How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish

by Ilan Stavans (Editor), Josh Lambert (Editor)

A momentous and diverse anthology of the influences and inspirations of Yiddish voices in America—radical, dangerous, and seductive, but also sweet, generous, and full of life—edited by award-winning authors and scholars Ilan Stavans and Josh Lambert.  

Is it possible to conceive of the American diet without bagels? Or Star Trek without Mr. Spock? Are the creatures in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are based on Holocaust survivors? And how has Yiddish, a language without a country, influenced Hollywood? These and other questions are explored in this stunning and rich anthology of the interplay of Yiddish and American culture, edited by award-winning authors and scholars Ilan Stavans and Josh Lambert.  

It starts with the arrival of Ashkenazi immigrants to New York City’s Lower East Side and follows Yiddish as it moves into Hollywood, Broadway, literature, politics, and resistance. We take deep dives into cuisine, language, popular culture, and even Yiddish in the other Americas, including Canada, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, and Colombia. The book presents a bountiful menu of genres: essays, memoir, song, letters, poems, recipes, cartoons, conversations, and much more. Authors include Nobel Prize–winner Isaac Bashevis Singer and luminaries such as Grace Paley, Cynthia Ozick, Chaim Grade, Michael Chabon, Abraham Cahan, Sophie Tucker, Blume Lempel, Irving Howe, Art Spiegelman, Alfred Kazin, Harvey Pekar, Ben Katchor, Paula Vogel, and Liana Finck.

Readers will laugh and cry as they delve into personal stories of assimilation and learn about people from a diverse variety of backgrounds, Jewish and not, who have made the language their own. The Yiddish saying states: Der mentsh trakht un got lakht. Man plans and God laughs. How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish illustrates how those plans are full of zest, dignity, and tremendous humanity.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Jewish, Essays, Judaism, Judaica, Anthologies

512 pages, Hardcover

First published January 21, 2020

About the author

Ilan Stavans is the Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. An award-winning writer and public television host, his books include Growing Up Latino and Spanglish. A native of Mexico City, he lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Isn't this a great title? Unfortunately, the book doesn't fulfill the promise it seems to make. This is an anthology of seemingly random pieces translated from Yiddish into English, or sometimes written in English by people who are/were Yiddish speakers or had an interest in Yiddish. Thus, we have a song written by Sophie Tucker (translated from Yiddish) and a short story (in English) by Grace Paley about the Yiddish stage. There's an interesting essay on Sholom Aleichem by Cynthia Ozick, and some cartoons, although the reproduction is not always the best. The last section of the book features Yiddish writings from the Americas outside the United States (although at least one is written by a resident of the U.S.).

[Beck · Rating 5 out of 5]

How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish is a compilation of yiddish literature that influenced not only the Jewish community but an entire country. It includes interviews, poems, short stories, recipes, histories, as well as excerpts from plays and novels from a wide range of writers over time.

In many ways this book wasn't what I expected. I had assumed when first opening the book that it would be a compilation of stories paired with analysis and followed by historical facts about how the events after it effected different parts of media. That isn't what the book is. It is a pure compilation paired with anecdotes from writers and real people about how they choose to lead their lives. There isn't a lot of analysis in this book, if any. Some of my favorite parts of this book were borough park and recipes, where people describe how and where they live and why. They included an exploration into the Jewish love of Chinese food and a note from a woman who ate mole with her Jewish food because she like it and didn't care that it was improper. I just thought that was funny and definitely not what I was expecting when I thought this was going to be a history book. Additionally the book included a lot of literature that covered the modern struggle to conserve Yiddish Literature. One of the most memorable examples of this was the interview with an author of a Yiddish dictionary, what it took to compile everything and the decisions to include newer words. There was also a chapter describing a different dictionary where the author had decided to include humor and phrases so that it wasn't simply a dictionary but a piece of literature in itself. Never before have I been so desperate to read a dictionary.

I was also legitimately surprised by the diversity of content and writers included in this compilation. Not only were there women represented in this book but there were also stories about equality, prostitution, sexuality, gender, and mental illness. It was honestly quite refreshing and provided a perspective of history that I rarely get to see. Some of my favorites include the essay by a woman about the natural inequality of her current marriage system and the letter another woman wrote into the Forward about a trans man who had grown up in her community and had found acceptance there. What saddens and excites me about these types of stories is that many of them still provide valuable perspectives and opinions for current problems in the areas of equality, sexuality, gender, and mental illness.

Overall I really liked this book and I would love to reread it very soon. Additionally there are multiple stories I want to find so that I can read the whole thing. Namely, The Education of Hyman Kaplan, Messiah in America, God of Vengeance, and a few more.

One recommendation, I read this through an audio book and while I think it made some parts better, such as the poems, I probably would have had a better, more connected experience if I had read through the whole thing "properly". Also, don't do it in a three siting sprint, this book definitely deserves some time, and you're gonna need it in order to process any thoughts or emotions you have about particular stories. Totally not talking from personal experience there.

I think this book would be perfect for anyone who is just starting to explore Yiddish Literature. Because of the diversity of the stories, literature, and writers, I think the reader should be able to find at least one thing that they enjoy and can explore further. Though I would say that a reader should be older than 13 if not 15 or 17 because there is some content included in the stories that may not be appropriate for younger age groups.

[Ian Lever · Rating 4 out of 5]

A grab bag of poems, essays, plays, short stories, and excerpts that all explore Yiddishkeit in its broadest sense.

Some of the essay selections - particularly the literary critiques - are a bit inaccessible to those without a literary PhD. And, after 512 pages, you’ll certainly think it’s a bit of a shlep, and wonder if not all needed to make the cut, as some were hard to read for their inaccessibility, and others for their lewdness.

But, the majority of selections will give you an appreciation for how far and wide Yiddish has been across the americas.

From controversial broadway debuts that broke conventions to corporatized “recipe books” seeking to grow their Jewish customer base, you’ll leave with an appreciation for the wide-ranging manifestation of Yiddish across the Americas. You’ll come to understand the language and the identity it sows - not only as a European relic - but as a thread that spanned - (spans perhaps?) - continents, generations, literary forms, and political ideologies.

This is the argument Stevens and others tries to make in the intentional compilation of this anthology.

One of my favorites in the grab-bag, was the story of the English-Yiddish dictionary and the effort and intentionality to make new words to keep it alive today; which reflect our changing lexicon but also the spirit of Yiddish-ness.

That chapter, like many, will have you thinking idly about the future of the spoken and written language that is the official language of no country and where a generation of its native speakers are dying (and actively dissuading other generations from learning it - “it’s such an ugly language” my Grammy used to say).

What will become of Yiddish? This, is the question that somehow dominates this book, though is never really discussed.

To that, we say “Der Mensch Tracht, Un Gott Lacht”.

[Betty Perske · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, variable anthology of Yiddish American writing-- fiction in translation, criticism of said fiction, interviews, writings by Yiddish speakers that were originally written in English, and pieces which don't fall under any of those categories. It's a very elastically-defined focus for an anthology. My favorite piece and IMO the most memorable was Cynthia Ozick's article "Sholem Aleichem's Revolution". Most of the book's chapters are pretty short by comparison. My other favorite was the short "Letter to the Forverts Editor", in which a reader takes the opportunity to tell all about a transgender neighbor back in Russia; I really wish that there were more of these kinds of letters in the book! I also enjoyed the section on Ashkenazi food in America. The inclusion of art and comics alongside prose was a nice surprise.

I don't really understand why Alan Alda was the one gentile interviewed for the book, especially when he doesn't have much to say except that he and Arlene love and respect the Jewish people and spend the greater part of their married life reading Yiddish literature in translation aloud to each other. Seems kind of like a cynical marketing ploy: casual readers will glance at the book's back cover with its list of contributors, go "Wait, Hawkeye's Jewish??!?", and only learn their mistake after 365 pages. I believe that this is a tragic and deflating situation for many people, NOT me "getting ahead of myself" and "making assumptions".

I forget to mention this in the first paragraph, but I was also a big fan of Michael Shapiro's translation of Moyshe Nader's 1933 play "Messiah in America;" it's very funny and the dialogue is quick and fluid, which is why I single out the translator. Should I seek more Yiddish theater? I probably should.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as part of the Yiddish Book Center’s 2022 book club.

[Ben Truong · Rating 3 out of 5]

How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish is an anthology of over a hundred and twenty-five essays, fiction, drama, memoir, poetry, cartoons, and interviews collected and edited by Ilan Stavans and Josh Lambert. This collection is a wide-ranging, eclectic anthology of work by Yiddish writers and artists.

For the most part, I rather like most if not all of these contributions – it's just a tad exhaustive for one anthology. How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish is an anthology of over a hundred and twenty-five entries of essays, fiction, drama, memoir, poetry, cartoons, and interviews that demonstrates how Yiddish and America has influenced each other.

Arranged thematically rather than chronologically, the pieces are, in some cases, written by names that general readers will recognize such as Irving Howe, Emma Goldman, Michael Chabon, Alan Alda, Leonard Nimoy, and Elliott Gould. Others will be new, but interesting nevertheless. 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 as they include pieces from Canada, Colombia, Cuba, and Mexico.

Like most anthologies there are weaker contributions and How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish is not an exception. It is rather difficult to rate such a hefty anthology as there are so much entries to review. This anthology is not meant to be read in one sitting or binge reading, but in little doses. Overall, the entries are exhaustive and wide ranging, but give an overall mediocre impression.

All in all, How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish is a wonderful tribute to the Yiddish culture. For readers unfamiliar with Yiddish writing this is a revelation, while those familiar with the language would consider this anthology rather definitive.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

a cute book! i’m glad i read it. it’s basically a collection of written pieces— poems, fiction, essays, recipes, cartoons, plays, memoirs, etc— that have to do with yiddish/ yiddish speakers in america. some of the work has been translated from yiddish, some translated from other languages (like spanish), and others were written in english. there’s limited commentary from the editors at the beginning of each chapter, but otherwise it’s mostly a curated selection of written work from various authors and time periods.

it felt like a low-commitment way to experience a variety of yiddish literature/ literature related to yiddish. some pieces were included in their entirety, whereas longer pieces (like plays), only featured excerpts. i appreciated that i didn’t need to invest money in buying a million different books or spend time gaining access to a million different publications to read these works. now that i know which of these works i enjoyed, i have a small list of different pieces that i hope to explore further later on.

for me, the most jarring aspect of how the editors organized the pieces was that sometimes i’d end up reading something really upsetting, e.g. about the holocaust or pogroms etc, with no warning. the organization of the anthology left me unprepared for abrupt topic changes. i was grateful for the opportunity to read such a diverse selection of work though, especially as someone who wasn’t taught much about the holocaust growing up.

i was worried about reading this book because the reviews weren’t fantastic, but i found that setting myself up for reasonable expectations (knowing this was mostly a curated/categorized collection of writing as opposed to one cohesive thesis/essay about yiddish) allowed me to enjoy the book for what it is.

this book took me foreverrrr for me to get through. i often read for hours at a time. i did annotate it, but i don’t think i would have understood the pieces as well if i hadn’t. i feel very accomplished for finishing it, and i hope to read more books about yiddish/jewish history in the future <3

[Richard Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a compendium of materials about Yiddish history, culture, linguistics, drama and writing, mostly in America, but also in Eastern Europe and around the world. I knew a lot of the historical and linguistic material, but there were new tidbits of knowledge for me, and it's an area where I don't know so much that it felt like going over old ground. There was a lot that was new for me in the literary material. All of the literature and drama was good and interesting, but not a lot that blew me away. I definitely want to read more of Sholem Aleichem beyond the wonderful Tevye stories. Maybe I'll try the Railroad Stories, and though I have read plenty of I.B. Singer, I need to move on to also read I.J. Singer. I have been eyeing "The Brothers Ashkenazi."

One thing that struck me was the thought that there is a strong precedent in the world of Judaism for a compendium of culture, history and literature. It's the Torah. Maybe this book isn't the word of God but it's following in a grand tradition.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never learned to speak Yiddish, except for a few words almost everyone knows, for a reason that will resonate with many people. Yiddish was the language that my grandparents spoke when they didn’t want my mother to understand what they were saying. My mother only knew a smattering of the language and that very limited vocabulary was passed on to me. However, Yiddish language and culture did influence American life and, if you believe “How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish” edited by Ilan Stavans and Josh Lambert (Restless Books), America also influenced Yiddish.
See the rest of my review at http://www.thereportergroup.org/Artic...

[Lisa]

Well, my fault for picking up this book due to its intriguing title and lovely cover. I didn't realize it's an anthology, and a pretty random one at that. So there wasn't much analysis or anything overarching, both of which I probably would have preferred. There's some fine material in here but to me it wasn't cohesive. I THINK I'd read the Cynthia Ozick in Metaphor & Memory.

[Ben Muschol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Title is definitely misleading. It's mostly a collection of primary sources, and most of them do very little to answer the titular question. But I found it interesting and enlightening about my cultural history. And to an extent, the "list-of-sources" format makes it trivial to skip over whatever passages don't interest you. Would have enjoyed a bit more commentary and editorializing from the authors though

[Liz Seiler · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an anthology of Yiddish pieces translated into English and the occasional essay or interview on Yiddish/writing as a Jewish author. Took me the better part of a year to get through this--I appreciate the effort and consideration that went into compiling and translating these pieces, but I feel the title is deeply, deeply misleading. I did not take away much from most of the selections.

[Yenta Knows · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn’t finish. The book is still in the bedside stack, but I abandoned it for a popular novel about 10 days ago.

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. How true! From the cover, and title, I expected a linguistic and cultural and sociological study. I got a book with excerpts from Yiddish journalists, playwrights, and novelists.

It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t what I was looking for.

[Alexis · Rating 3 out of 5]

As other reviewers have noted, this is an anthology of materials, not a history. As such, it's a mixed bag: some of it is great, some is so-so, some of it is more directly connected to Yiddish than other pieces. It's a bit of an odd selection. I did enjoy a lot of it, though, even if it's uneven.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

A highly varied collection. Really instructive. Sometimes very dry and academic, sometimes totally fun and immersive. I learned a ton about Jewish history, culture, and language. Definitely opened up further lines of learning to follow. Grateful for the recommendations for further reading.

[Mariana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whoops, had a bit of a slump there. Loved the chapters about food and non-USA Jews in Central and South America, but overall felt pretty overwhelmed trying to read snippets of essays and literature without full context.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got 60% through the book and gave up. I just wasn’t enjoying it enough to invest any more time.
Too many of the stories were disturbing to me and not what I enjoy.
I cannot think of anyone I know who would enjoy this.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Less about the language than the people

An anthology, in English, of pieces--fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and criticism--about the Yiddish speaking Jewish people in Europe and in the various places they ended up in.

[Gia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the first part of the book, which dealt with the origins of Yiddish and the changes the language has undergone over the years. The second part was a bit meh, a collection of stories with no other string than being written in Yiddish.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love reading anything that deals with history, culture, language, and immigration.

[Ellen]

Entertaining bits and pieces.

[Joyce Schiff · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fun title. Disappointing text....did not flow. Could not get hooked into.the book.......

[Shiffra · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite part was a poem that wrecked me. I've commissioned a painting of it.

[Lizzy B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not what I expected it would be (a regular ol' nonfiction book), but much, much better - so many vibrant primary sources and stories that would otherwise not reach a modern audience!

[Frances Levy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing. The title promised more than the book delivered. That said, I did find it pretty interesting.

[Dorothy L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating glimpse into Yiddish culture and language.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really for me. Didn’t get very far.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Margaret Elam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful anthology that, for the uninitiated, is a great introduction to Yiddish American culture and the ties between a gentile life and Yiddish influence :)

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Ghetto Wedding -- Abraham Cahan
Letter to the Forverts Editor -- Yeshaye Katovski*
Against Marriage as Private Possession -- Ema Goldman*
The God of Vengeance -- Sholem Asch*
On Zuni Maud -- Eddy Portnoy*
Is Hebrew Male and Yiddish Female -- Naomi Seidman
The Maximalist's Daughter -- Aaron Lansky
Shopping for Yiddish in Boro Park -- Jeffrey Shandler
Hering mit pateytes -- Isadore Lillian
The Cafeteria -- I.B. Singer
Summoned Home -- Jacob Glatstein
Oedipus in Brooklyn -- Blume Lempel
The New House -- Rokhl Korn
Messiah in America -- Moyshe Nadir
Pour Out Thy Wrath -- Lamed Shapiro
Goodbye and Good Luck -- Grace Paley
On Maurice Sendak's Vilde Khayes! -- Ilan Stavans
A Room Named Ruth -- Ruth Behar
Bontshe Shvayg in Lethbridge -- Goldie Morgentaler
The Yiddish Terrorist -- Claudia Mireltein
A Yiddish Bokher in Mexique -- Ilan Stavans

** queer Yiddish syllabus