze" to talk about her latest book, "The Last Women of Warsaw." The historical novel follows two very different Jewish women in vibrant, stylish late-1930s Warsaw—the “Paris of the North”—as they grapple with the gathering storm clouds of war and unexpectedly come together in their search for love, meaning, and a sense of home. In conversation we discuss how the book shines a light on this rarely explored world, a city filled with theaters, cabaret, and nightclubs with revolving dancefloors Episode 407 March 23, 2026 Amherst, MA
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406
Episode 406: Here Where We Live Is Our Country
Writer and artist Molly Crabapple visited with "The Shmooze" to speak about her forthcoming book, "Here Where We Live Is Our Country", the first popular history of the Bund. Molly re-creates the Bundists’ extraordinary world through dramatic portraits of insurgent poets and antireligious rebels, clandestine revolutionaries and lovers on the barricades. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, Sam Rothbort created “memory paintings” with the hope of resurrecting the vanished world of his shtetl childhood. Decades later, his great-granddaughter Molly discovered these paintings, and one stood out: a girl, her dress the color of sky, hurling a rock through a cottage window. It was this painting—"Itka the Bundist, Breaking Windows"—that introduced Molly to the Jewish Labor Bund. Episode 406 March 5, 2026 Amherst, MA
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405
Episode 405: Tevye’s Daughters: The Opera
Librettist and playwright Stephanie Fleischmann and composer and playwright Alex Weiser sat down with "The Shmooze" to talk about their collaboration on "Tevye’s Daughters." Their opera is based on Sholem Aleichem’s iconic Yiddish stories, exploring the tragic death of Tevye’s lesser-known daughter, Shprintse. The opera also traces the lasting impact of Shprintse’s fate on her sisters as elderly immigrants living in New York. The opera will be performed at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on March 19, 2026. Episode 405 February 24, 2026 Amherst, MA
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404
Episode 404: Once There Was a Town: The Memory Books of a Lost Jewish World
Author Jane Ziegelman joined "The Shmooze "to talk about her latest book, "Once There Was a Town." In conversation Jane talks about Yizkor (memorial) books and how she discovered the story of her family’s ancestral shtetl between the pages of the Luboml Yizkor book. Episode 404 February 12, 2026 Amherst, MA
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403
Episode 403: Polin: A One-Woman Play
Juliette Carbonnier joins The Shmooze to talk about her one-woman play, Polin. Polin is both a travel story and a ghost story, taking the audience through the Warsaw cabaret scene of the 1920s, the Lodz Ghetto in the 1930s, the Terezin concentration camp in the 1940s, and the Catskills Borscht Belt of the 1950s. Polin is also a love letter to New York City as homeland, so that is where we begin and end the journey. Polin was developed through Princeton University’s Martin A. Dale ’53 Fellowship and will be presented on January 30, 2026, at the Jalopy Theatre in Brooklyn, New York. Episode 403 January 15, 2026 Amherst, MA
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402
Episode 402: East Endings: Jewish East End writers, artists, and activists
Film director, film producer, and screenwriter Mark Jay spoke with "The Shmooze" about his 1993 documentary film "East Endings". "East Endings" documents a night at Bloom’s in May 1993—then one of the last remaining kosher restaurants in Whitechapel. Harry Blacker, renowned cartoonist and satirist of British Jewry, arrives to celebrate his 83rd birthday. Greeted by a group of old friends including Anna Tzelniker, Barnet Litvinoff, Bill Fishman, Brian Sewell, Simon Blumenfeld, and Rabbi Lionel Blue, they spend the evening together reminiscing about the Jewish East End of the 1930s: its humor, history, and politics of solidarity. Episode 402 December 16, 2025 Amherst, MA
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401
Episode 401: A Tour of Global Jewish Languages with Sebastian Schulman
Sebastian Schulman joined The Shmooze to talk about the Yiddish Book Center’s upcoming online course Speak the World! A Tour of Global Jewish Languages. Sebastian shared that the four-part online course will explore Jewish languages with scholars, activists, and artists who are working in the field today. Instructors will speak about the diversity, history, and the contemporary efforts to preserve, document, and continue speaking these languages. This course is presented in partnership with The Jewish Language Project. Episode 401 December 15, 2025 Amherst, MA
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400
Episode 400: The Life of A. N. Stencl: The Prince of Whitechapel
Dr. Rachel Lichtenstein, one of the foremost chroniclers of Jewish East London, visited with The Shmooze to talk about A. N. Stencl, a native Yiddish speaker from Poland, who settled in London’s East End in 1936 and became an activist and campaigner for the continuation of Yiddish. His extraordinary life spanned the height and demise of contemporary Yiddish culture. Stencl’s literary journal, Loshn un lebn (Language and Life), featured his own memoirs, poems, and essays alongside an array of work by other Yiddish writers from around the globe that explored political and literary topics of the time. Rachel’s work on Stencl includes a forthcoming book, The Prince of Whitechapel, a website hosting the complete collection Loshn un lebn, and a digital archive on Stencl in collaboration with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and the Centre for Jewish History in New York, funded by Arcadia. Episode 400 December 9, 2025 Amherst, MA
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399
Episode 399: A Memoir of the Ghetto of Šiauliai, Lithuania
Ellen Cassedy and Andrew Cassel joined The Shmooze to talk about their work translating So We Died: A Memoir of Life and Death in the Ghetto of Šiauliai, Lithuania, by Levi Shalit. Few accounts of the Šiauliai, or Shavl, Ghetto survived the war. Shalit’s work offers English-language readers a rare insight into a vital chapter of history. In conversation we learn about Levi Shalit the writer and how his literary and journalist style illuminates the Shavl Ghetto’s daily struggles, false hopes, and atrocities. Episode 399 October 30, 2025 Amherst, MA
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398
Episode 398: Shakespeare & Company’s Jewish Play Festival
Shakespeare & Company’s Artistic Director Allyn Burrows and the co-chair of the upcoming Celebrating Jewish Plays program Greg Lipper sat down with "The Shmooze" to talk about the weekend-long event. Celebrating Jewish Plays runs October 10–12, 2025, and will feature four staged readings—"The Price," by Arthur Miller; "The Sisters Rosensweig," by Wendy Wasserstein; "Here There Are Blueberries," by Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich; and "Roz and Ray," by Karen Hartman, featuring Tony-nominated actor John Douglas Thompson ("The Gilded Age"). Established in the 1970s, Shakespeare & Company, in Lenox, Massachusetts, develops and performs Shakespeare’s works as well as other classic, contemporary, and socially and politically significant works. The company embraces the core values of Shakespearean ethos: collaboration, commitment to language, visceral experience, and classical ideals expressed with physical prowess and an embodied contemporary voice. Episode 397 September 21, 2025 Amherst, MA "
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397
Ep397: In geveb
"In geveb"’s board president Mindl Cohen and the journal’s editor-in-chief Jessica Kirzane visit with "The Shmooze" to talk all things "In geveb." "In geveb" is a subscription-free digital forum that publishes peer-reviewed academic articles and translated and annotated Yiddish texts; it also serves as an exchange platform for pedagogical materials and as a blog of Yiddish cultural life. In conversation we talk about the history of "In geveb" and discuss the challenges, accomplishments, and future plans the journal faces as it marks its 10th year. Episode 397 September 7, 2025 Amherst, MA
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396
Episode 396: August is Women in Translation Month
Scholar and translator Anita Norich talks to "The Shmooze" about her work translating the work of Yiddish women writers. Anita is the translator of Celia Dropkin’s "Desires," Kadya Molodovsky’s "A Jewish Refugee in America," and Chana Blankshteyn’s "Fear and Other Stories." She co-translated with Ellen Cassedy the forthcoming release of Rashel Veprinski’s "Hand in Hand." Anita reflects on the field of translation, the challenges Yiddish women writers faced, and the current work being done to bring these works to translation. Episode 396 August 31, 2025 Amherst, MA
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395
Episode 395: Reflecting on Great Jewish Books Summer Program
Sarah Biskowitz and Ruby Zuckerman joined "The Shmooze" to talk about the Great Jewish Books Summer Program. Sarah and Ruby, alums of the program, are back at the Yiddish Book Center as RAs for this year’s program. In conversation we talk about their experiences as participants and as RAs and learn about how Great Jewish Books lead them in new directions, personal and professional. And we hear what’s on the reading list for this summer’s students. Episode 395 August 7, 2025 Amherst, MA
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394
Episode 394: What’s on at the Borscht Belt Fest?
Andrew Jacobs, president of the board of the Borscht Belt Museum, joins us on "The Shmooze" to talk about the Borscht Belt Museum and the annual Borscht Belt Fest. The museum is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Catskills resort era and celebrating its history as a refuge from bigotry, the cradle of stand-up comedy, and a cultural catalyst that changed America. The annual festival includes everything from stand-up comedians and art workshops to live music and Jewish food. This year’s festival will take place July 26 & 27, 2025. Episode 394 July 20, 2025 Amherst, MA
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393
Episode 393: The Backstory of Chaim Grade’s Novel Sons & Daughters
Editors Altie Karper and Todd Portnowitz sat down with "The Shmooze" to talk about Chaim Grade’s novel "Sons & Daughters" (Knopf)—newly translated into English by Rose Waldman. Originally serialized in the 1960s and 1970s in New York–based Yiddish newspapers, Grade’s "Sons and Daughters" tells the story of a way of life that is no longer. In conversation Altie and Todd tell the incredible backstory of how the work came to publication and why the newly translated novel has been lauded as the “last great Yiddish novel.” Episode 393 June 30, 2025 Amherst, MA
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392
Episode 392: The Shtetl Story behind The Light Keeper
Co-authors Sheila Baslaw and Karen Levine joined "The Shmooze" to talk about "The Light Keeper," their illustrated children’s book that tells the story of ten-year-old Shmuel Saslovsky’s life in an early-twentieth-century shtetl. At 92, this is Sheila’s first published children’s book. In collaboration with Karen Levine, she worked to tell the story of how Sheila’s father Shmuel helped when electricity first came to his shtetl in Russia. Epsiode 392 May 18, 2025 Amherst, MA
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391
Episode 391: Albert Chasan Paints His Parents’ Lives
When Albert Chasan (1930–2024) retired from the marketing communications firm he founded, “It hit me: I had to do something with the stories my parents told.” He took up painting and commemorated the formative years of his parents’ lives through a series of expressionistic, boldly hued acrylics. A selection of color prints of many of these historically poignant works are on exhibit at the Yiddish Book Center. On the occasion of the exhibit opening, before a live audience at the Yiddish Book Center, Albert’s daughter Betty and his son Robert sat down with "The Shmooze" to talk about their father’s work as a painter and stories behind his narrative painting. Episode 391 May 5, 2025 Amherst, MA
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390
Episode 390: Isaac Bashevis Singer: Writings on Yiddish and Yiddishkayt
This week on "The Shmooze," writer, translator, and literary scholar David Stromberg. In a wide-ranging conversation, David talks about his recently released translation of "Isaac Bashevis Singer: Writings on Yiddish and Yiddishkayt: A Spiritual Reappraisal, 1946–1955" (White Goat Press) and sheds light on Bashevis’s lesser-known nonfiction, which he has translated and edited for this collection of Singer’s writings. Episode 390 April 23, 2025 Amherst, MA
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389
Episode 389: Treasured Melodies—The Morris Hollender 100th Birthday Concert
Hankus Netsky joined "The Shmooze" to talk about his upcoming Morris Hollender 100th birthday concert. In conversation we spoke about how interest in Eastern European Jewish musical traditions has experienced an unprecedented resurgence in recent years and how the melodies that Morris Hollender brought over from his birthplace in a small farming village in the Carpathian Mountains have become a major pillar of that resurgence. An Auschwitz concentration camp survivor, Hollender came to the Boston area from Czechoslovakia in 1967. The program will include little-known melodies that Hollender learned as a child in the Munkacs region of Eastern Czechoslovakia (now Ukraine) and shared generously with Temple Beth Israel members and others during his years in the United States. The concert will take at Temple Beth Israel located at 25 Harvard St, Waltham, MA 02453. Tickets and more information are available at https://tbiwaltham.org/concert/. Episode 389 April 14, 2025 Amherst, MA
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388
Episode 388: Onscreen at the Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival
Deb Krivoy, director of the annual Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival, joined "The Shmooze" to talk about this year’s lineup. Now in its nineteenth year, the Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival continues its tradition of showcasing award-winning films from around the globe. This year’s festival kicks off at the Yiddish Book Center on April 3 with the screening of "Midas Man." Episode 388 March 26, 2025 Amherst, MA
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387
Elephants by Night: Sutzkever’s African Poetry
Translator Mel Konner and Professor Justin Cammy sat down with "The Shmooze" to talk about the release of "Elephants by Night," a collection of newly translated poems by Abraham Sutzkever. The poems, a result of Sutzkever’s travels to South Africa, are meditations on place, memory, and renewal. Episode 387 January 16, 2025 Amherst, MA
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386
Episode 386: THE ESSENCE: A YIDDISH THEATRE DIM SUM
Allen Lewis Rickman and fellow actor Yelena Shmulenson, better known as the shtetl couple from the Coen brothers’ Oscar-nominated "A Serious Man," sat down with "The Shmooze" to chat about their work in Yiddish theater and their staging of their fast-paced comedy "THE ESSENCE: A YIDDISH THEATRE DIM SUM," which is onstage at the New York’s Theater 154 January 7 to 12, 2025. Episode 386 January 7, 2025 Amherst, MA
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385
Episode 385: Bashevis’s Demons
Direct from engagements in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, Shane Baker and Miryem-Khaye Seigel sat down with "The Shmooze" to talk about their latest collaboration, "BASHEVIS’S DEMONS." The performance includes three short stories by legendary Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer. It makes its official Off-Broadway bow at Theatre 154, 154 Christopher Street (between Greenwich and Washington Streets), with performances beginning December 18, 2024, through January 5, 2025. "BASHEVIS’S DEMONS" will be presented by the Congress for Jewish Culture in association with Out of the Box Theatrics and ChaShaMa. Tickets are available at https://congressforjewishculture.org/bashevisdemons. Episode 385 December 11, 2024 Amherst, MA
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384
Episode 384: Frank London’s Latest Releases
Frank London visited with "The Shmooze" to chat about his latest LP, "In the City of God," and other releases. In a far-flung conversation, Frank spoke about how he became a musician, his influences past and present, and the release of the new LP. Episode 384 December 5, 2024 Amherst, MA
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383
Episode 383: Sabor Judío: The Jewish Mexican Cookbook
Ilan Stavans sits down with "The Shmooze" to talk about his recently released cookbook, "Sabor Judío." Co-authored with Margaret Boyle, the collection of over 100 recipes celebrates the fusion of two culinary traditions, Jewish and Mexican, and tells the story of how cooking and eating connects Jewish Mexicans across places and generations. Episode 383 November 30, 2024 Amherst, MA
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382
Episode 382: Menachem Mendel Schneerson: Becoming the Messiah
Ezra Glinter sat down with "The Shmooze" to talk about his recently released biography of Menachem Mendel Schneerson. This is the first biography of Schneerson to combine a nonpartisan view of his life, work, and impact with an insider’s understanding of the ideology that drove him and that continues to inspire the Chabad-Lubavitch movement today. Episode 382 November 21, 2024 Amherst, MA"
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381
Episode 381: Harvey Wang’s New York
In a live conversation at the Yiddish Book Center, award-winning photographer, filmmaker, and author Harvey Wang visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about his work and his recently opened exhibit, "Harvey Wang’s New York."In the early years of his career, in the 1980s, Harvey’s photographic beat was the New York City nightlife scene. Yet a very different facet of the downtown landscape fascinated him. Cycling through the Lower East Side, he’d notice old businesses clearly not long for this world—venerable holdouts from when the neighborhood was an epicenter of Jewish immigration. Episode 381 October 9, 2024 Amherst, MA"
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380
Episode 380: Yiddish: A Global Culture live on Bloomberg Connects
David Mazower, chief-curator and writer of "Yiddish: A Global Culture," and Caleb Sher, the Yiddish Book Center’s Richard S. Herman Endowed Senior Fellow, join "The Shmooze" to share the news that the Center’s groundbreaking exhibition, "Yiddish: A Global Culture," is now live on the Bloomberg Connects app. The free, downloadable app allows users to explore expert-curated guides from some 550 selected cultural institutions across the globe in the palm of their hand. David and Caleb share some of what can be found on the app—from featured artifacts, videos, and audio to how to plan your visit or learn about related exhibits and public programs. Episode 380 September 26, 2024 Amherst, MA
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379
Episode 379: The Book of Izzy
Novelist Ben Gonshor joins "The Shmooze" to talk about his debut novel, "The Book of Izzy." The book’s main character, Izzy, is a writer at wit’s end in life and on the verge of a complete breakdown with his career in wedding planning. Following an encounter with a mysterious bird seemingly visible only to him, he agrees to take on the leading role in an amateur production of the greatest play in all of the Yiddish theater: "The Dybbuk," a gothic tale of destiny, possession, and the triumph of love over all. In conversation with Ben we talk about the many layers of Izzy and the book’s underlying narrative. Episode 379 August 27, 2024 Amherst, MA
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378
Episode 378: Displaced Persons: A Multilayered Collection of Stories
Writer Joan Leegant joined "The Shmooze" to talk about her latest book, "Displaced Persons," a collection of rich, multilayered short stories, half set in Israel, half among Jewish families in the States. The fictional stories explore exile, belonging, and what it means to call a place home. Episode 378 August 22, 2024 Amherst, MA
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377
Episode 377: Ashkenazi Folk Magic at the Threshold
Rokhl Kafrissen—journalist, teacher, playwright, and 2022 winner of the prestigious Adrienne Cooper Dreaming in Yiddish prize—sits down with "The Shmooze" this week to talk about her upcoming Yiddish Book Center online course “Sacred Time and Liminal Space: Ashkenazi Folk Magic at the Threshold.” Rokhl talks about the unique Eastern European women’s folk magic ritual known as "feldmestn:" measuring a cemetery (and its graves) to make special holiday candles. In conversation she shares other traditions and tells how the course will also place a special emphasis on learning about these customs through short stories, particularly the work of Sarah Hamer Jacklyn. Episode 377 August 14, 2024 Amherst, MA
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376
Episode 0376: Adapted for a Staged Reading: Sholem Asch’s Shabbtai Tsvi
Translator and adapter Weaver sits down with "The Shmooze" to talk about the drama group Theater Between Addresses and its upcoming immersive, staged reading of Sholem Asch’s "Shabbtai Tsvi," which Weaver translated and adapted. Never before performed in its entirety, the play shows the meteoric rise and tragic fall of Shabbtai Tsvi, the 17th-century Ottoman Jewish mystic whose messianic aspirations attracted a following of thousands of Jews from every corner of the earth. The reading will take place outdoors on the grounds of the Yiddish Book Center. Episode 376 August 7, 2024 Amherst, MA
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375
Episode 0375: The Yiddish Supernatural on Screen
This week on "The Shmooze" we visit with Rebecca (Rivke) Margolis, author of "The Yiddish Supernatural on Screen: Dybbuks, Demons and Haunted Jewish Pasts." In conversation we talk about how the book traces the transformation of the figure of the dybbuk—a soul of the dead possessing the living—from folklore to 1930s Polish Yiddish cinema to global contemporary media. We also explore how translated and subtitled Yiddish dialogue reimagines Jewish lore and tells new stories, where the supernatural looms over the narrative. Episode 375 July 31, 2024 Amherst, MA
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374
Episode 0374: Klezkanada’s Summer Retreat
Avia Moore and Sebastian Schulman join "The Shmooze" for a lively conversation about all things Klezakanda. As Avia shares, KlezKanada “fosters a community where the vibrant living tradition of Yiddish culture and Jewish music continues to thrive.” This year’s lineup includes workshops on Yiddish song, dance, and language learning as well as a translation workshop, a cabaret, and a three-part talk on Quebec in Yiddish and Yiddish in Quebec. The Yiddish Book Center is a co-sponsor of KlezKanada 2024. Episode 374 July 25, 2024 Amherst, MA
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373
Episode 0373: Nathan-ism: The Story of Artist Nathan Hilu
Filmaker Elan Golod visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about his documentary "Nathan-ism." The film tells the story of Nathan Hilu, the son of Syrian Jewish immigrants to New York who received a life-changing assignment from the U.S. Army: to guard the top Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials. This experience fueled a lifetime of artistic inspiration for Nathan, a virtually unknown outsider artist who spent the next 70 years obsessively creating a visual narrative from his memories. Episode 373 June 11, 2024 Amherst, MA
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372
Episode 0372: The Yiddish Folksong Project
Kimberly Lazzeri joins "The Shmooze" to talk about the recently released "Yiddish Folksong Project Anthology." Kimberly shares the story behind this collection of Robert De Cormier’s folksong arrangements, which had been in a storage closet for over forty years. This is the first-ever publication of De Cormier’s arrangements of Yiddish folksongs and the first-ever large body of Yiddish folksong repertoire arranged in the classical style for performance on the concert or recital stage. Episode 372 June 6, 2024 Amherst, MA
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371
Episode 0371: After 80 Years Postcards Find Their Way Home to Lublin
Piotr Nazaruk and Karla McCabe joined "The Shmooze" to tell the story of the thirty-six postcards that Karla recently hand-delivered to Pitor Nazaruk at a ceremony in Lublin, Poland. Karla explains how this collection of postcards were looted from the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva in the war and now, eighty years later, have found their way back home. Episode 371 May 29, 2024 Amherst, MA
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370
Episode 0370: Sivan Slapak’s Here Is Still Here
Writer Sivan Slapak visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about her debut collection, "Here Is Still Here." The stories provide a layered exploration of human connection and the complexities of identity. In conversation, Sivan shares how these stories—which take readers from Montreal to Jerusalem and back again as the main character navigates checkpoints and borders, home and exile, milestones and disappointment, and love and loss—are threaded together. Episode 370 May 13, 2024 Amherst, MA
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369
Episode 0369: Yiddish Culture in America
"The Shmooze" visits with Sebastian Schulman for a chat about Yiddish culture in America as we celebrate American Jewish Heritage Month. In conversation he shares some of what he’s found on the Yiddish Book Center’s website related to the Jewish American experience—Yiddish writers in America, Jewish food, Yiddish film, immigration, activism, and more. Episode 369 April 28, 2024 Amherst, MA
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368
Episode 0368: in a dark blue night: two song cycles on Yiddish/Jewish New York
Alex Weiser visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about his latest work, "in a dark blue night," consisting of two connected song cycles. The first, “in a dark blue night,” sets to music modernist Yiddish poetry about New York City at night, all written by Jewish immigrant poets at the turn of the 20th century. The second, “Coney Island Days,” transforms an oral history with his late grandmother, Irene Weiser, into a musical exploration of the time when Jews became Americans and the way that humble, individual stories can capture the sweeping breadth of history. Episode 368 March 14, 2024 Amherst, MA
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367
Episode 0367: The Yiddish Book Center’s Bossie Dubowick YiddishSchool
Sonia Bloom and Judith Liskin-Gasparro speak to "The Shmooze" about Yiddish-language learning, their work in the field, and their participation at the Yiddish Book Center’s upcoming Bossie Dubowick YiddishSchool. Episode 367 March 11, 2024 Amherst, MA
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366
Episode 0366:The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York
Ross Perlin, the co-director of the Endangered Language Alliance, visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about his new book, "Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York." The book provides a portrait of contemporary New York City through six speakers of little-known and overlooked languages, diving into the incredible history of the most linguistically diverse place ever to have existed on the planet. Episode 366 March 7, 2024 Amherst, MA
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365
Episode 0365: Across So Many Seas
Author Ruth Behar speaks with "The Shmooze" about "Across So Many Seas." Her latest book was inspired by Behar’s paternal grandmother’s side of the family of Sephardic Jews living in Spain up until the Spanish Inquisition of 1492. Behar used her background as an anthropology professor to make a thoroughly researched and powerful novel about religious persecution and how refugees have been treated throughout history. Episode 365 February 4, 2024 Amherst, MA
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364
Episode 0364: A Worker’s Yiddish Library on View
Marvin Zuckerman and Ruby Elliot Zuckerman join "The Shmooze" to talk about their family’s story, which is featured in the Yiddish Book Center’s new core exhibition, "Yiddish: A Global Culture." As Marvin shares, “In our one-bedroom apartment in the Bronx we had world literature—Georg Brandes, Maupassant, Marx, Darwin, Jack London, Tolstoy—all in Yiddish.” Marvin and his granddaughter Ruby share the experience of traveling together from the West Coast to be part of the exhibition’s opening and to see their family’s “Worker’s Library” on view. Episode 364 January 22, 2023 Amherst, MA
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363
Episode 0363: Telling the Story of Yiddish Theater
David Mazower, chief curator of the Yiddish Book Center’s core exhibition, "Yiddish: A Global Culture," and Caraid O’Brien, co-curator of the exhibition’s theater section, chat with "The Shmooze" about all things Yiddish theater. You’ll hear how they gathered rare artifacts and stories about the actors, the audiences, and the contemporary Yiddish theater scene. Episode 363 January 14, 2023 Amherst, MA
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362
Episode 0362: Staging Mikhl Yashinsky’s American Yiddish Drama
Mikhl Yashinsky is on "The Shmooze" to talk about his new drama "The Gospel According to Chaim," the strange tale of a Jewish writer’s quixotic attempt to publish a controversial book. The New Yiddish Rep, who is producing the play, says this is the first entirely original, full-length American Yiddish drama to be produced for a general audience in seven decades. Episode 362 December 20, 2023 Amherst, MA
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361
Episode 0361: New in Translation: Yiddish Writer Frume Halpern
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 those who, like her, work with their hands: workshop and factory workers, piece workers, a shoemaker, a butcher, and a hairdresser. Episode 361 December 14, 2023 Amherst, MA
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The Yiddish Book Center's podcast includes conversations with Jewish culture makers, plus news and stories related to Yiddish literature, language, and culture.
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