Dec 14, 2018
In geveb’s soon to be down-sized translation department. Expensive and opinionated human translators will be a thing of the past.
Tayere leyeners, Dear readers,
This weekend the staff, editorial board, and board of directors of In geveb will hold our fifth annual meeting at the AJS conference. Whether you’ve been following In geveb for five years or just discovered us through something we published this fall, we hope you agree that In geveb has created an important and accessible space for the ever-growing field of Yiddish studies. In geveb publishes broadly and welcomes a diverse cross-section of people engaged with Yiddish into this space with peer-reviewed articles, book reviews, new translations, resources for educators, and essays on a wide array of happenings and topics in the Yiddish world.
Here are just a few places in the yidisher velt that we’ve visited recently:
- Melbourne, Australia for a production of Dybbuks, a new performance piece exploring possession and desire, reviewed by Nicola Menser Hearn.
- Kharkiv, Ukraine for In Edenia: A City of the Future, a group art exhibit inspired by a Yiddish utopian novella from 1918. Co-curator Yevgeniy Fiks gives us a virtual tour.
- Tel Aviv, Israel to hear the latest Yiddish pop music sensation, The Kosher Diva’s parody hit “Goy”, a phenomenon explored for us by Avi Blitz.
- Warsaw, Poland in the height of the expressionist explosion of the 1920s. In his peer-reviewed article, Nathan Wolski analyzes Aaron Zeitlin’s expressionist and futurist poem “Keter,” and shares his translation of the poem.
- And that place we so often find ourselves, The Internet, where we asked four language teachers to talk about their experiences teaching online Yiddish language courses.
In geveb is an ongoing experiment in so many ways, and it relies on your engagement to keep improving. What we publish is an experiment, open to new pitches and ideas from contributors. How we publish is an experiment, as we seek to bring in new editors who gain valuable experience from the work and who enrich the publication with their interests and perspective. And how we are funded and what we can pay for is an experiment. In geveb is not affiliated with any institution or organization, which keeps us open to participation and partnership with every corner of the Yiddish world. But it means we rely solely on individual donations and foundational support. If you want this experiment to continue, please consider making a year-end donation now, and becoming a monthly donor. And please, don’t stop there: keep reading, keep pitching, keep emailing us with ideas about what we should cover.
What do we spend your donations on and do we really need your support? In geveb is produced by a core team of six part-time editors. All are engaged in Yiddish studies in different ways: a language lecturer, a doctoral student, freelance translators and writers, assistant professors. We offer a small stipend in recognition of this important labor, including the highly skilled zetsers and proofreaders who work so hard to ensure that the Yiddish that appears on the site is as carefully edited as the English. We also offer small honoraria to the translators, teachers, and writers for the blog. That’s about it, and yes, our ability to pay for this essential work depends on your contributions, which also allow us to keep In geveb available with no paywall or subscription required.
Thank you for reading and thank you in advance for your support. You can donate online here.
-The Editors and Board of Directors of In geveb
