The Alumni Newsletter of the Book Center

CatchingCatching upup withwith JessieJessie KahnweilerKahnweiler (Tent:(Tent: ComedyComedy ’13)’13) and other news and updates

DiFeder studs.indd 1 1/6/20 1:15 PM “Handpicked”

Each month, a staff or friend of the Yiddish Book Center selects their favorite items—the iconic, the affecting, the inspiring, the surprising—from our collections to share on our homepage. We’ve curated a sampling of those selections here to share with you (all are searchable by name on our website).

“Eating the Archives” A lively “From the Vault” post by former fellow Michael Yashinsky, which tells the story of a paper bag of Yiddish recipes found in an archival closet at the Center and the journey from past to present that they take the author on. A must-read for all food lovers! p “Undzer gortn” This 1970 student performance of American Yiddish poetry at McGill University incorporates experimental film and dance. A true “happening,” it is undoubtedly one of the more ec- Dear alumni, centric items in the Frances Brandt Online Yiddish Audio Library and well worth a listen. We had more people less hours of labor to in residence for edu- produce, will launch, as p cation programs at the will the Center’s web Celia Dropkin’s paintings The most recommend- Yiddish Book Center portal for searching the ed item out of all the Handpicked selections, the this summer than ever text inside its Yiddish beautiful oil paintings and watercolors (including before. It was a little book collection. a painting of a cottage likely in our very own Am- dizzying for our staff herst!) created by the poet later in her life feature and faculty but kind of There are many more bright flowers and snowy landscapes. magical, too, to have things to come, and the building overflow- I also hope the an- p ing (literally: we used a niversary will be an lot of classrooms over opportunity for you “Love! Vengeance! Espionage!” This short piece at Hampshire College). to reflect on the role introduces readers to a less- That intensity reflects the Center has played er-known genre of Yiddish the growing recogni- in your life and work, writing: the “low culture” tion our programs have and what role you of shund, or Yiddish pulp been getting—largely might like to play in its fiction, which became popu- because you’re all out future. This newsletter lar in Eastern Europe in the there, spreading the will, I hope, give you a 1870s before making its way word—and it means sense of how vast and to North America and Israel there are well over a impressive our alumni (and to the Yiddish Book hundred amazing new network is—there are Center). people joining this so many of you doing p alumni community. such incredible things. If you have ideas, “Between Midnight and 6 am” A fun autobi- Meanwhile, we can’t ex- thoughts, or sugges- ographical short story about two Yiddish Book actly take a breather be- tions for the Center, or Center visiting faculty on a late-night trip to Mexico cause 2020 is approach- if you just want to let City to rescue Yiddish books, children in tow. ing quickly, and it’s us know what you’ve going to be a big year been up to, please p for the Center. It’s our don’t hesitate to get Read more from Handpicked on our website 40th anniversary, and in touch. (yiddishbookcenter.org/llc-handpicked) and tell us there will be a series about your favorite finds! of programs across the Best wishes, country to celebrate. Josh Lambert For more new features on our website, including Our new Yiddish text- Academic Director newly published From the Vault stories and recent book, which has taken episodes of our podcast, The Shmooze, visit yiddish- many years and count- bookcenter.org/language-literature-culture.

2

DiFeder studs.indd 2 1/6/20 1:15 PM Catching up with Jessie Kahnweiler

Jessie is an alum of the JK: I grew up Reform I was able to have a Di feder: Looking back, Yiddish Book Cen- and checked all the proactive Jewish expe- what was your most ter’s Tent: Comedy LA Reform boxes growing rience and really take important takeaway program. Her internet up: bat mitzvah, Birth- Judaism personally. I from your time in that shorts have amassed right . . . but I never felt also realized that my program? millions of views and personally connected to entire life is based on have been featured ev- my Judaism. It always being honest, curious, JK: The devastating erywhere from the New felt like this obligation and laughing through pain and terror that York Times to TMZ. She put upon me. When the hardships—which serves as the bedrock has developed series I was 27 I got a grant is inherently Jewish. Be- for Jewish comedy. for Hulu, ABC, and the from the Foundation ing Jewish just feels so CW and most recent- for Jewish Culture, and right because it’s mine. Di feder: How has it ly staffed on SKAM they said we could do a influenced your life and AUSTIN for Facebook project on anything as Di feder: What is your work in the time since? Watch. long as it was Jewish. I craziest/funniest mem- kinda freaked out, like ory from Tent: Comedy JK: Those kinds of Di feder: Where are what am I going to do, LA? programs are so cool you originally from, Bagels: The Musical? I because being an artist and where do you cur- felt no connection or JK: My favorite memo- can be really isolat- rently call home? inspiration regarding ry was just sitting with ing. There’s a certain my Judaism, and so I Danny Lobell on the amount of self torture JK: I was born in decided to make my first day and realizing that goes into my pro- Cincinnati. Grew up in project about that. I we were both the two cess, and being around Atlanta. And live in Los spent two years re- schmucks who always other artists, specifical- Angeles. searching, living, and say snarky stuff in the ly Jewish artists, gives filming all aspects of back of the room and you this tribal camara- Di feder: What initial- Jewish life here in LA making a pact to not derie. Even in learning ly got you interested and Israel. I was in it. make fun of anything the history of Jewish in Yiddish or Jewish And it was a life-chang- for the next four days comedy, like I’m stand- culture? ing experience because besides each other. continued

3

DiFeder studs.indd 3 1/6/20 1:15 PM continued ing on the shoulders Di feder: What’s at the New In Translation of so many stomach- top of your bucket list? aches. Stories JK: To shoot my fea- In this new English translation, Hersh Dovid Di feder: What are you ture film. To meet the Nomberg’s stories explore modern Jewish life up to these days? dude my psychic keeps in the growing cosmopolitan city of Warsaw: telling me about. young intellectuals in pursuit of truth and JK: I’m developing a beauty; working class fathers tempted by couple of TV projects Di feder: What fic- schemes for easy money; and teenagers and directing music tional character do you caught between desire and tradition. By videos and shorts. most identify with? turns comic, satiric, and earnest, Nomberg’s stories take the pulse of Warsaw’s Jewish Di feder: Proudest ac- JK: Peter Pan and Larry society at the dawn of the twentieth century. complishment (so far)? David. Hersh Dovid Nomberg (1876–1927) was one of JK: When I get messag- Di feder: Most inter- the new wave of Yiddish writers in the early es from people telling esting place you’ve 20th century who made a name for himself me my work has made visited? with his characteristically atmospheric short them feel less alone. stories, mostly set in Warsaw, populated by JK: Israel (know your artists, philosophers, and other outcasts. Di feder: What are audience!). you reading, watching, Newly translated by Daniel listening to as of late? Di feder: Most salient Kennedy, a literary trans- piece of life advice lator based in France. He JK: Three Women is you’ve ever received/ is a two-time Yiddish Book my favorite book of given? Center Translation Fellow, the decade. I love the managing editor for transla- new Beyoncé/Lion JK: My grandpa Alvin tions at In geveb: a Journal of Yiddish Studies, King album. And I just Boretz was a prolific and co-founder of Farlag Press. re-binged Mad Men— screenwriter, and he what a masterpiece. told me if I wanted to “Hilarious and insightful, a glimpse of a be a writer all I had to vanished world seen close at hand, with Di feder: Favorite do was “shut up and poverty, propriety, romance, and much more. Yiddish (or Jewish) listen to the world,” Nomberg was a forgotten genius, forgotten expression? which is true but also until . . . now! A very fine translation, too!” hilarious coming from —Paul Buhle JK: Sheyne meydele— him because he never my grandma or mom stopped talking. For new and archived translations, visit our will sometimes say it Short Works in Translation page: yiddish- to me, and it makes Di feder: Favorite bookcenter.org/yiddish-translation. my heart melt. Like all guilty pleasure? Warsaw Stories: Hersh Dovid Nomberg, translat- Yiddish, it sounds like ed by Daniel Kennedy, White Goat Press (2019). it feels. JK: Binging on Netflix, but I tell myself it’s “re- Di feder: Rugelach or search” . . . ice cream, black and white cook- but I tell myself it’s ies (or other favorite “research.” Jewish foods)? Di feder: If our alumni JK: Yes and yes—what readers want to see was the question? more of your work, where should they go? Di feder: Favorite writ- ers (in Yiddish or any JK: My work is on my language)? website, jessiekahn- weiler.com. My daily JK: I wish I knew thoughts, feelings, and Yiddish writers. Do misadventures are on you guys have a list or Instagram: @Jessie_ Warsaw Stories is available at something? Kahnweiler. shop.yiddishbookcenter.org.

4

DiFeder studs.indd 4 1/6/20 1:15 PM Students in the Steiner Summer Yiddish Program dance to the music of Burikes at Yidstock 2019

Books and Poetry and Podcasts (and Food), Oh My! Jessica, Josh, and Mindl weigh in.

Jessica Parker, Yiddish Josh Lambert, Yiddish Mindl Cohen, Yiddish love this project. Two Book Center’s museum Book Center’s academic Book Center’s director Harvard Divinity School education specialist director of translation and students (one a Jewish collections initiatives atheist) read the entire Book Noam Sienna’s Poems Julia Kolchinsky Harry Potter series, one A Rainbow Thread is Dasbach’s The Many Book The Gefilte chapter per episode, a collection of Jewish Names for Mother is a Manifesto: I have been using sacred reading texts by, for, and about prize-winning collection obsessed with this practices from Christian LGBTQ people from of poems by a Tent: book since going to a and Jewish traditions, across space, time, and Creative Writing alumna book talk/drink tast- including a khavruse language. It’s a real trea- who writes about im- ing where the authors practice and a pardes sure and a must-have! migration, motherhood, taught us how to make practice. As a literary and a family history of sour dill martinis. I scholar, I love the close Podcast Vaybertaytsh loss and trauma. think it’s a perfect reading practices, and as is the place to get blend of traditional a Harry Potter fan, I love your feminist news Novel Lexi Freiman’s Ashkenazi recipes with the opportunity to take and stories in Yiddish. Inappropriation, which just enough modern seriously a set of Vaybertaytsh also has came out last year, got options and updates books that meant a lot accompanying tran- called “the queer Jewish (there is a recipe for to me growing up. There scripts and educational Australian novel we’ve traditional saltwater is something sacrile- materials that are great been waiting for” but pickles and an Ash- gious about reading a for students, teachers, didn’t get as much kenazi kimchi, for YA series as sacred text, and pedagogues! attention as I thought example). and on the other hand it it would; it’s a little is a very secular-friend- Food Rein’s Deli is as silly at times but also a Podcast Harry Potter ly way to encounter close to the Jewish delis good primer on Don- and the Sacred Text: spiritual and religious of Toronto as I can get in na Haraway’s “Cyborg I am not otherwise a practice. western ! Manifesto.” podcast person, but I

5

DiFeder studs.indd 5 1/6/20 1:15 PM Four Questions (and a little more) —Sarah Abrevaya Stein

Sarah Abrevaya Stein, with only a few fans for I never gave up this pas- Africa. Yet each one is Internship (now Steiner relief. But I fell in love sion even as my work stubbornly transna- Summer Yiddish Pro- with Yiddish, which the expanded to include— tional, as were so many gram) ’91, is professor other interns and I stud- and ultimately to focus modern Jewish lives. of history, the Sady and ied that summer with on—the Mediterranean All told, this work looks Ludwig Kahn Director of Aaron Lansky, and this and Sephardic Jewish beyond the cultural and the Alan D. Leve Center passion launched me worlds. Still, my first national boundaries for Jewish Studies, and on my scholarly path. book offered a com- that are understood to the Maurice Amado After leaving the Center, parison (the first and, divide Sephardi from Chair in Sephardic I continued to study still, only comparison) Ashkenazi, Ladino from Studies at UCLA. A Yiddish independently, of modern Yiddish and Yiddish, or European Guggenheim Fellow, she as well as at the Hebrew modern Ladino cultures from Middle Eastern— is the author of many University, the Uni- in the Russian and Ot- categories that can, in award-winning books versity of Oxford, and toman Empires (Making my view, flatten mod- and articles. Stanford University. At Jews Modern); and my ern Jewish history. these places, I had the second book explored Di feder: Is there any privilege of working Jews’ involvement in My intellectual trajecto- connection between with such luminaries the boom and bust glob- ry has roots in that brick your experience as a in the Yiddish world al ostrich feather market factory in South Hadley, summer intern (now as Professors Dov Noy, of the turn of the twen- to be sure. Present-day Steiner Summer Yid- Mordkhe Schaechter, tieth century (Plumes), Steiner Summer Yiddish dish Program) back in and Shikl Fishman. a story that featured, Program fellows work ’91 and your current among other actors, the in nicer digs, but the work? In what ways I went on to write an droves of Yiddish-speak- rawness of the Yiddish did that experience undergraduate thesis ing, Eastern European Book Center in 1991 was influence your path, if (Brown University) on Jewish women, men, electric, and its pulse indeed it did? the 1912–1914 anthro- and children who has stayed with me. pological expedition labored in the industry SAS: When I served as of Yiddish writer S. in the southern Cape, Di feder: How did you an intern at the Yid- An-sky (the pen name east side of London, and become interested in dish Book Center, the of Shloyme Zaynvl Lower East Side of New history? And what made books were still stored Rapoport) and then York City. you decide to become a in an old stationery entered a doctoral historian? factory—originally a program in history at My subsequent books nineteenth-century Stanford University, explored aspects of Jew- SAS: Like other histo- mill—in South Hadley. intent on focusing on ish life, culture, politics, rians I know, I harbor The building ran hot in Eastern European Jew- and law in the Otto- an escape fantasy in those summer months, ish cultural history. man Empire and North which I throw it in to

6

DiFeder studs.indd 6 1/6/20 1:15 PM write mystery novels SAS: My most recent relative from family can Jewish community in the spirit of P. D. book, Family Papers: trees. In time, the facts and the dispersal of the James. But researching a Sephardic Journey the family buried be- author’s descendants and writing history is Through the Twentieth came unknown to their over multiple countries a bit like unraveling a Century (Farrar, Straus descendants, including and continents. whodunit: the histori- & Giroux, 2019), traces the war criminal’s own an’s job, after all, is to the modern history daughter; unknown, Having spent years piece together clues, of a single Sephardic that is, until the publica- considering Sa’adi’s reconstruct events from family from Ottoman tion of Family Papers. account of nine- multiple perspectives, Salonica over the arc teenth-century Saloni- and to puzzle over of a century, seven gen- I came upon this ca, I was left wondering that ever-confounding erations, and through family history while how his handwritten question of why people various waves of global finishing another book: memoir came to travel do the things they do. migration. It is also an English-language such a circuitous path I only wish that, like a meditation on the translation of the first and what had become Hercules Poirot, I could letters they exchanged Ladino memoir ever of Sa’adi’s descen- gather all my characters and saved, and how written (Sarah Abrevaya dants. These questions together into a single these letters came to Stein and Aron Ro- launched me on a room and confront hold the family togeth- drigue, A Jewish Voice decade-long quest to them with my suspi- er as time, distance, from Ottoman Salonica, tell the collective story cions and theories! and world conflicts with Isaac Jerusalmi as of Sa’adi’s branching tore them apart. Recon- translator, 2012). The family: a journey that Aside from my love of structing the family his- author of that memoir, took me to a doz- mysteries, I feel it a tory has taken me into Sa’adi Besaelel a-Levi en countries, thirty great privilege to work the living rooms (and (1820–1903), spent the archives, and into the with students in a private collections) last years of his life homes of a Sephardic world-class public uni- of family members writing a Ladino-lan- clan that constituted its versity and also to ded- own remarkable global icate myself to reading Researching and diaspora. and writing. To some extent, it’s in my blood. writing history is a bit like Di feder: What’s in I grew up in Eugene, your reading (or listen- Oregon, in a family of unraveling a whodunit. ing or watching) queue books, educators, and these days? public servants: my from Rio de Janeiro to guage memoir to air father is a retired pro- Kolkata, Thessaloniki a lifetime’s worth of SAS: I recently finished fessor of English, my to Manchester—people grievances. Extraordi- reading Olga Tokarczuk’s mother a retired mid- who today cannot read narily, the sole copy of Flights, which is mes- dle-school librarian— the various languages this document, written merizing: I love its inge- ahead of her time in of the documents they in Soletreo (the unique nious, difficult-to-cate- amassing for her public hold but who still have handwritten cursive of gorize nature. Oyinkan library (in the 1970s a palpable connection Ladino), outlived wars, Braithwaite’s My Sister, and 1980s) books about to their deep past. the collapse of the the Serial Killer was being young and queer, empire in which it was next in queue, which or a Japanese American The book also contains conceived, a major fire is a delightful feminist youth interned during within it the discov- in Salonica, and the Ho- balm. I love every- the Second World War. ery of an astonishing locaust, during which thing by historian Kate Books are the family trauma unknown to Jewish texts and librar- Brown, so I look for- business, and my sister living descendants— ies, as well as Jewish ward to turning soon to and I both stuck with it. that a family member bodies, were targeted her latest, Manual for Thankfully, being a his- was a Nazi collaborator by the Nazis for annihi- Survival: A Chernobyl torian is no longer (in who turned out to be lation. The manuscript Guide to the Future. And the words of P. D. James) the only Jew in all of passed through four perhaps I am due to “an unsuitable job for a Europe executed by a generations of Sa’adi’s reread Cynthia Ozick, woman.” state after the war for family—traveling from whose writing I have his complicity with the Salonica to Paris, from always adored. Di feder: What’s your occupiers. The family there to Rio de Janeiro, most recent book proj- never wrote of this ter- and, finally, to Jerusa- Hear more about Sarah ect about? How did you rible trauma—not in let- lem—somehow eluding Abrevaya Stein’s work come across that story, ters, memoirs, diaries, or destruction or disap- on The Shmooze at and what was the pro- testimonies. They even pearance despite the yiddishbookcenter.org/ cess of telling it like? excised their disgraced collapse of the Saloni- shmooze-stein.

7

DiFeder studs.indd 7 1/6/20 1:15 PM Alumni Updates

Dalya Ackerman (Great into the amazingly Jewish Books ’17) went vibrant Yiddish cultural on the March of the world of NYC while Living in April and is working as a nuclear attending Amherst weapons policy ana- College this fall. lyst for a disarmament advocacy group. Sarah Bunin Benor (In- ternship ’94) expanded Dory Fox (Steiner ’12) 2019 Great Jewish Books students the Jewish Languages is completing a PhD enjoy discussion in the orchard website at jewishlan- program at the Univer- guages.org. sity of Michigan and Believer and the Minne- workshop on writing has recently written apolis Star-Tribune. Jewish middle-grade Mindl Cohen (Intern- a chapter on Di mish- and young adult fiction ship ’06, Internship pokhe karnovski (The Miriam Isaacs (Transla- and hanging out with RA/TA ’08, Translation Family Carnovsky) by I. tion Fellowship ’16) just her grandkids. Fellowship ’15) started J. Singer. finished final touches work at the Yiddish on an article about Ellanora Lerner (Great Book Center in Septem- Luna Goldberg (Tent: translating Rokhl Korn Jewish Books ’18) is the ber ’18 as the Director Creative Writing ’17) for a volume on Yiddish vice president of pro- of Translation and has been working with in the New Millenni- gramming for her local Collections Initiatives. fellow Tent alum Sophie um edited by Rebecca chapter of BBYO and a She writes, “It is really a Amado on a multidisci- Margolis. writer for Risen Zine. dream come true to be plinary project entitled back in western Mass, “Take Care,” which Jordan Kutzik (Fellow Jonah Lubin (Great where I grew up and brings together interna- ’11–13, Tent: Creative Jewish Books ’16) is a went to college, and to tional artists and writers Writing ’13) is a staff student of Jewish stud- be working at the Cen- to examine themes of writer at the Yiddish ies and comparative ter, where I first started intimacy, vulnerability, Forward. Besides writ- literature at the Univer- studying Yiddish. One and correspondence. An ing articles in Yiddish, sity of Chicago, where of my major projects is excerpt of her thesis, translating them into he does lots of things directing the Transla- “Performing Critique: English, making films, with Yiddish, including tion Fellowship, and I Three Case Studies from and performing a wide serving as the editorial am looking forward to the Israeli Pavilion at variety of related tasks, intern for In geveb. He connecting with other the Venice Biennale,” he is also a publisher recently wrote an arti- alumni of this program, will be published in at Kinder-Loshn Pub- cle on Vaybertaytsh and as well as working with Israeli artist Sigalit Lan- lications, which will did a Yiddishy Jewish our new cohort.” dau’s forthcoming artist be publishing four reading of Neo Yokio for book, Salt Years. bilingual Yiddish-En- Tablet Magazine. Emma Claire Foley glish children’s books (Steiner ’11) is reading Natalia Holtzman (Tent: with original illustra- Rachel Mines (Trans- Yiddish lit for pleasure Creative Writing ’14) has tions in the coming 18 lation Fellowship ’16) and dipping her toe work forthcoming in The months in an effort to has been working on provide Yiddish-speak- a collection of Jonah ing children and their Rosenfeld’s short sto- Did you know? Before arriving at families with modern ries and is thrilled to the Center, our books have passed reading material and announce that she has through the libraries and repositories make Yiddish children’s received a publication literature more widely contract. Another of of some rather unusual organizations, available to the broader her Rosenfeld short including a vegetarian restaurant, a English-reading public. story translations was hospital for consumptives, a Califor- featured in the last nia Yiddish community for chicken Deborah Lakritz (Tent: Pakn Treger Digital farmers, a Lithuanian branch of the Children’s Literature ’17) Translation Issue. Over Maccabi sports club, and a mysterious is writing Jewish board the last few years, she books, picture books, has been teaching her “intimate club.” and middle grade and students (few of whom Read more at yiddishbookcenter.org/whispers- young adult stories. She are Jewish) Yiddish liter- libraries is also participating in a ature in translation. She Highlights Foundation writes, “Many themes

8

DiFeder studs.indd 8 1/6/20 1:15 PM of Avery Robinson (Tent: an Elissa Froman Fellow from what was articulat- are so relevant today— Food ’14) is working as with the New Israel ed to him but also from immigration, cultural a researcher and copy Fund. She continues to what went unspoken and generational clash, editor for the Posen Li- teach at the intersection and unacknowledged [...] prejudice, and more . . . brary of Jewish Culture of feminist Torah and For the exhibition, he and my students love and Civilization, still poetry, is working on a transforms behavioural the stories.” researching culinary collection of midrashic patterns into decorative history and trying to poems, and her midrash patterns that adorn do- Nina Pick (Steiner ’05) find himself. is forthcoming in the mestic settings. [...] The recently moved to collection Feeding Wom- artist-designed wallpa- Westchester for a short- Nathaniel Rosenthalis en of the , Feeding per on display is dense term teaching position (Tent: Creative Writing Ourselves. with images of Holo- at the Masters School ’15) is currently working caust-​fueled​ fears, in- and published a book, as a writing consultant Jonathan Rotsztain tergenerational trauma, The Gardener Says, a at Columbia University (Tent: Comics ’14) had and an inner struggle to collection of gardening and has new poems in his first ever solo art reconcile a progressive, quotations. She con- the Harvard Advocate, show, which debuted secular worldview with tinues to be involved Nightblock, and APART- at Toronto’s Fentster common narratives with the Yiddish Book MENT. His chapbook Gallery. A description about Jewish life.” Center as a field fellow A Shirt for Today (Yes from the gallery: “An with the Wexler Oral Poetry) came out last extension of the art- Lawrence Schimel History Project. year. ist’s ‘Self-Loving Jew’ (Tent: Children’s comics series, the show Literature ’17) writes, James Redfield (Trans- Sivan Rotholz (Tent: Cre- features his deceptively “My translation into lation Fellow ’16–17) ative Writing ’17) spent playful drawings with a English of La Bastarda has submitted the the 2018–19 academic cartoonish portrait of a by Equatoguinean au- book translation that year in Israel as a full- conflicted, anxious, yet thor Trifonia Melibea he began during the time rabbinical and Jew- optimistic thirty-some- Obono was an Honor fellowship for review— ish education student thing Jew [...] Rotsztain Book for the Global in a mazldiker sho—and at HUC-JIR. She had the shows how he inherited Literature in Libraries promises to keep us honor of being a Wex- fears and successes, Best Translated YA posted. ner Graduate Fellow and guilt and joys, neuroses Award, and it was also Davidson Scholar and and values not only continued

Participants in the 2019 Great Jewish Books Teacher Summer Seminar

9

DiFeder studs.indd 9 1/6/20 1:15 PM continued

chosen for the Amer- class on Yiddish idioms Mazl-tov! ican Libraries Associ- and expressions at ation’s Rainbow Book Seattle Central College Publications List and their Over the in the fall quarter. Sarah Bunin Benor (Internship ’94) co-edited Rainbow Book List, Yidish lebt bay undz in Languages in Jewish Communities, Past and among other honors. Seattle!” Present (De Gruyter Mouton, 2018). I published a new picture book written Shahar Tsameret Ellen Cassedy’s (Translation Fellowship ’15) in Spanish, ¡Qué suerte (Great Jewish Books translated collection On the Landing: Stories tengo!, illustrated by ’16) is studying bio- by Yenta Mash was published by Northern Juan Camilo Mayorga, products and biosyste- Illinois University Press in 2019. which has been pub- ms engineering at the lished so far in Colom- University of Minneso- Assaf Gamzou (Tent: Comics ’14) co-edited bia, Mexico, Malta, ta–Twin Cities. Comics & Sacred Texts (University Press of and Japan, and also in Mississippi, 2018), which deals with the inter- kamishibai format in Amber Velez (Great section of the divine and comic books and Hungary and France. Jewish Books ’18) fin- graphic novels. I also published two ished high school and new board books, is getting ready to at- Daniel Kennedy’s (Translation Fellow ’15 and written in Spanish and tend college and trying ’16) translation of Hersh Dovid Nomberg’s illustrated by Elina to get her fantasy book Warsaw Stories was published by the Yiddish Braslina, which feature published. Book Center’s White Goat Press (2019). same-sex families.” Cady Vishniac (Tent: Linda Elovitz Marshall’s (Tent: Children’s Slater Sousley (Great Creative Writing ’17, Literature ’17) latest book, Good Night, Wind: A Jewish Books ’12) Translation Fellow ’18) Yiddish Folktale (Holiday House), launched in completed an artist has translations ap- February ’19. Inspired by a Yiddish tale written residency in Umbria, pearing in Pakn Treger by Moyshe Kulbak and translated by Miriam Italy, and had his first and the Los Angeles Udel, this charming story about a tired wind gallery show, Still Review. Her fiction seeking a place to rest is beautifully illustrated Moments, at Matthew has won the Fiction with cut paper by Maëlle Doliveux. Rachman Gallery in Contest at American Chicago. After graduat- Literary Review and ing with an MA from been collected in New Awards Eastern Illinois Univer- Stories from the Mid- sity, he taught painting west. Ellen Cassedy (Translation Fellowship ’15), and drawing at Snow and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub (Translation Farm Summer, an Rose Waldman (Trans- Fellowship ’18) won the 2018 intensive art program lation Fellow ’14 and Modern Language Association’s for high school stu- ’16) is translating Fenia & Yaakov Leviant Memo- dents in Williamsburg, Chaim Grade’s 700- rial Prize in Yiddish Studies Massachusetts. You can page novel Beys harav for their collection Oedipus in check out his paintings for Knopf (and YIVO), Brooklyn and Other Stories by at slatersousley.com. and she received an Blume Lempel (Mandel Vilar NEA translation grant Press & Dryad Press, 2016). Marianne Tatom (Yid- in August ’18 for Eli dish Pedagogy Fellow Shechtman’s Ringen af Natalia Holtzman (Tent: Creative Writing ’14) ’18) writes, “We had a der neshome. was the recipient of a 2018 Emerging Critic Fel- very successful first lowship from the National Book Critics Circle. year of Yiddish classes Paula Weiman (Great at Congregation Beth Jewish Books ’13) grad- Lawrence Schimel’s (Tent: Children’s Litera- Shalom, culminating uated from Hamilton ture ’17) picture book Will You Read a Book in a community Yid- College in May ’18 and With Me?, illustrated by Thiago Lopes, won dish third seder with moved to New York, a 2018 Crystal Kite Award from the Society of over 20 participants, where she is currently Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. and will be adding an working at the Strand intermediate Yiddish Bookstore. Have you published something or received class as well as a new an award or recognition since our last issue? beginning class this If so, let us know—we’d love to feature your fall. I will also be achievement! teaching an adult ed

10

DiFeder studs.indd 10 1/6/20 1:15 PM 2019 Great Jewish Books students celebrate the end of a wonderful week

Git a kvetsh (Click on . . .)

On our website you’ll mastered recordings of Grade, Saul Bellow, and Yiddish actors, descen- find articles, podcast lectures by and inter- Cynthia Ozick. dants of Yiddish writers, interviews, and short views with writers and students, and more. films about Yiddish and poets who visited the Explore our Wexler modern Jewish litera- Jewish Public Library Oral History Project, a And make sure to check ture and culture; Yiddish of Montreal between collection of in-depth out the latest news, works in translation; 1953 and 2005. One of video interviews with events, and professional and Yiddish language- the largest and most native Yiddish speak- opportunities, and learn learning tools. accessible collections ers, world-renowned about our new initiative, of recordings of Yiddish klezmer musicians, the Decade of Discovery. Our online collections authors and academics, include the Steven it includes literary read- Spielberg Digital Yiddish ings, special events, and Did you know? The work of Yiddish Library, where you talks by notable writers writer and translator Sonye Kantor, who can browse more than and scholars, includ- appears to have published only between 11,000 titles. ing Rokhl Korn, Chava the years 1920–21, includes a diary written Rosenfarb, Mordecai from the perspective of a squirrel. The Frances Brandt Richler, Avrom Sutzkev- Online Yiddish Audio er, Kadia Molodowsky, Read more at yiddishbookcenter.org/squirrel Library contains re- Jacob Glatstein, Chaim

11

DiFeder studs.indd 11 1/6/20 1:15 PM YIDDISH BOOK CENTER 1021 WEST STREET AMHERST, MA 01002

What would you like to see in the alumni newsletter? Your suggestions help us to provide you with engaging content, and we love hearing from you. Write us at [email protected] and visit us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. THE FOUNTAIN PEN

The Yiddish Book Center Alumni Association comprises more than 1,200 people around the world— scholars, artists, educators, writers, professionals, students, and many others—who’ve participated in the many educational programs offered by the Center over the past thir- ty-nine years: our original summer internship program, the Steiner Summer Yiddish Program, the Great Jewish Books Summer Program, the Yiddish Pedagogy Program, the Great Jewish Books Teacher Summer Seminar, our graduate Fellowship Program, our Translation Fellowship Program, and Tent: Encounters with Jewish Culture. yiddishbookcenter.org

DiFeder studs.indd 12 1/6/20 1:15 PM