Aaron Lansky: Judaism Unbound Episode 203 - Yiddish in America
Aaron Lansky, founder of the Yiddish Book Center and winner of a MacArthur Fellowship (also known as the MacArthur “Genius Grant”), joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about the beginnings of the Yiddish Book Center, along with the role that Yiddish continues to play in American life today. This episode is the first in a series of episodes produced in collaboration with the Yiddish Book Center, as part of its Decade of Discovery initiative, in honor of 40 years since the Yiddish Book Center’s founding. [1]
Image Credit: FindingBabel.com
(0:01 - 14:28): To begin the episode, Aaron Lansky speaks a bit about the origins of the Yiddish Book Center, beginning with his experience as a college student studying European Jews through an anthropological lens. He tells the story of rescuing a few Yiddish books in New Bedford, Massachusetts, which had been on their way to burial, and how that moment helped plant the seed for a larger project that would save Yiddish books from all around the world. [2] He talks about the immense pessimism of many scholars, whose estimates for the total number of recoverable Yiddish books were orders of magnitude too low. He then tells the story of his first book pick-up, in New York City, which featured an apartment-building full of Yiddish speakers and an overloaded truck, and how it helped him begin to recognize the importance of the project he was at the time only just starting.
(14:29 - 31:17): Lansky considers the relationship that Judaism has to books — both to those that are marked as sacred and those that might be seen as more secular. He invokes the framework of written text as a kind of “portable homeland,” [3] and argues that the relationship that many Jews have to books is deeply reverential. He also names the dismissive manner with which many Jews in the mid- to late 20th century treated Yiddish culture as “unwashed” or “shameful” — something to be swept under the rug. Relatedly, he speaks to some of the challenges that the Yiddish Book Center faced in its beginning stages, in the face of those public perceptions. Taking a second to talk about the “big picture,” Lansky argues that Judaism is always in the midst of change, and that no form of Jewish creativity can happen ex nihilo. [4] He also responds to those who see Yiddish as a relic only of the past, and not also a piece of Jewish culture with continuing life and vitality moving forward. [5]
(31:18 - 44:51): Through a story about Sholem Aleichem and his ethical will, Lansky provides some of his thoughts on the issue of translating Yiddish. He considers the ramifications of the fact that fewer than 2% of extant Yiddish books have been translated and explains how the Yiddish Book Center (and its dozens of translators) have committed to increasing that percentage. To emphasize the importance of this project, he alludes to a writer named Blume Lempel, [6] whose Yiddish works were only recently translated, and who many fellow writers regarded as one of the most talented Yiddish writers of the 20th century. To close the episode, Lansky looks at contemporary American political realities, along with how they have potentially served to attract interest in — of all things — Yiddish language and culture.
[1] Learn more about Aaron Lansky by clicking here. Check out the Yiddish Book Center website at www.YiddishBookCenter.org.
[2] For a deep dive into Lansky’s quest to rescue Yiddish books, read his award-winning book, entitled Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued A Million Yiddish Books, which is also available as an extremely enjoyable audiobook.
[3] For more about the “portable homeland” framework, and how it applies to Yiddish culture, see “Finding a Portable Homeland in Yiddish,” a 2018 essay written by Ellen Cassedy (more from her below!).
[4] Lex mentions the work of Vanessa Ochs, whose scholarship on Jewish ritual has been influential for our podcast. Listen to her past appearance on Judaism Unbound by listening to Episode 5: Leviticus - Vanessa Ochs, purchase her book Inventing Jewish Ritual here, and stay tuned for a return appearance in a few months, in which she will talk about the biography of the Passover Haggadah, which is the subject of her newest book.
[6] Learn more about Blume Lempel by reading “The Svive of Blume Lempel,” a transcription of a 2017 talk given by Ellen Cassedy and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub. For a full book to read, which features translations (by Cassedy and Taub) of Lempel’s work, you can purchase Oedipus in Brooklyn and Other Stories.