By
– November 10, 2011
David Roskies’ Yiddishlands, a memoir of his relationship with his mother, the vivacious and self-dramatizing Masha, reads like a sympathetic Portnoy’s Complaint. Yiddishlands is split between two narratives, David’s and Masha’s, and though they don’t always mesh perfectly, Roskies is a lively storyteller whose generous use of juicy anecdotes keeps the reader engaged.
The format of Yiddishlands is casually chronological, taking as its inspirations Masha’s many songs and stories. The book will be of special interest to anyone interested in Jewish interwar Eastern Europe. Appearances are made by some of the most important modern Yiddish poets and artists including Avrom Sutzkever, Mordecai Gebirtig, and Itzik Manger.
But Yiddishlands is not limited to the evershifting borders of Eastern Europe. Rather, Roskies envisions a continuous, global Yiddish culture, from Eastern Europe to North America to Israel to the FSU. An important modern scholar of Yiddish literature, Roskies, presents himself in the image of his mother, at the center of an enduring, albeit drastically smaller, literary tradition, and challenges us to imagine for ourselves what is the meaning of modern Yiddish culture. CD, CD liner notes, geneology.
The format of Yiddishlands is casually chronological, taking as its inspirations Masha’s many songs and stories. The book will be of special interest to anyone interested in Jewish interwar Eastern Europe. Appearances are made by some of the most important modern Yiddish poets and artists including Avrom Sutzkever, Mordecai Gebirtig, and Itzik Manger.
But Yiddishlands is not limited to the evershifting borders of Eastern Europe. Rather, Roskies envisions a continuous, global Yiddish culture, from Eastern Europe to North America to Israel to the FSU. An important modern scholar of Yiddish literature, Roskies, presents himself in the image of his mother, at the center of an enduring, albeit drastically smaller, literary tradition, and challenges us to imagine for ourselves what is the meaning of modern Yiddish culture. CD, CD liner notes, geneology.
Rokhl Kafrissen is a graduate of two schools named after Jewish Supreme Court justices. She is a practicing attorney in New York City as well as working on her first book: The Myth of the Yiddish Atlantis: Dynamic Yiddishkayt for the New Millenium.
