The Stories Jews Tell

With Ruth Wisse

The Golden Chain 08/01/2024

The Golden Chain A hasidic family drama that shows how Peretz conceived of Jewish tradition and its transmission. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754260

The Dybbuk 07/25/2024

The Dybbuk In this renowned play, a young bride is possessed by the spirit of her former lover, putting into conflict the claims of the living and the dead. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754255

In the City of Slaughter 07/18/2024

In the City of Slaughter This challenging poem vents Bialik's frustration at the victims the Jews have allowed themselves to become, and seeks to change the direction of their national fate by pushing them to reclaim their former courage and nerve. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754250

White Challah 07/11/2024

White Challah In this disturbing Yiddish piece, Shapiro shows how anti-Semites are made, provides an indictment against modern civilization, and forces Jews to confront the escalating violence against them. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754245

Kola Street 07/03/2024

Kola Street Asch provides an endorsement of muscular Judaism, ridiculing those who would prevent Jews from standing up to their antagonists. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754240

Between Two Mountains 06/27/2024

Between Two Mountains A neo-hasidic tale that seeks to bridge the major Jewish religious gap of the day, in hopes that it will bring about a united, independent Jewish people on Polish soil. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754235

Devotion Unto Death 06/20/2024

Devotion Unto Death In a modern midrash that turns the Garden of Eden story on its head, I.L. Peretz provides one of his most intricate and extravagant works, one that gives an aspirational view of Jewish life and culture. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754225

The Heart-Stirring Sermon 06/11/2024

The Heart-Stirring Sermon A feel-good tale about a struggling Jewish preacher tries to turn poverty and weakness into Jewish values. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754220

Bontsha the Silent 06/06/2024

Bontsha the Silent A story about a Jewish victim and his heavenly trial. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754215

Monish 05/30/2024

Monish In his first published Yiddish work, I.L. Peretz provides a mock epic poem about its inability to resist Western temptation without a powerful cultural heritage of its own. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754210

My Quarrel with Hersh Rasseyner 10/19/2022

My Quarrel with Hersh Rasseyner The most powerful case against the Western Enlightenment that Jewish literature has ever seen. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754205

Songs of the Megillah 10/12/2022

Songs of the Megillah A beloved Yiddish poet splices modern Poland back into ancient Persia in this fun—but still very serious—rendition of the Purim story. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754200

Women's Songs 10/03/2022

Women's Songs Molodovsky was as melodious as her name, and as these poems show, wonderfully candid, wise, and mature. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754195

Argamak 09/28/2022

Argamak Isaac Babel's autobiographical narrator gains valuable self-knowledge as a Jew in a Cossack regiment. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754190

In the Heart of the Seas 09/19/2022

In the Heart of the Seas A fabled account of the aliyah of a group of Jews that tries shows the actual reality of Zionism. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754185

Chava 09/12/2022

Chava Return to Sholem Aleichem's original character, Tevye the Dairyman, in this, one of the best-known works in the Yiddish repertoire. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754175

Envy; or, Yiddish in America 09/06/2022

Envy; or, Yiddish in America Ozick offers her brilliant and controversial impression of the once-thriving American Yiddish literary scene. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754165

Without Jews 08/30/2022

Without Jews Glatstein makes God responsible—for Jewish survival. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754160

Nerves 08/22/2022

Nerves Delving into the brooding Russian underside of the Second Aliyah. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754155

The Shabbes Goy 08/16/2022

The Shabbes Goy The great Yiddish and Hebrew master I.L. Peretz tells a story about the Rabbi of Chelm that is quite different from the foolstown comedies that we read to our children. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754150

Who Will Remain? 06/14/2022

Who Will Remain? This poem poses the standard post-War question and answers it in an unexpected way. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754145

A Report to an Academy 06/07/2022

A Report to an Academy An ape shows us that he was descended from man rather than the other way around. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754140

The Sermon 05/31/2022

The Sermon An explicitly Zionist sermon complicates the question of how best to make the case for Zionism. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754135

The Story of My Dovecote 05/24/2022

The Story of My Dovecote This coming-of-age story features a boy emerging into a world that is sometimes unfair, cruel, and fatal to Jews. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754125

The Calf 05/17/2022

The Calf This story explores the torments of a boy emerging into puberty in the pre-modern Orthodox Jewish world. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754120

Gimpel the Fool 05/10/2022

Gimpel the Fool This tale of a simple Jew prompts us to reconsider the nature of trust, deceit, and faith. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754115

I Was a Youth 05/03/2022

I Was a Youth An American Yiddish female poet adopts the voice of anti-Semitism from Greco-Roman times. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754105

Dreyfus in Kasrilevke 04/26/2022

Dreyfus in Kasrilevke How did the Dreyfus trial play in the Jewish shtetl? /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754100

Stories 04/19/2022

Stories This Passover-themed story illuminates the attractions and pitfalls of assimilation. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754090

The Clever Man and the Simple Man 04/12/2022

The Clever Man and the Simple Man This hasidic tale inverts the classic Jewish contrast to prove the advantage of the Simple Man. /episode/index/show/915af9d8-e1b6-4910-aad9-680a9ecc4e36/id/36754085

The Stories Jews Tell

TOPICS