Madeleine Cohen is academic director of the Yiddish Book Center and a visiting assistant professor in Jewish Studies at Mount Holyoke College. She received her PhD in Comparative Literature with a designated emphasis in Jewish Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Her dissertation, entitled "Here and Now: The Modernist Poetics of Do'ikayt," explores connections between the representation of place in modernist Yiddish literature and revolutionary politics in the interwar period. She directs the translation fellowship at the Yiddish Book Center and is passionate about promoting literary translation literacy in her teaching, research, and public-facing work. Madeleine has been part of In geveb since its founding: She was managing editor for translations (2015–2016), editor-in-chief (2016–2018), and senior editor (2018–2019) and has served as president of In geveb's board of directors since 2019. Her aliases include Mandy and Mindl.
CONTRIBUTOR
Madeleine Cohen
Yiddish Book Center
RELATED ARTICLES
Texts & Translation
מיטן פּנים צו דער צוקונפֿט
Facing the Future: Reflecting on Fifty Years of Zionism and the Bund
Leivick Hodes
Translation by Madeleine Cohen
Leivick Hodes writes, in Madeleine Cohen’s translation, of the trajectory of the Bund and other political movements in 1947, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Bund and Zionism.
Jun 11, 2026
Blog
Song of This Journal: Celebrating 10 Years of In geveb
Jessica Kirzane and Madeleine Cohen
At our own In geveb (named for Yehoash’s poetry collection), we have celebrated ten years of expansive Yiddish Studies scholarship.
Apr 15, 2026
Texts & Translation
וועגן דער מאָהליווער שול: זכרונות
On the Mogilev Shul: Recollections
El Lissitzky
Translation by Madeleine Cohen
Recollections of a visit to a wooden synagogue in Mogilev by the great modernist artist El Lissitzky.
Jul 01, 2019
Interview
Communicating Jewish History in Poland Today
Madeleine Cohen
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews was decades in the making and now tells the thousand year history of Polish Jews in the old heart of Jewish Warsaw.
Jan 16, 2019
Interview
The Gefilte Manifesto
Madeleine Cohen
An interview with the authors of the new cookbook, The Gefilte Manifesto: New Recipes for Old World Jewish Foods.
Feb 23, 2017
Interview
Sholem Aleichem’s Digital Turn
Madeleine Cohen and Dade Lemanski
An interview with Jeremy Dauber about the new website SholemAleichem.org
Jan 18, 2017
Blog
Translating the Iceberg: Reflections on the Possibilities of In geveb’s Texts & Translations Section
Madeleine Cohen
In geveb’s Managing Editor for Translations reflects on the need and possibilities for translating the archives of Yiddish culture, in addition to the greats of its literature.
May 10, 2016
Interview
“Eight Volumes in Dour Maroon”: Josh Fogel on Translating the Leksikon
Madeleine Cohen and Dade Lemanski
The Leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur, which is full of hard-to-find biographical and bibliographical information about Yiddish writers, is tough to access outside institutions or from the far side of a paywall. By methodically translating and posting entries from the Leksikon online, Josh Fogel is working to change that.
Apr 10, 2016
Pedagogy
Teaching Morris Rosenfeld’s “Mayn rue plats”
Madeleine Cohen
Using Morris Rosenfeld’s song text to teach literary Yiddish and Yiddish orthography.
Nov 22, 2015
Blog
לויט די לייענערס | Readers Respond: Moyshe Stavsky
Madeleine Cohen
Readers write in to tell us about the Hebrew-Yiddish writer who was also Anna Margolin’s first husband.
Oct 28, 2015
Review
“To what might the yard have been compared?”
Madeleine Cohen
“Ach, the things a poor tailor has lived to see! We live in times when the coats go around making themselves.” A review of a recent translation of Kulbak’s Zelmenyaner.
Oct 11, 2015
Pedagogy
לויט די לערערס | Teachers Weigh In: The Great Weinreich Debate
Madeleine Cohen
The second installment of our pedagogy forum, presenting the opinions and experiences of Yiddish language teachers on the question of using the textbook College Yiddish.
Sep 27, 2015
Pedagogy
לויט די לערערס | Teachers Weigh In: Which Textbook to Use?
Madeleine Cohen
In an effort to pool the wisdom and questions acquired from our work in the classroom, In geveb regularly polls Yiddish language instructors on topics related to Yiddish pedagogy. In this installment: what textbook do you use with beginning students?
Aug 10, 2015