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Oedipus in Brooklyn
and other stories by Blume Lempel
Translated by Ellen Cassedy & Yermiyahu Ahron Taub
Mandel Vilar Press & Dryad Press
2016
Blume Lempel is a fearless storyteller whose imagination moves between the realistic and the fantastic, the lyrical and the philosophical. Lempel’s narratives are masterpieces of poetic imagery, suffused with an abiding compassion. The translation received the Leviant Prize from the Modern Language Association, among other awards.
“a splendid surprise and a significant revivification of a brilliantly robust Yiddish-American writer.”
—Cynthia Ozick
Blume Lempel (1907-1999) was born in Khorostkiv (now Ukraine). She immigrated to Paris in 1929 and fled to New York on the eve of World War II. She wrote in Yiddish into the 1990s.
Reading Resource Guide:
Yiddish Book Center: Oedipus in Brooklyn resources
Read an excerpt here.
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On the Landing
Stories by Yenta Mash
Translated by Ellen Cassedy
With an afterword co-authored by Jessica Kirzane
Northern Illinois University Press, 2018
A Yiddish Book Center Translation
Yenta Mash traces an arc across upheavals and regime changes, and across the phases of a woman’s life, making a major contribution to the literature of immigration and resilience.
“Each story is a gem…. Mash’s narrative skill is quietly astonishing.”
—Jewish Book Council
Read an excerpt: “Bread” in Jewish Currents
Reading Resource Guide: Yiddish Book Center: On the Landing resources
About Yenta Mash
Yenta Mash (1922–2013) was born and raised in Bessarabia in southeastern Europe. She survived Siberian exile, then settled in Chisinau, Moldova, before immigrating to Israel.
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Good Morning! (A gut morgn!)
By Boris Sandler
Translated by Ellen Cassedy
Lively poems for children age 3 to 8 by the former editor of the Yiddish newspaper Forverts, in Yiddish and English.
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Use code BAMA for 30% discount thru 6/1/25
So We Died:
A Memoir of Life and Death in the Ghetto of Šiauliai, Lithuania
By Levi Shalit
Translated by Veronica Belling, Ellen Cassedy, and Andrew Cassel
With an afterword Justin Cammy
University of Alabama Press, 2024
So We Died is a powerful eyewitness account of the Shavl (Šiauliai) ghetto during the Nazi occupation of Lithuania. Written in Yiddish by Levi Shalit and available now for the first time in English, it fills a stark void in historical records and offers keen insight into a time of war, fascism, and resistance.
“a penetrating portrait of Jewish life in the Shavl (Siauliai) ghetto in Lithuania…unlike other memoirs. I recommend most highly.”
—Alexandra Garbarini, author of Numbered Days: Diary Writing and the Holocaust
About Levi Shalit
Levi Shalit (1916–1994) was born in Kuybyshev (now Samara), Russia, and raised in Lithuania. During World War II, he was confined in the ghetto in Šiauliai, Lithuania, then transported to the Dachau concentration camp in Germany. After the war, he lived in Munich, where the original Yiddish-language edition of this book, Azoy zaynen mir geshtorbn, was published.
More about Yiddish
Help with Translation from Yiddish
Find a professional translator using the list compiled by the Yiddish Book Center, or the list compiled by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, or consult the Yiddish Translation Gig Board. I’ve worked with Chana Pollack & Myra Mniewski. For volunteer help, consult the Facebook group Tracing the Tribe.
Learn Yiddish
- Workers’ Circle and YIVO offer excellent classes. Twitter can help you find the class or program that meets your needs. the online journal In geveb lists summer courses and university programs; search for “roundup.”
- Yiddish Farm. You can even choose to learn the language while working on a farm.
- Yiddish Primer. An easy place to begin (without farm work). 20 simple online lessons, starting with the alphabet, including sound.
- Duolingo. Self-taught Yiddish online. Check it out!
Enjoy!
