Yiddishlands: A Memoir

In his memoir, Yiddishlands, David Roskies explores the settings where Yiddish has thrived, including cabaret and café, kitchen and classroom, literary salon and mystical commune, partisan brigade, and pilgrimage to Poland. He uncovers a tale of survival, intrigue, sacrifice, and divided loyalties that began over 4,000 miles away and two generations ago, and embarks on a search for other speakers of his mother tongue with different stories to tell.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 280 pages
Publication date: 31 October 2023
Publisher: Wayne State University Press

This captivating and unconventional memoir delves into the vibrant environments where Yiddish, a language of song, rebellion, and enduring longing, has flourished: from the cabaret and café to the kitchen and classroom, the literary salon and mystical commune, the partisan brigade, and the pilgrimage to Poland. Fueled by his mother's recitations of their family saga during his youth, author David Roskies unravels a tale of survival, intrigue, sacrifice, and divided loyalties that originated over 4,000 miles away and two generations ago. A meticulous reconstruction of the details of his parents' escape from Europe at the outbreak of the Second World War is juxtaposed with his personal odyssey in the postwar center of Yiddish culture, Montreal. Roskies embarks on a quest to find other speakers of his mother tongue with unique stories to share, leading him on a journey through the tumultuous upheavals of 1960s America, the struggle for Soviet Jewry, the Six-Day War and Yom Kippur War, the fall of the Iron Curtain, and the revival of Jewish life across the globe. Along the way, he encounters renowned Yiddish poets and their widows, Holocaust survivors, artists, actors, scholars, and teachers. Yiddishlands is a must-read for students of the recent Jewish past and the thriving Yiddish present.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780814350720
Edition number: 2 Revised edition