When Albert Chasan (1930–2024) retired from the marketing communications firm he founded, “It hit me: I had to do something with the stories my parents told.” He took up painting and commemorated the formative years of his parents’ lives through a series of expressionistic, boldly hued acrylics. A selection of color prints of many of these historic…

This week on "The Shmooze," writer, translator, and literary scholar David Stromberg. In a wide-ranging conversation, David talks about his recently released translation of "Isaac Bashevis Singer: Writings on Yiddish and Yiddishkayt: A Spiritual Reappraisal, 1946–1955" (White Goat Press) and sheds light on Bashevis’s lesser-known nonfiction, which …

Hankus Netsky joined "The Shmooze" to talk about his upcoming Morris Hollender 100th birthday concert. In conversation we spoke about how interest in Eastern European Jewish musical traditions has experienced an unprecedented resurgence in recent years and how the melodies that Morris Hollender brought over from his birthplace in a small farming vi…

Deb Krivoy, director of the annual Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival, joined "The Shmooze" to talk about this year’s lineup. Now in its nineteenth year, the Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival continues its tradition of showcasing award-winning films from around the globe. This year’s festival kicks off at the Yiddish Book Center on April 3 with …

Translator Mel Konner and Professor Justin Cammy sat down with "The Shmooze" to talk about the release of "Elephants by Night," a collection of newly translated poems by Abraham Sutzkever. The poems, a result of Sutzkever’s travels to South Africa, are meditations on place, memory, and renewal.Episode 387January 16, 2025Amherst, MA…

Allen Lewis Rickman and fellow actor Yelena Shmulenson, better known as the shtetl couple from the Coen brothers’ Oscar-nominated "A Serious Man," sat down with "The Shmooze" to chat about their work in Yiddish theater and their staging of their fast-paced comedy "THE ESSENCE: A YIDDISH THEATRE DIM SUM," which is onstage at the New York’s Theater 1…

Direct from engagements in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, Shane Baker and Miryem-Khaye Seigel sat down with "The Shmooze" to talk about their latest collaboration, "BASHEVIS’S DEMONS." The performance includes three short stories by legendary Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer. It makes its official Off-Broadway bow at Theatre 154, 154 Chri…

Frank London visited with "The Shmooze" to chat about his latest LP, "In the City of God," and other releases. In a far-flung conversation, Frank spoke about how he became a musician, his influences past and present, and the release of the new LP. Episode 384December 5, 2024Amherst, MABy Yiddish Book Center

Ilan Stavans sits down with "The Shmooze" to talk about his recently released cookbook, "Sabor Judío." Co-authored with Margaret Boyle, the collection of over 100 recipes celebrates the fusion of two culinary traditions, Jewish and Mexican, and tells the story of how cooking and eating connects Jewish Mexicans across places and generations. Episode…

Ezra Glinter sat down with "The Shmooze" to talk about his recently released biography of Menachem Mendel Schneerson. This is the first biography of Schneerson to combine a nonpartisan view of his life, work, and impact with an insider’s understanding of the ideology that drove him and that continues to inspire the Chabad-Lubavitch movement today.E…

In a live conversation at the Yiddish Book Center, award-winning photographer, filmmaker, and author Harvey Wang visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about his work and his recently opened exhibit, "Harvey Wang’s New York."In the early years of his career, in the 1980s, Harvey’s photographic beat was the New York City nightlife scene. Yet a very diffe…

David Mazower, chief-curator and writer of "Yiddish: A Global Culture," and Caleb Sher, the Yiddish Book Center’s Richard S. Herman Endowed Senior Fellow, join "The Shmooze" to share the news that the Center’s groundbreaking exhibition, "Yiddish: A Global Culture," is now live on the Bloomberg Connects app. The free, downloadable app allows users t…

Novelist Ben Gonshor joins "The Shmooze" to talk about his debut novel, "The Book of Izzy." The book’s main character, Izzy, is a writer at wit’s end in life and on the verge of a complete breakdown with his career in wedding planning. Following an encounter with a mysterious bird seemingly visible only to him, he agrees to take on the leading role…

Writer Joan Leegant joined "The Shmooze" to talk about her latest book, "Displaced Persons," a collection of rich, multilayered short stories, half set in Israel, half among Jewish families in the States. The fictional stories explore exile, belonging, and what it means to call a place home.Episode 378August 22, 2024Amherst, MA…

Rokhl Kafrissen—journalist, teacher, playwright, and 2022 winner of the prestigious Adrienne Cooper Dreaming in Yiddish prize—sits down with "The Shmooze" this week to talk about her upcoming Yiddish Book Center online course “Sacred Time and Liminal Space: Ashkenazi Folk Magic at the Threshold.” Rokhl talks about the unique Eastern European women’…

Translator and adapter Weaver sits down with "The Shmooze" to talk about the drama group Theater Between Addresses and its upcoming immersive, staged reading of Sholem Asch’s "Shabbtai Tsvi," which Weaver translated and adapted. Never before performed in its entirety, the play shows the meteoric rise and tragic fall of Shabbtai Tsvi, the 17th-centu…

This week on "The Shmooze" we visit with Rebecca (Rivke) Margolis, author of "The Yiddish Supernatural on Screen: Dybbuks, Demons and Haunted Jewish Pasts." In conversation we talk about how the book traces the transformation of the figure of the dybbuk—a soul of the dead possessing the living—from folklore to 1930s Polish Yiddish cinema to global …

Avia Moore and Sebastian Schulman join "The Shmooze" for a lively conversation about all things Klezakanda. As Avia shares, KlezKanada “fosters a community where the vibrant living tradition of Yiddish culture and Jewish music continues to thrive.” This year’s lineup includes workshops on Yiddish song, dance, and language learning as well as a tran…

Filmaker Elan Golod visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about his documentary "Nathan-ism." The film tells the story of Nathan Hilu, the son of Syrian Jewish immigrants to New York who received a life-changing assignment from the U.S. Army: to guard the top Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials. This experience fueled a lifetime of artistic insp…

Kimberly Lazzeri joins "The Shmooze" to talk about the recently released "Yiddish Folksong Project Anthology." Kimberly shares the story behind this collection of Robert De Cormier’s folksong arrangements, which had been in a storage closet for over forty years. This is the first-ever publication of De Cormier’s arrangements of Yiddish folksongs an…

Piotr Nazaruk and Karla McCabe joined "The Shmooze" to tell the story of the thirty-six postcards that Karla recently hand-delivered to Pitor Nazaruk at a ceremony in Lublin, Poland. Karla explains how this collection of postcards were looted from the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva in the war and now, eighty years later, have found their way back home.Epi…

Writer Sivan Slapak visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about her debut collection, "Here Is Still Here." The stories provide a layered exploration of human connection and the complexities of identity. In conversation, Sivan shares how these stories—which take readers from Montreal to Jerusalem and back again as the main character navigates checkpoin…

"The Shmooze" visits with Sebastian Schulman for a chat about Yiddish culture in America as we celebrate American Jewish Heritage Month. In conversation he shares some of what he’s found on the Yiddish Book Center’s website related to the Jewish American experience—Yiddish writers in America, Jewish food, Yiddish film, immigration, activism, and mo…

Alex Weiser visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about his latest work, "in a dark blue night," consisting of two connected song cycles. The first, “in a dark blue night,” sets to music modernist Yiddish poetry about New York City at night, all written by Jewish immigrant poets at the turn of the 20th century. The second, “Coney Island Days,” transfor…

Sonia Bloom and Judith Liskin-Gasparro speak to "The Shmooze" about Yiddish-language learning, their work in the field, and their participation at the Yiddish Book Center’s upcoming Bossie Dubowick YiddishSchool. Episode 367March 11, 2024Amherst, MABy Yiddish Book Center