Reviews

אַ נײַער ראָמאַן פֿון עמיל קאַלין באַקענט אונדז מיט אַ מוזע, אַן אַנטיהעלדינע

A new novel by Emil Kalin introduces us to a muse, an anti-hero

Apr 28, 2026

Joseph Butwin’s Salud y Shalom is a long-awaited exploration of the motivations that brought hundreds of Jewish American volunteers to Spain in the late 1930s to fight in the country’s nominally civil war. Through detailed conversations with ten veterans, Butwin elicits fascinating reflections on their experiences and era.

Apr 27, 2026

Balthaser’s book is rich with detail and personal stories, modest, even self-effacing in its presentation, but far-reaching in potential inspiration and implication. I hope the American Jewish left will see itself in the groups that he has ably documented. 

Apr 17, 2026

The anthology Rabbinical Literature in Yiddish and Ladino, edited by Katja Šmid, David M. Bunis, and Chava Turniansky contributes to the ongoing scholarly discussion on the relationship between vernacular and learned literatures in Jewish communities. 

Apr 08, 2026

Sven-Erik Rose devotes tremendous care to the texts he studies, situating them in broader currents of modern European literature and zeroing in on the qualities that make them astonishing and worthy of a much wider readership than they have had. His book will undoubtedly be a boon to scholars and readers of all kinds, from experts in the field to those with little knowledge to teachers looking for ways of incorporating powerful, lesser-known Holocaust texts into their classes.

Apr 07, 2026

The letters collected here document the women’s profound struggles with survivors’ guilt, immigration, and cultural during the postwar years.

Mar 15, 2026

Drawing on his own passion, his background as chronicler of Yiddish song, and his deep research in thousands of newspapers, biographical materials, and many little-known images of disappeared sites and buildings, Sapoznik documents the continuing legacy of Yiddish culture in the American present. 

Mar 09, 2026

Mar 08, 2026

These two new releases stand out as shining achievements of the second wave of the American klezmer revival/revitalization movement.

Feb 06, 2026

Dropkin charts the competing ways of desire—for sex, for a child, for security—that swirled within any woman poised between tradition and modern life in America.

Jan 29, 2026