Barnett Zumoff Livres

"In these splendid volumes, Emanuel Goldsmith as editor and Barnett Zumoff as translator have combined their enormous talents to create a first-ever anthology of Yiddish literature in America--fiction, poetry, and essays." --Professor Curt Leviant, editor, Masterpieces of Hebrew Literature: Selections from Two Thousand Years of Jewish Creativity "Finally, an anthology of Yiddish poetry, prose, and essays that introduces the English reader to the richness of Yiddish literature in America. This collection includes well-known authors like Sholem Aleichem and I. B. Singer and others like Yoni Fayn, Melekh Ravitsh and Dora Teytlboym largely unknown in English translation. Barnett Zumoff's careful and fluid translations take readers on a literary and cultural odyssey that will educate, surprise, and delight!" --Sheva Zucker, author of Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature & Culture, Vols. 1 and 2; editor of the Yiddish magazine Afn Shvel "An indispensable compendium, filled with treasures reflecting brilliant encounters between Old World and New." --Jeremy Dauber, Professor, Columbia University, Yiddish Studies Department "An important contribution to the field, bringing unknown treasures of Yiddish literature and thought to new readers, and for that we all owe the Editor and Translator a debt of gratitude." --Aaron Lansky, president, National Yiddish Book Center, Amherst, Massachusetts

"In these splendid volumes, Emanuel Goldsmith as editor and Barnett Zumoff as translator have combined their enormous talents to create a first-ever anthology of Yiddish literature in America--fiction, poetry, and essays." --Professor Curt Leviant, editor, Masterpieces of Hebrew Literature: Selections from Two Thousand Years of Jewish Creativity "Finally, an anthology of Yiddish poetry, prose, and essays that introduces the English reader to the richness of Yiddish literature in America. This collection includes well-known authors like Sholem Aleichem and I. B. Singer and others like Yoni Fayn, Melekh Ravitsh and Dora Teytlboym largely unknown in English translation. Barnett Zumoff's careful and fluid translations take readers on a literary and cultural odyssey that will educate, surprise, and delight!" --Sheva Zucker, author of Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature & Culture, Vols. 1 and 2; editor of the Yiddish magazine Afn Shvel "An indispensable compendium, filled with treasures reflecting brilliant encounters between Old World and New." --Jeremy Dauber, Professor, Columbia University, Yiddish Studies Department "An important contribution to the field, bringing unknown treasures of Yiddish literature and thought to new readers, and for that we all owe the Editor and Translator a debt of gratitude." --Aaron Lansky, president, National Yiddish Book Center, Amherst, Massachusetts

Between 1870 and 2000, the years covered by the present volume, Yiddish literature blossomed from its modest beginnings into a world literature that is the qualitative equal of any of the world's great literatures. Poetry and prose poured out of dozens of great authors in a way rarely seen in previous literary history. Largely unknown to many readers, a large proportion, perhaps the majority of this Yiddish literature, was written in America rather than Europe. A proper, comprehensive anthology of the American Yiddish literature did not exist until Emanuel S. Goldsmith published, in 1999, his monumental two-volume, 1300-page anthology in the original Yiddish. The current English translation by Barnett Zumoff presents about one-fourth of this material so that the reader who does not know Yiddish can have the pleasure of sampling this great literature. Selections from great authors such as Sholem Aleichem, Moris Rozenfeld, Dovid Edelshtat, Avrom Reyzn, Sholem Ash, Yehoyesh, Ana Margolin, Tsilye Drapkin, Mani Leyb, Moyshe-Leyb Halpern, Kadye Molodovsky, Rokhl Korn, H. Leyvik, Yankev Glatshteyn, Itsik Manger, Reyzl Zhikhlinsky, and Yitskhok Bashevis Zinger (Isaac Bashevis Singer) will delight the reader, and will hopefully stimulate him or her to delve further into the world of Yiddish literature.

Sobibor traces the life of Berek (later Bernard) Schlesinger from his Polish shtetl childhood to his life during the Holocaust hiding in the woods, finding refuge with non-Jews, confinement in Sobibor, escape during the uprising, working with partisans documents. A physician after the war, he follows a relentless, unfulfilled pursuit of retribution for Nazi war criminals through the courts. The Sobibor uprising and its leaders, Alexander Pechersky, are pivotal to the novel. The author, Michael Lev, a product of Soviet Jewish culture, avoids loud rhetoric and heroic pathos, keeping the narration within the limits of realism. A flowing, masterful read.