#yiddishkeit

I need to learn the language we spoke - we, us, the Jews of my past and my present - before it was an embarrassment or a risk. I need to learn to say "Baruch Asah Adenoy" like my mother would have, like her mother would have, like my great-grandmother undoubtedly said in private when her children and grandchildren weren't listening. I need to find a string, a thread, a connection that ties me to those family members I'll never know. I need... I need to find my way back.

Meet “Avreml the Pickpocket”, written by arguably the most prominent Yiddish bard, folk poet, and songwriter: Moredechai Gebirtig. Most of his songs, including this one, read like entries in a diary—providing a window into daily Jewish life in interwar Poland, and addressing real social issues of the time like crime, poverty, and the collapse of Jewish family life.

She heard about the book bc apparently the translator is a friend of someone on her IT Security Slack, and she figured I'd like it.

And... I do. I very much do. It's a quick read, and it definitely has A Point Of View - which is ofc not surprising, in context of the author's life & beliefs. (Ben Gold was the head of the Furrier's Union in NYC at the time when the union won the first 40-hour, 5-day work week contract in the United States in 1926. This is the contract that started that standard.) It is both a snapshot of life in the Pale of Settlement & in immigrant NYC radical leftist organizing in the early 20th century. As with all books that I really love, this book knows exactly what it is and does that thing 200% without apology.

The translator, Annie Sommer Kaufman, does an excellent job of preserving the feel of Yiddish text. Yiddish has a very lyrical flow to it that's unmistakable once you're accustomed to it, and you'll find it clearly preserved here. (Also, Kaufman appears on the late November episode of the Proste Yiddish/Simple Yiddish podcast, a podcast that allows Yiddish learners to practice listening to spoken Yiddish. If you speak Yiddish or are trying to learn, I definitely recommend at least that episode!)