Reviews
Review
Review of Jeffrey Shandler's Homes of the Past: A Lost Jewish Museum
Through Homes of the Past, Shandler not only revisits a neglected episode in Jewish history but also offers a profound meditation on the ways societies preserve, construct, and reinvent their pasts. His work will contribute to future discussions on Jewish museology, historical memory, and the evolving identities of Yiddish-speaking American Jewry.
Apr 14, 2025
Review
Review of The Dream of Social Justice and Bad Moral Luck: Eight Jewish Lives Under Stalin by Alice Nakhimovsky
“Justice” – with all its transformations and many faces – is a key notion for understanding Soviet history. It was social justice that the Bolshevik Revolution was after. It was “the dream of social justice” that attracted so many people, including numerous Jews, to join the revolution or to immigrate to Soviet Russia. And the stronger the belief in social justice the new order brought, the stronger was the shock caused by the injustice of the selective enforcement of Soviet laws.
Apr 01, 2025
Review
Review of Sutzkever’s Cycle Elephants by Night: African Poems, translated by Mel Konner
Mel Konner’s compelling translation of Helfandn bay Nakht (1950) takes the reader through Sutzkever’s Nesiye iber Afrika, evoking stories of wise African kings, masked hunters, shape-shifting prey, lovers divided by crocodile rivers, and the creation of man beginning with elephant tusks.
Mar 03, 2025
Review
Reflections on A Taytsh Manifesto
A Taytsh Manifesto offers fresh analysis of the translational underpinnings of Yiddish across diverse cultural contexts. However, I question the utility of proposing “taytsh” as a paradigm shift for a field — and wider Jewish world — that finds itself in a state of profound upheaval.
Jan 08, 2025