Tune in! The Yiddish Book Center's Podcast

Judith Thissen, a specialist of Jewish immigrant entertainment in New York City—especially film culture on the Lower East Side in the early twentieth century—talks about the Sunshine Theatre, one of the last of the iconic “vaud-pic” Yiddish theaters. Originally a Protestant Church, Judith shares the story of how a young Hungarian-Jewish immigrant named Charles Steiner purchased and altered the Lower East Side landmark, creating what would become a neighborhood theater for a generation of Yiddish immigrants. Episode 0179 March 23, 2018 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, MA

Larry Ruttman is the author of American Jews and America's Game: Voices of a Growing Legacy in Baseball. Selected by Sports Collectors Digest (among others) as the #1 baseball book in America for 2013, the work has been adapted into the musical play Jews on First. On this episode, we learn about Larry’s love of the game and hear a few stories of his most memorable interviewees. Episode 0178 March 15, 2018 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, MA

Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of World War II is a new recording of music created during the darkest chapter of European Jewish history. During these years, a group of scholars attempted to preserve songs written by Jewish Red Army soldiers, refugees, victims, and survivors of Ukrainian ghettos. Following the war, the researchers were arrested during Stalin’s anti¬-Jewish purge and their works were confiscated. In the early 2000s, Yiddish Professor Anna Shternshis traveled to Kiev where she discovered that these songs had survived. Anna shares the history of these deteriorating, fragile documents, which contain some of the most poignant and historically important Soviet Yiddish songs of World War II. Episode 0177 March 9, 2018 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, MA

Mr. Alvin Lee Smalls first learned about rugelach in a newspaper article in the 1960s while he was working as an onion peeler in a New York City hospital kitchen. He was intrigued, having never heard of the Jewish treat, and began experimenting with the recipe. Some 40 years later, Alvin—who is affectionately known in his Harlem neighborhood as Lee Lee—sells what we think may just be the perfect rugelach. His bakery, Lee Lee’s Baked Goods, is located at 283 West 118th Street in New York. Episode 0176 March 2, 2018 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, MA

Zeke Levine takes The Shmooze into the Yiddish Book Center’s vault to explore the Center’s Yiddish sheet music collection. Zeke’s fellowship responsibilities include cataloguing the collection, and in the process of his work he’s uncovered some interesting finds, including two of his favorites—sheet music of Abi Gezunt, from the film Mamele starring Molly Picon, and a piece from the 1960s about Der Sputnik by Sam Liptzin. As Zeke continues his tour, he discusses both individual pieces as well as the collection as a whole, which includes over 1,000 titles from the Hebrew Publishing Company and Metro Music collections. Episode 0175 February 22, 2018 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, MA

On this episode, we talk with Seth Rogovoy, Yidstock artistic director, about the lineup for Yidstock 2018, which will include performances by David Krakauer, Anthony Russell, the Heather Klein Duo, Socalled, and Sarah Aroeste—and those are just a few of the performers who will take to the stage. Seth gives us a preview of everything that’s in store for this year’s event—from workshops to talks to concerts—and provides some background on klezmer and new Yiddish music. Episode 0174 February 16, 2018 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, MA

This week, we speak with author, actress, and educator Beth Kaplan. Beth graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, one of Britain’s foremost drama schools, at the age of 22, and worked for a decade as a professional actress. She then left the stage to earn an MFA in creative writing at the University of British Columbia, and has since gone on to teach and write. She is the author of Finding the Jewish Shakespeare: The Life and Legacy of Jacob Gordin, a biography about her great-grandfather the famous Yiddish playwright. Episode 0173 February 8, 2018 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, MA

Josh Lambert, the Yiddish Book Center’s academic director, sits down to discuss all things “Great Jewish Books” related, including the Center’s latest program, which will bring educators together for a month-long summer seminar. From a summer program for teens to a teacher seminar and a book club, modern Jewish literature continues to inspire and engage readers and students of all ages. Episode 0172 February 2, 2018 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, MA

“How can I donate some Yiddish books?” That was the question Mindy asked David Mazower, bibliographer and editorial director at the Center, hoping to find a new home for her partner’s books. As it turned out, Danny’s library consisted of several hundred volumes, including many key works of fiction and reference. Listen in as the Yiddish Book Center team visits Manhattan to meet Mindy, pack up Danny’s books, and talk about his collection. Episode 0171 January 26, 2018 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

Shannon Sarna, editor of the Jewish food blog “The Nosher,” and author of Modern Jewish Baker, joins us to discuss her new takes on challah, babka, bagels, and more. Shannon makes the case for hamantaschen and talks about some of the unexpected recipes included in her book—from Tomato-Basil Challah to Everything-Bagel Rugelach. Episode 0170 January 19,2018 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

From pocket-sized Yiddish books to on-my-night-table English-language works, The Shmooze's producer Zeke Levine and host Lisa Newman sit down to discuss and recommend some of the titles from their recent reading lists—it’s an eclectic and surprising handpicked collection that will provide you with some great reads during the winter months. Episode 0169 January 12, 2018 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

2017–18 Yiddish Book Center Fellows Miranda Cooper, Raphael Halff, and Zeke Levine join us to answer our many questions about the paths that brought them to the Center after college, how they’ve contributed to the Center’s major projects in Yiddish language and Jewish cultural work, and how their experiences as full-time staff members have shaped their future plans. Episode 0168 December 21, 2017 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

This week, we talk with New Yiddish Rep director David Mandelbaum as he discusses the theater’s current production, Clifford Odets' 1935 masterpiece Awake and Sing!, as well as their past performances of Rhinoceros and Death of a Salesman. He also explains how the theater seeks to “educate a new generation of Yiddish actors and to illuminate for the public the diversity, cutting edge creativity, and universality of the Yiddish theater legacy,” by both creating new audiences and strengthening and satisfying existing ones. Episode 0167 December 15, 2017 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

This week, we visit with photographer and documentary filmmaker David Kaufman to learn what draws him to the architectural and historic Jewish sites that he’s traveled the globe to photograph. “I see myself working in the spirit of Eugene Atget,” he says when asked about the visual narrative central to his work, “who, before World War One, photographed the Paris that was already old when he was young.” Episode 0166 December 7, 2017 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

Photographers Janet Russek and David Scheinbaum started photographing New York’s Lower East Side in 1999, chronicling the neighborhood at a time of extraordinary transformation. In the newly published Remnants (Radius Books), Scheinbaum and Russek’s photographs document the remnants of history that have defined the Lower East Side for generations. Episode 0156 November 20, 2017 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

Der Yidisher Idol stars Leah Reis-Dennis and Michael Yashinsky visit to talk about how they made the cut to perform their original Yiddish songs at the 2017 Der Yidisher Idol—an international singing contest in Mexico City. Leah is a singer-songwriter based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Michael is currently a Yiddish education specialist at the Yiddish Book Center. Both are alumni of the Center’s Steiner Summer Yiddish Program, and both found themselves on the stage at the Yiddish singing and songwriting competition. Episode 0164 November 16, 2017 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

Annie Polland, author, public historian, and senior vice president of programs and education at the Tenement Museum in New York, joins us on The Shmooze to talk about “The Jewish Ghetto in Postcards: From Eastern Europe to the Lower East Side”, an exhibition of early 20th-century postcards from the Blavatnik Archive Foundation. Episode 0163 November 10, 2017 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

Ruby Elliott Zuckerman, a student at Macalester College, tells us about her newly launched Yiddish radio show. An alumna of the Yiddish Book Center’s Great Jewish Books Summer Program, she returned to the Center last summer to attend the Steiner Summer Yiddish Program. The seven-week Yiddish program inspired her to host a live Yiddish radio show. Episode 0162 November 2, 2017 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

Drawing from an in-depth oral history interview with Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, a short documentary film is now in production. Christa Whitney, director of the Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project, talks about the film, BEYLE, which explores the life and legacy of Yiddish activist and artist Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman. Born in Vienna in 1920 and raised in Czernowitz, Beyle came to the United States after surviving the Holocaust and was a multi-talented artist, organizer, and activist. A Kickstarter campaign is underway through October 31, 2017 to complete the film. Episode 0161 October 26, 2017 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

This week, artist Mark Podwal joins us to talk about his work, its influences, and his exhibit Kaddish for Dąbrowa Białostocka, which is on display at the Yiddish Book Center. Podwal may have been best known initially for his drawings on The New York Times Op-Ed page. In addition, he is the author and illustrator of numerous books and his work is included in museum collections worldwide. Most of these works—Podwal’s own, as well as those he has illustrated for others—find their roots in Jewish legend, history, and tradition. Episode 0160 October 19, 2017 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts