Tune in! The Yiddish Book Center's Podcast

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 klezmer revival. Episode 0119 September 26, 2016 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

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 Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

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 United States. Episode 0117 July 28, 2016 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

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 influence contemporary culture. The Yiddish Book Center is a collaborator on the site. Episode 0114 May 12, 2016 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

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. Episode 0113 April 18, 2016 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

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

As journalists writing in the wartime Polish ghettos, Peretz Opoczynski and Josef Zelkowicz captured the anxiety and uncertainty of daily life for Jews with breathtaking immediacy. Professor Sam Kassow, coeditor of "In Those Nightmarish Days," a collection of their work recently published by the Yiddish Book Center’s New Yiddish Library, discusses the important contributions the two men’s reporting make to our understanding of this place and time. Episode 0111 March 15, 2016 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

Last summer, educators from around the country came to the Yiddish Book Center for our inaugural Great Jewish Books Teacher Workshop, where they worked together to develop curricula to bring modern Jewish literature and culture into their classrooms. Here, three of those teachers tell us what brought them to the workshop and how the program will shape their teaching. Episode 0110 December 30, 2015 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

Though it has a long and varied history, the town of Oświęcim, Poland, is notorious for one thing: Auschwitz. Yet for centuries prior to World War Two, Jews and non-Jews lived side by side there. Shiri B. Sandler, curator of the exhibit "A Town Known as Auschwitz"--now at the Yiddish Book Center--discusses the rich history of the town and its Jewish residents from the sixteenth century through the post-war period. Episode 0109 December 10, 2015 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

Tina Wasserman, author of "Entree to Judaism: A Culinary Exploration of the Jewish Diaspora" and "Entree to Judaism for Families: Jewish Cooking and Kitchen Conversations with Children," visits with us to discuss some traditional Hanukkah recipes and the histories behind them. Episode 0108 December 7, 2015 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

At the Great Jewish Books Summer Program, high school students spend a week at the Yiddish Book Center delving into both classic and new works of modern Jewish literature. Two members of the Great Jewish Books class of 2015 talk about the engaging conversations they had in class, the fun of bonding with other students with shared interests, and the surprising things they discovered about the literature and themselves. Episode 0107 November 15, 2015 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

In 1938, Fania Lewando, the chef and owner of a popular vegetarian restaurant in Vilna, Lithuania, published hundreds of her recipes—from traditional Jewish dishes to vegetarian versions of holiday staples—in a cookbook. Culinary anthropologist Eve Jochnowitz tells us how the book was rediscovered decades later and how she came to translate it from the original Yiddish, making its delicious contents available for the first time to English-speaking cooks. Episode 0106 November 4, 2015 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

Filmmaker Erik Anjou's latest documentary, "Deli Man," tells the story of third-generation deli man Ziggy Gruber. In our conversation with Anjou, he tells us about the film, which also profiles other iconic delis and their owners; the place of the delicatessen in Jewish tradition; and what inspires people like Ziggy to keep that tradition alive. Episode 0105 September 2, 2015 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

For much of the twentieth century, the Red Apple Rest offered respite to countless weary vacationers traveling Route 17 between New York City and the resorts of the Catskills. Elaine Freed Lindenblatt, daughter of the iconic restaurant's founder, talks about "Stop at the Red Apple," her new memoir of that time and place. Episode 0104 July 26, 2015 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

Saul Dreier and Ruby Sosnowicz's recently founded Holocaust Survivor Band has become an overnight sensation. Drier and Sosnowicz took time out of their touring schedule to tell us how they returned to music late in life - and how this is all playing out. Episode 0103 June 11, 2015 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

Curator Eddy Portnoy shares the story behind "Yiddish Fight Club," a new exhibit at YIVO about Jewish boxers and wrestlers. The exhibit looks at the rich, if surprising, history of Jewish brawlers and the colorful Yiddish slang of that world. Episode 0102 June 2, 2015 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

Aaron Lansky visits with Mark Glickman, author of the upcoming "Stolen Words: The Nazi Plunder of Jewish Books." Glickman shares the story of how the world's largest collection of Jewish books - some tens of millions - were looted by Nazi soldiers and others who removed them from private collections, libraries, and institutions. Episode 0101 May 5, 2015 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

We visit with photographer Marisa Scheinfeld to talk about her work chronicling the ever-evolving landscape of the Borscht Belt. The resulting work, "Echoes from the Borscht Belt: Contemporary Photographs by Marisa Scheinfeld," documents the dramatic decline of the resorts of New York's Catskills region. The exhibit is on display in the Yiddish Book Center's Brechner Gallery through December 2015. Episode 0100 April 30, 2015 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts