A Rosheshone Bagrisung and a Few Announcements from In geveb

Transitions

It’s been a summer of transitions for the editorial team of In geveb. Our illustrious Editor-in-Chief, Madeleine Cohen, has stepped down from her position, assuming an advisory role as Senior Editor. Jessica Kirzane, formerly Managing Editor for Pedagogy, will be filling her shoes. Conveniently they share a shoe size, so the transition must be bashert. Jessica comes to this position with an enthusiasm for the ways that pieces published across our platform can connect to and inform one another. Together with the rest of the editorial team she is excited to continue to produce an In geveb that challenges, informs, and delights.

In addition, we welcome Miranda Cooper in the role of Communications Editor and Operations Manager. Miranda, a graduate of Williams College and former Yiddish Book Center Fellow, brings passion and humor to her work at In geveb and among other things, if you follow us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook we know you’ll appreciate the social media savvy she brings to this new position.

By way of introduction, Miranda shares with us this poem she wrote about her experiences and identity as an American Jewish writer called to and informed by Yiddish:

We’re grateful that the rest of our editors are remaining in the roles that they executed so well in previous years. Sunny Yudkoff judiciously edits our peer reviewed journal with assistance from our founding editor Saul Noam Zaritt. Together they follow the submissions process from start to finish, finding and coordinating reviewers and working with authors to ensure the strength of the work we publish. Daniel Kennedy, Managing Editor for Translations, carefully selects and edits our translations, ensuring their accuracy and literary quality, while Zeev Duckworth, Assistant Editor for Translations, not only works to standardize the Yiddish versions of the texts that appear on our website, but also edits the translations themselves with great care and attention. Finally, Diana Clarke, Managing Editor for the Blog, keeps their finger on the pulse of Yiddish life and brings you the latest scoops from theater reviews to personal essays.

Our Accomplished Team!

In geveb exists thanks to the work of so many people, including our donors, our board of directors, editors, contributors, and readers. We’re proud of the community we’re building and fostering around Yiddish, and we’d like to take a moment to congratulate you all for your accomplishments, which are too numerous to list here in full. In particular, we’re sheping nakhes from our editorial board: Several of our editors are beginning new positions this year: Eitan Kensky now serves as Judaica and Hebraica Curator at Stanford University Library; Sebastian Schulman has assumed the position of Executive Director of Klezkanada; Jessica Kirzane will be starting a lectureship in Yiddish this fall at the University of Chicago; Madeleine Cohen will be the Director of Translation and Collections Initiatives at the Yiddish Book Center; Sarah Ponichtera is Assistant Dean for Special Collections and the Gallery at Seton Hall University Library. David G. Roskies, our Senior Adviser, turned 70 this year, and in his honor, Mosad Bialik published a volume of his essays. Mazl Tov to Sandra Fox, who received her doctorate in American Jewish History from New York University this past May, and to Diana Clarke, who are beginning their doctoral studies at the University of Pittsburgh this fall. Our editors are also writing up a storm! You’ll want to visit your nearest university library to read Hannah Pollin-Galay’s Ecologies of Witnessing: Language, Place, and Testimony (Yale UP 2018); and soon Sunny Yudkoff’s Tubercular Capital: Illness and the Conditions of Modern Jewish Writing (Stanford UP, 2018). While you’re there, check out Michael Shapiro’s translation of Moyshe Nadir’s Messiah in America, the first book ever to be published by Farlag Press, co-founded and edited by our own Daniel Kennedy (and you can read an excerpt, of course, right here).

Reader’s Survey

In 1909 American Yiddish journalist and popular writer Getsl Zelikovitsh responded to a reader asking for Yiddish book recommendations:

It’s not winter yet, though autumn is on the horizon, and here at In geveb we know that our readers are looking for something good to read. You want something that will pique your curiosity, spark your imagination, inform you, help you, and connect you with other Yiddish-interested readers in critical and enriching conversation around Yiddish language and cultures. We aim to fulfill all your wishes, and more besides, and you, dear readers, can force us to: respond to our reader survey, if you haven’t yet, and tell us what you like about us and where we can improve, so we can turn our vebzaytl into the sort of herring or potatoes you need most. We will be publishing the results of our readers survey in the coming months, so respond soon!

Looking Ahead

We have a great publication year planned, with a rich variety of materials that are sure to satisfy your intellectual appetites. You can also look forward to our In geveb sponsored round table on “Teaching in/as Translation” at the Association for Jewish Studies annual conference in December, as well as smaller in-person gatherings for In geveb enthusiasts.

We’re accepting submissions across our website, and we eagerly await your pitches.

The Blog is seeking book and theater reviews, archival tidbits, reader responses to things we publish, thrilling, surprising, personal and critical observations about all corners of the Yiddish world. Send pitches, queries, and musings to [email protected]

The Pedagogy section is open and eager for submissions of reflections, activities, worksheets, and syllabi from your Yiddish-related classes. We are also looking for instructors who want to develop teaching guides around materials or themes on our site. Send your pitches and materials to [email protected]. We especially invite you to participate in our polls (including our latest poll on teaching modernist Yiddish poetry) and even to propose and steward your own In geveb pedagogy poll.

The Articles section of In geveb welcomes your submissions for peer review, as well as proposals for book reviews. We encourage submissions from a wide variety of disciplines related to Yiddish studies, including (but not limited to) history, linguistics, anthropology, religious studies, sociology, and literature. Please email [email protected] if you would like to propose a book review, let us know about a book that needs reviewing, or submit an article for review.

Our Translation section welcomes your submissions. The publication process for translations is rigorous and lengthy, and we appreciate your patience as we process and evaluate your submissions. Send your inquiries and your work to [email protected].

Your Support

We hope you are looking forward to our fourth year of publication as much as we are, and please do consider making a donation to support this publication. In geveb is proud to be subscription-free and we plan to keep it that way, but that’s only possible with your generosity. We are commited to paying our editors and contributors for their work, and we need your support to make that happen. We will happily send a dozen In geveb pencils as a thank you to everyone who signs up for a monthly donation of $4 or more.