Jewish Languages
Is that baby DELICIOUS or what!?
When my siblings and I were little, my mom used to grab our chubby arms and pretend to munch on ...
The Jews of Poland: Recollections and Recipes by Edouard de Pomiane
When I was researching my last novel, my friend Michael Rohatyn found a book at the Strand he thought I might ...
On Writing a Novel in Two Cultures
Yesterday I wrote that my novel, The Golem and the Jinni , is “pretty darn Jewish.” In truth, that’s only ...
Dreaming in Mother Tongues
Zi kholmt – she dreams.In Irena Klepfisz’s remarkable poem, “Etlekhe verter oyf mame-loshn / A few words in the mother tongue,” the speaker ...
Yiddish and Us
The three of us waited expectantly and somewhat nervously in the seminar room, wondering why we had been summoned by ...
Yiddish and Me
When I first began studying Yiddish, I felt like I was remembering something I already knew.It was a lovely sensation, this ...
The Workmen’s Circle in Birmingham
The Workmen’s Circle—Arbeter Ring in Yiddish—is a Jewish fraternal organization devoted to progressive politics, the labor movement, and Yiddish language and culture. In its ...
Speaking Backwards
I’ve been told that students in my college courses sometimes have trouble following what I’m saying because I speak backwards.The ...
Illusions and Remembering
I liked to sit sipping coffee in the tall kitchen window of my apartment in Vilnius. The window overlooked the ...
A Yiddishist in Vilnius
I had fun in Vilnius, despite my low tolerance for fun. Not to mention that fun in Vilnius seemed like ...
Hebrew By Design
Before I could read and write in English, I spoke Yiddish. At age 3 I learned the Hebrew alef-bet alongside ...
What the Kids are Doing With Their Lives
I realized late in life that my parents weren’t your typical Baby Boomers. My dad wasn’t anti-establishment. My mother wasn’t a feminist. ...