“American Jews”

Bashevis Singer's play takes on new meaning and relevance for Ukrainian audiences.

Apr 08, 2024

Through her work, Gross seeks to validate practices that meaningfully contribute to Jewish identity formation and connect Jewish Americans to their history as a people and to the contemporary community of Jewish people.

Jan 24, 2022

Oct 06, 2020

Heskes explores the contents of a slim, blue-leathered notebook he found in his parents' garage. The notebook belonged to his grandmother’s mother, the Yiddish writer Dora Schulner.

May 28, 2020

Rabbi Abraham Bick united a serious commitment to traditional Judaism with political radicalism in his short-lived New York City yeshiva, the Institut far Yidisher Bildung.

Jan 12, 2020

Oct 02, 2019

Apr 09, 2018

Part 2 of Solomon Simon's insider’s view of the crisis in the Yiddish schools following World War II.

Feb 16, 2018

Solomon Simon's insider’s view of the crisis in the Yiddish schools following World War II. 

Feb 16, 2018

Jessica Kirzane discusses a creative writing prompt for students in a course on American Jewish Literature and shares samples of students' work.

Nov 19, 2017

Bernard Weinstein's memoir recounting the history of Jewish labor unions in the United States.

Jun 29, 2017

In mid-nineteenth century America, early use of postvernacular Yiddish helped Jews locate themselves in the culture. 

Sep 13, 2016

A review of Kenyon Zimmer's recently published book, Immigrants Against the State: Yiddish and Italian Anarchism in America.

Sep 05, 2016

The gritty, and controversial 1920s account of a lynching by Joseph Opatoshu.

Jun 21, 2016

Adam Zachary Newton examines the American Jewish literary impulse to claim both whiteness and alienation while identifying with Black Americans. 

Jun 21, 2016

NYU Doctoral Candidate Jennifer Young explores the complicated ways in which American Jews claimed whiteness while examining and often identifying with Black American struggles.

Jun 21, 2016

What can Opatoshu's controversial story about a lynching tell us about the complex Jewish encounter with American culture and the potential loss of an ethical tradition.

Jun 21, 2016

An interview with Stefanie Halpern, assistant curator of the current exhibition on New York’s Yiddish Theater at the Museum of the City of New York.

Mar 29, 2016

Jill Soloway and Micah Fitzerman-Blue on writing Transparent in Yiddish, whether or not you noticed. 

Mar 01, 2016

When American popular culture imagines Yiddish as a language of vulgar comedy, how can Yiddish cultural activists respond? 

Dec 24, 2015

Hear the voice of Yiddish poet Aaron Glantz-Leyeles as he meditates on the loneliness of the Yiddish writer while still embracing the magic of the American landscape.

Oct 06, 2015

This chapter from Joseph Cohen's memoir offers a rare glimpse into the American Jewish Anarchist circles of the early twentieth century.

Sep 29, 2015

Was there a definable style of Yiddish writing produced in the American West? It is time to look beyond New York and examine the unique experiences of Jews on the Pacific Coast and the literary culture they produced. 

Aug 26, 2015

A portrait of the kultur-tuer, Moyshe Shtarkman (1906-1975), the activist engaged in the day-to-day moments that materially and intellectually make Yiddish culture.

Aug 13, 2015