In the Land of Happy Tears: Yiddish Tales for Modern Times
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Book Launch
Admission: Free |
Join YIVO for the release of a new collection of Yiddish tales—In the Land of Happy Tears: Yiddish Tales for Modern Times—edited by writer, translator, and literary scholar David Stromberg.
The collection points back to a time that is closer than we think. The realities that led Jews to immigrate to the United States, no less than the atrocities that annihilated most of those who remained in Europe, have become part of the collective history that makes Americans—and the English language—what they are today. But some of the powerful aspects of Yiddish storytelling have been muffled during its adaptation into American culture, which focused on the humorous elements of Yiddish culture and language. The stories in this collection, which are as vital now as they were a hundred years ago, give voice to the broader spirit of Yiddish, helping young people become aware of something they are often made to forget: their own powers. Whether in the real world of the kheyder (literally “room”), where boys studied Hebrew and religion from an early age, or in fantastical worlds of kings, queens, and forest animals, the tales reflect the mind-set of their writers and readers, with a culture of resilience that exemplified the powers of Yiddish. The collection puts flesh onto the Jewish imagination of Eastern Europe—which America inherited and nearly forgot—offering a chance to experience the world in which these stories were created: a shared past that was almost lost but can be experienced one story at a time.
The evening—hosted by Debra Caplan, a scholar of Yiddish theater and one of the collection's translators—will feature readings from the tales and a discussion of the collection's genesis and translation process.
About the Speakers
David Stromberg is a writer, translator, and literary scholar. His translations have appeared in the New Yorker and Asymptote, and his fiction in Ambit, Chicago Literati, and the East Bay Review. He is author of four collections of single-panel cartoons, including BADDIES (Melville House), and a critical study, Narrative Faith (U Del Press). He is based in Jerusalem and teaches literature at Shalem College.
Debra Caplan is an Assistant Professor of Theater at Baruch College, City University of New York, focusing on Yiddish theater and drama, theatrical travel, artistic networks, and immigrant theater. She has published widely on the theatrical arts, and her book, Yiddish Empire: The Vilna Troupe, Jewish Theater, and the Art of Itinerancy, was published by University of Michigan Press in 2018.