Jessica Kirzane
@zanykirz.bsky.social
Yiddish Studies scholar & translator & language instructor & editor
My New Year's resolution is to try to do more creative writing in Yiddish. yiddishbranzhe.com/2023/12/31/%...
Der Tog, June 9, 1927: In a speech, David Sarnoff, Vice President of the RCA, tells the Chicago Association of Commerce that he believes that soon people will communicate more with pictures than with written words.
You haven't lived until you've spent hours asking various programs and departments to sponsor little pieces of your conference travel, and then spent hours processing reimbursements, only to feel utter dread that you've gotten something wrong, as well as embarassment over the cost of your coffees.
Some thoughts for the academic recommendation letter season; a poem from the December 2023 issue of Poetry Magazine, by Keith Leonard. #poetry
Drop everything and read Jonah Lubin's translation from Mimi Pinzón’s novel Der Hoyf on Fentster, published on the website of the Yiddish Book Center.
Dovid | Yiddish Book Center
A chapter from Mimi Pinzon's novel The Courtyard without Windows, translated by Jonah Lubin.
yiddishbookcenter.org
Excited to be included in this assortment of stories by students in Boris Sandler's Yiddish prose writing class at The Workers Circle!
מײַסטער־קלאַס פֿון פּראָזע בײַם „אַרבעטער־רינג‟
ווי ס׳איז פֿריִער אַנאָנסירט געוואָרן, ווערן דורכן "זום" דורכגעפֿירט 5 מײַסטער־קלאַסן פֿון ייִדישער פּראָזע, �...
yiddishbranzhe.com
I have encountered Helena Frank's translations before (and even taught them!) but I had no idea what a significant founding figure she was! So grateful to learn more about her.
In geveb@ingeveb.bsky.social · 3y agoAharon Varady profiles the first Yiddish-to-English translator, Helena Frank, and translates a tribute by Jacob Glatstein: "Helena Frank was a champion of Yiddish...She literally introduced Rosenfeld, Y.L. Peretz, and other poets and writers... to an Anglophone audience."
What fun to spend time talking about Miriam Karpilove as a guest on the History of Literature Podcast!
567 Your Dream Guest: Jessica Kirzane on Translating Yiddish Literature | My Last Book with Jack Zip...
Your wish is our command! Jacke talks to listener-nominated "dream guest" Dr. Jessica Kirzane about her work with Yiddish literature, including her recen…
historyofliterature.com
Just wrote a letter of recommendation for a student I care about and believe in so much that even doing the hard and thankless work of writing a letter of recommendation was nothing but pure pride and pleasure.
Shachar Pinsker translates Avrom Karpinovitsh's 1951 story פֿאַרגעס נישט / Don't Forget, which, as Pinsker explains, "shows the proximity between the trauma of the Holocaust and the trauma of the 1948 War."
פֿאַרגעס נישט | Don't Forget | In geveb
Shachar Pinsker translates a harrowing story of a Jewish Holocaust survivor and Palmach soldier's confrontation with a Palestinian Arab.
ingeveb.org
This was the question I was faced with in early October and did not know how to answer. Thanks to all the people I crowdsourced from to gather some possibilities, and especially to Shachar Pinsker (my co-author).
In geveb@ingeveb.bsky.social · 3y agoLike many of you, in the midst of our anguish we also found ourselves with the very practical worry of “what will I do in Yiddish class now, of all times?” This is our effort to help to lift at least this small burden.
red, autumn leaves are falling and I'm thinking of this poem again: "My children, in the slaughter-knife wind Red dew drips from the world’s dawn. Don’t be uprooted by the slashing wind Grow stronger, green brighter!"
"Red Dew" and "Red Dew, Again" | Yiddish Book Center
A poem of courage in the face of violence; and a reprise, eighty years later.
yiddishbookcenter.org
A new Yiddish poem by Ber Kotlerman, composed on Motsei Simchat Torah 5784, and translated by @zanykirz.bsky.social ingeveb.org/texts-and-tr...
וְהָיָה הָעולָם | New Creation | In geveb
A new Yiddish poem by Ber Kotlerman, composed on Motsei Simchat Torah 5784, and translated by Jessica Kirzane.
ingeveb.org
Who will sing this song woth me? Found in an issue of Oktyaberl magazine. (I am having fun teaching Yiddish students from materials in UChicago's Special Collections this quarter!)
"All night parties with 6000 Jews decked out in literary and artistic costumes, the Shnorer Balls must have been wild. One can only imagine the thousands of partiers cosplaying their favorite characters from literature and the arts all at the behest of the Shnorers." Let's relive this please.
In geveb@ingeveb.bsky.social · 3y ago"Dancing: Are you serious? Until 6am." @eddyportnoy.bsky.social reports on The Shnorer Association, also sometimes known as The Shnorer Club, a Yiddish arts organization which sponsored a variety of cultural events - some rather raucous - from 1915 through around 1925.
Cleveland, Jan 13, 1918: The Jewish Business Girls Club Dance: The Jewish Business Girls Club Vacation camp in Huron, Ohio will give its third annual dance this evening... Proceeds will go to the improvement of their camp Ms Rose Wasserman is the president of the club, which has over 150 members.
Thanks to Mindl Cohen and the Yiddish Book Center, now you can read about A Provincial Newspaper and Other stories on the website of the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative!
#Yiddishlitmonth: “A Provincial Newspaper” and Other Stories
by Jessica Kirzane A Provincial Newspaper and Other StoriesWritten by Miriam KarpiloveTranslated from the Yiddish by Jessica KirzaneSyracuse University PressISBN: 978-0815611585 Purchase this book or ...
glli-us.org
I was listening to Supreme: The Battle for Roe (podcast) on my commute this morning. Forgive me for being cheesy, but I absolutely sobbed at the celebratory tone at the end when (spoiler alert) there's a constitutionally protected right to abortion.
I hear that the internet loves cats. Here you go. (source: www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/...)
Extraordinary music! And guess what? The cost is surprisingly low - No higher than that of ordinary music. (spotted in The Sentinel, January 1923)
Tomorrow my Yiddish class will go to Special Collections in our library to type on a Yiddish typewriter. I have a great job.
Is there something cool happening in *your* corner of Yiddishland? Consider writing about it for the In geveb blog!
In geveb@ingeveb.bsky.social · 3y agoUla Urszula Chowaniec describes how Spanish/Lithuanian artists Adrian Schvarzstein and Jūratė Širvytė-Rukštelė delivered an interactive, dynamic, wordless performance, titled אָנקומען /Arrived/Przybyli in the Kraków Street Theatre Festival this past summer.
For the first time, now you can LISTEN to the translator read the original poem and its translation! (We're trying out this feature - let us know what you think!)
Dov Greenwood translates Avram Liessin's "Yom Kippur in Synagogue" / יום־כּיפּור אין שול. "The crowd continues to pray with passion, But one of them, doubting and small, Stands with his father and family, alone, Not noticed by them at all."
יום־כּיפּור אין שול | Yom Kippur in Synagogue | In geveb
Dov Greenwood translates Avrom Liessin's haunting poem about faith and fear on Yom Kippur.
ingeveb.org
Beatrice Bisno describing her 1938 novel about Chicago garment workers: "These humble tailors constitute a brilliant motif in the complicated fabric of American life and posess... literary significance"
Do you have a teaching technique, assignment, or activity to share? Consider writing a pedagogy piece for AJR! Contact @kristadalton.bsky.social for more info.
First In geveb book review of the publishing year! If you want to review something for us, or suggest something for us to review, write to info@ingeveb.org!
In geveb@ingeveb.bsky.social · 3y agoDebra Caplan reviews Diego Rotman's The Yiddish Stage as a Temporary Home: Dzigan and Shumacher’s Satirical Theater (1927−1980), translated by Rebecca Wolpe: "Dzigan and Shumacher helped audiences to... imagine an alternate reality – and to drive the world of the present towards it."