Reviews

This collection of essays reveals Singer’s complex and often conflicted views on Jewish theology, Judaism, and the role of religion in literature.

Apr 18, 2025

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

Apr 10, 2025

“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

A passionate social criticism can only be born from care for the society one criticizes and a deep familiarity with both its beauty and its flaws.

Mar 26, 2025

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

Paula Ansaldo’s book brings about a long-awaited return of Yiddish and the IFT to their rightful place in Argentine theater history and Jewish theater history.

Feb 26, 2025

There is a well-known Yiddish proverb that argues Verter zol men vegn un nit tseyln (Words should be weighed and not counted). But when one pays attention to the weight of words in the way Hannah Pollin-Galay does, every word counts.

Feb 18, 2025

Instead of bringing Schulz to us... Underhill engages in the far more laborious, courageous, and gratifying task of bringing us to Schulz.

Feb 14, 2025

Kutsher’s memoir is not just a memoir of his life but a memoir of a city long gone. Written originally in Yiddish in 1955 after Kutsher survived the Holocaust and left Poland, it reads more like a yizkor book than a personal memoir.

Jan 13, 2025