How Yiddish changed America and how America changed Yiddish

Editors Stavans (Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin American and Latino Culture, Amherst Coll.; Angelitos) and Lambert (Dir., Yiddish Book Center) present an anthology of Yiddish culture and how it has influenced American culture in the process. As Jewish immigrants from Eastern and Central Europe arrived in the United States and began to make sense of their new homeland, they founded theaters, newspapers, and organizations. They established a major presence in entertainment industries, published in notable journals, and had leading roles in labor movements of the time. Yiddish was the lingua franca bridging the old and new worlds. This volume is not a chronological exploration of the Yiddish language in America. Instead, the editors offer portions of some of the major works of Yiddish literature, poetry, comics, and political thought, by writers including Isaac Bashevis Singer, Chaim Grade, Cynthia Ozick, and Sophie Tucker, among others. A delightful chapter concentrates on culinary offerings with some recipes included. Finally, a fascinating chapter focuses on the influence of Yiddish in Canada, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, and Columbia, offering a glimpse of Yiddishkeit outside Eurocentric views. VERDICT A wonderful compilation sure to please new and old lovers of Yiddish culture, Jewish history, and linguistics.--Jacqueline Parascandola, Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

A wide-ranging, eclectic anthology of work by Yiddish writers.Stavans (Humanities, Latin American, and Latino Culture/Amherst Coll.; The Seventh Heaven: Travels Through Jewish Latin America, 2019, etc.) and Yiddish Book Center academic director Lambert (American Literature/Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst; Unclean Lips: Obscenity, Jews, and American Culture, 2014, etc.) have assembled an impressive collection of essays, fiction, drama, memoir, poetry, cartoons, and interviews, all showing how "Yiddish is so deeply woven into the fabric of the United States that it can sometimes be difficult to recognize how much it has transformed the world we live in today." Arranged thematically rather than chronologically, the pieces are, in some cases, written by names that general readers will recognize: Irving Howe, Emma Goldman, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Allen Ginsberg, Cynthia Ozick, Grace Paley, Michael Chabon, Alan Alda, Leonard Nimoy, and Elliott Gould. Others will be news to many readersand mostly good news. The editors provide a brief introduction to each major division of the text and to each contributor. The arrangement of the text is sensible, and the editors show us that American Yiddish writing expands well beyond the United States; they include pieces from Canada, Colombia, Cuba, and Mexico. Among all these are some stunnerse.g., "Oedipus in Brooklyn," a story by Blume Lempel (1907-1999) that begins with the line, "Sylvia was no Jocasta." Emma Goldman (1869-1940) writes fiercely about marriage, which she compares to an "iron yoke." In a poem about Coney Island, Victor Packer (1897-1958) writes, "Beauty and crudity / Go hand in hand and / Launch a united front / Right there on the sand." Ozick (b. 1928) compares Sholem Aleichem to Dickens, Twain, and Will Rogers. "He was a popular presence, and stupendously so. His lectures and readings were mobbed; he was a household friend; he was cherished as a family valuable."For readers unfamiliar with Yiddish writing, a revelation; for readers and aficionados of the language, a treasure. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.