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visit the Yiddish Vinkl's Poetry Corner by clicking
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We Are Here
by Ellen
Cassedy
Ellen Cassedy set off into the Jewish
heartland of Lithuania to study Yiddish
and connect with her Jewish forebears.
Then her uncle, a Holocaust survivor,
pulled a worn slip of paper from his
pocket. “Read this,” he said.
When she did, she learned something she
had never suspected, and what had begun
as a personal quest expanded into a
larger exploration of memory and moral
dilemmas in a nation scarred by
genocide. Cassedy’s deeply felt account
offers important insights – and hope.
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Jacob's Courage
by Charles
S. Weinblatt
How would
you feel if, at age seventeen, the
government removed you from school,
evicted you from your home, looted your
bank account and took all of your
family's possessions? How would you feel
if ruthless police prevented your
parents from working and then deported
you and your loved ones to a prison camp
run by brutal taskmasters? How would you
feel if you suddenly lost contact with
everyone that you know and love? How
would you feel if you were sent to the
most frightening place in history, and
then forced to perform unspeakable acts
of horror in order to remain alive?
To read the rest of the book's synopsis, or to read the book
itself, please click
here. |
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Annie's Ghosts: A Journey into a Family Secret
by
Steve Luxenberg
"The homework assignment seems clear enough: Do a family tree. I
turn the paper sideways, and in no time at all, I’ve filled Dad’s
side with brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, first and second
cousins, more than two dozen names from Michigan and elsewhere. I’ve
met them all at one family gathering or another, so I can jot down
their names and draw the lines without asking Dad or Mom for help.
On Mom’s side, though, I’ve reached a dead end after just three
names—Mom, Bubbe and Zayde. I’ve heard Mom mention an uncle, but I
don’t know his name or where he lives or whether he’s related to
Bubbe or Zayde. And did Mom once say something about a cousin, or am
I making that up? "
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The Lost Synagogues of Brooklyn
by
Ellen Levitt
"Jewish
life in Brownsville, East New York, Flatbush-East Flatbush,
Bedford-Stuyvesant and other nearby areas of Brooklyn through the
1950s was a lively, rich and varied environment. Over the next few
decades it dissipated greatly. As Jews moved to other areas, they
left behind their synagogues. The 'Lost Synagogues of Brooklyn' is a
photographic essay of these ex-shuls; what happened to them, and how
they appear today. Many became churches whose facades still have
Jewish symbols.
The book offers photographs, interviews and analysis on ninety-one
of these former Jewish houses of worship. Some have been faithfully
preserved while others are in disrepair. Described in the book are
memories of Jews who belonged to these old congregations as well as
the Christians who now fill the pews. All this is supported by
extensive research and stirring stories..."
To read a
few excerpts from this book, click
here
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This book can be
ordered by clicking
here. |
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Harvest of Blossoms: Poems From a Life Cut Short
by
Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger
"Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger died
in a Nazi SS labor camp on December 17, 1942. She was eighteen. In
the course of a life cut short, Selma reached out to the world
with poetry, and her words grabbed life, even as the world around
her was slipping into an arena of death. During these grim times,
she wrote more than fifty poems in German and translated another
five from Yiddish, French, and Romanian. With startling honesty,
she wrote about love and heartbreak, desire and loss, injustice
and marred hope. Selma found beauty in the fragility of chestnuts,
comfort in the loneliness of rain, and grief in rural poverty and,
with despairing courage, faced a future that wanted her--and an
entire way of being--to 'fade like smoke and leave no trace' ('Tragedy')..."
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The Jewish Quarter of Philadelphia: A History and Guide 1881-1930
By
Harry D. Boonin
The
Jewish quarter was the area around 5th & South Streets in
Philadelphia where immigrant Jews began to settle after the 1882
Russian and Polish pogroms. Soon the area was crowded with pickle
barrels, pavement salesman, peddlers, market hucksters, horse
droppings, small shop owners, sewing machine operators, runners
going to and fro from wholesale clothiers, sweatshops, synagogues,
Yiddish theatres, immigrant banks, bathhouses, mikvehs, yeshivas and
Talmud Torahs. These sites, sounds and smells are described in the
book which Stephen Frank—Collections Curator, National Museum of
American Jewish History, Philadelphia—wrote is “…fascinating –
full of wonderful detail and color…”
more
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This book can be ordered by clicking
here. |
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Messiahs of 1933:
How American Yiddish Theatre Survived Adversity through
Satire
From the
author, Joel Schechter:
"The
book opens with discussion of Nadir’s play, Messiah in America, and a
speculative discussion of what might have happened if his play, as well as
Yiddish language and culture were more widely known by Americans in the 1930s.
I suggest that Yiddish stage satire was not as far removed from mainstream
American culture as it now appears to be; the language in which it was performed
kept it separate from other political and popular theatre, but it made important
contributions to American culture..."
more
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