Bibliography

Aleichem, Sholem. Tevye the Dairyman. Translated by Aliza Shevrin. New York: Penguin, 2009. Condition: good.

Anlezark, Daniel. Old Testament Narratives. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011. Condition: good.

Beautiful edition from the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library. Parallel Old English/Modern English excerpts from Genesis, Exodus, Daniel and the non-canonical “Azarias.”

Aynshprukh, Khayim, trans. Der Bris Khadoshe. Baltimore: Der Leybesh un Khaye Lederer Fond, 1959. Condition: good.

One of the stranger pieces in my collection: the New Testament translated into Yiddish. It is a very impressive edition with wonderful prints both decorative and figural.

Babel, Isaak. Erste Hilfe: Sämtliche Erzählungen. Nördlingen: Andere Bibliothek, 1987. Condition: water damaged.

A very pretty edition of Babel’s collected short stories. Unfortunately damaged by an unexpected storm while I was walking around Berlin’s once airport now public park Tempelhof.

Konarmiya – Odesskie Rasskazy – P’esy. Chicago: Russian Language Specialties, 1965. Condition: good.

The Russian originals of some Babel plays and short stories. It is a very weird edition: the cover has English and there is an English introduction. The book was published in Chicago but printed in Germany.

Benjamin, Walter, and Gershom Scholem. Walter Benjamin Gershom Scholem Briefwechsel, 1933-1940. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1980. Condition: some wear.

Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1984. Condition: good.

Brown, Francis, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Massachussetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2017. Condition: good.

Burshtin, Semuel. Der Goldener Triumf. New York: Posy-Shoulson Press, 1939. Condition: good.

An exceptionally beautiful edition marbled green and brownish-purple, resembling a peacock, with gold lettering. Internally: a collection of rather mediocre essays in Yiddish.

Celan, Paul. Ausgewählte Gedichte, Zwei Reden. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1970. Condition: good, but used. It was bought from a library so it is encased in plastic.

Celan’s selected poems with two speeches.

Chazan, Robert. European Jewry and the First Crusade. California: University of California Press, 1996. Condition: good.

Crumb, Robert. The Book of Genesis. New York: Norton, 2009. Condition: good.

Underground comics legend R. Crumb’s illustrated version of Genesis.

Davidson, Benjamin. The Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon. London: Samuel Bagster & Sons, 1970. Condition: good.

Dein Aschenes Haar, Sulamith. Edited by Ulf Diederichs. Cologne: Eugen Diederichs Verlag, 1983. Condition: some wear.

Translation: “Your ashen hair, Sulamith.” The title is a citation from Celan’s Todesfuge.This is an anthology of Jewish short stories (mostly from Yiddish) translated into German.

Feldman, Deborah. Überbitten: Eine Autobiografische Erzählung. Translated by Christian Ruzicska. Munich: Btb Verlag, 2020. Condition: good.

The German version of Deborah Feldman’s “Unorthodox,” the book from which the show was made. A very beautiful glossy white cover with the title printed in red Fraktur.

Fiedler, Leslie A. Fiedler on the Roof. Boston: David R. Godine Publisher, 1991. Condition: good.

Fiks, Yevgeniy. Soviet Moscow’s Yiddish-Gay Dictionary. New York: Cicada Press, 2016. Condition: good.

A strange little work of speculative lexicography.

Finkielkraut, Alain. Der Eingebildete Jude. Translated by Hainer Kober. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1984. Condition: good, some wear.

Translation: “The Conceited Jew.”

Gesenius, Wilhelm. Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar. Edited by E. Kautzsch. Translated by A. E. Cowley. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974. Condition: good.

A very stately red edition. A constant companion, I mostly use it for the extensive conjugation patterns in its appendix.

Glatstein, Jacob. The Glatstein Chronicles. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010. Condition: good.

Gowan, Donald. Eschatology in the Old Testament. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986. Condition: worn.

Gutman, Khayim. Azoy Lakh Ikh. New York: Literarisher Farlag Nyu-York, 1918. Condition: some wear, good considering the age.

One of the very first Yiddish books to ever come into my posession. It is a collection of the author’s (also known by his pen-name Der Lebediker [“the Lively One”]) humorous short fiction. He wrote primarily for the Yiddish paper the Forverts.

Heine, Heinrich. Daytshland: A Vinter Maysele. Chicago: Jonah Lubin, 2020. Condition: rather ratty.

Translation: “Germany: A Winter’s Tale.” I bound this edition myself from the Yiddish Book Center’s scans of Heine’s collected works.

Die Harzreise. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1956. Condition: very worn.

Heines Sämtliche Werke. Vols. 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10. Stuttgart: Gebrüder Kröner, 1885. Condition: some wear.

Heine’s collected works in beautiful, little old green volumes. These were given to me by my high school German teacher.

Hofshteyn, Dovid. Ikh Gloyb. New York: Yiddisher Kultur Farband, 1945. Condition: good.

Translation: “I believe.” Poetry of one of the most important Soviet-Yiddish poets Dovid Hofsheteyn. He would later be killed by Stalin along with the other leaders of Soviet-Yiddish culture in 1952 in “the Night of Murdered Poets.” One of my first Yiddish books and my favorite. A laser cut of one of the poems hangs on my wall.

Kafka, Franz. Das Urteil Und Andere Prosa. Stuttgart: Reclam Verlag, 2013. Condition: some wear.

Translation: “The Judgement and Other Prose.”

Kolatch, Alfred J. Hagadah Shel Pesaḥ. New York: Jonathan David Publishers, 1987. Condition: used, wine stains and the like.

A copy of my family’s haggadah. Beautiful red and black woodcuts. Has seen heavy use in seders these past few nights and for years before.

Kronfeld, Chana. On the Margins of Modernism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Condition: worn.

Liptzin, Solomon. Germany’s Stepchildren. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1961. Condition: some wear.

Lukacs, Georg. The Theory of the Novel. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1971. Condition: good.

Markish, Peretz. Milkhome. New York: Yiddisher Kultur Farband, 1956. Condition: some wear.

Translation: “War.” Markish’s epic Yiddish poem of the second world war. He was killed along with Hofshteyn and the rest in 1952.

Marx, Karl. Das Kapital. Vol. Erster Band. Berlin: Karl Dietz Verlag, 2008. Condition: good.

Early Writings. London: Penguin UK, 2005. Condition: some wear.

Miller, David Neal. Bibliography of Isaac Bashevis Singer, 1924-1949. New York: Peter Lang, 1983. Condition: good.

The earlier bibliography of Bashevis’s work. Though he is the most famous of Yiddish authors, his work was rarely printed in Yiddish outside of newspapers and is thus hard to find. I am working on an online bibliography and portal of his work.

Mimmodenah, Yehudah Aryeh, and Abraham Kahana. Sefer Khayey Yehudah. Monee: PublishYourSefer.com, 2019. Condition: good.

A facsimile edition I ordered printed of Abraham Kahana’s version of Yehuda Aryeh of Modenah’s 17th century Hebrew memoirs.

Perets, Y. L. Khasides. Tel Aviv: Dvir co. ltd., 1952. Condition: some wear.

Translation: “Hasidism.” A work by Y. L. Peretz, one of the “three classics” of Yiddish literature.

Rabinowitz, Sholem. Fun Kasrielevke. New York: Sholem-Aleykhem Folksfond Oysgabe, 1919. Condition: some wear.

Translation: “From Kasrielevke.” Humorous stories by another of the “three classics,” Sholem Aleichem. All I am missing is a work from the third, Mendele Moykher-Sforim. This edition has a signature in it that cannot be real, and yet it always gives me pause...

Saltzman, Roberta. Isaac Bashevis Singer. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2002. Condition: good.

The bibliography of Bashevis’s later work.

Scholem, Gerschom, Leo Strauss, and Silvia Battelli. Letter Dall’esilio Carteggio (1933-1973). Edited by Carlo Altini. Firenze: Giuntina, 2008. Condition: good.

I do not read Italian, but I am a great admirer of Gerschom Scholem and I could not resist this edition.

Sabbatai Ṣevi: The Mystical Messiah 1626-1676. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973. Condition: good.

Zur Kabbala Und Ihrer Symbolik. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2018. Condition: some wear.

I love Suhrkamp’s paperbacks, and this one (“On Kabbalah and its Symbolism”) accompanied me through Berlin the Summer of 2019.

Shulner, Dora. Esther. Chicago: Dora Shulner Bukh Komitet, 1949. Condition: good.

Signed by the author, a figure in the Chciago Yiddish literary scene. We read through some of this at the Uchicago Yiddish reading group.

Singer, Isaac Bashevis. Collected Stories: One Night in Brazil to the Death of Methuselah. Edited by Ilan Stavans. New York: Library of America, 2004. Condition: good.

Spinoza of Market Street and Other Stories. New York: Bard Books, 1974. Condition: quite worn.

The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1982. Condition: good.

Stutchkoff, Nahum. Der Oytser Fun Der Yidisher Shprakh. New York: Edited by Max Weinreich. YIVO, 1950. Condition: some wear.

Translation: “The Treasury of the Yiddish Language.” In my opinion the most impressive lexicographic work ever compiled. I hope one day to digitize it – the secrets that digital analysis could reveal...

Trotsky, Leon. Unzer Revolutsion. Translated by F. Geliebter. New York: Op-Tu-Deyt Poblishing Kompani, 1921. Condition: some wear.

A copy of Trotsky’s works translated into Yiddish. Though Trotsky was a Jew, he only learned Yiddish later in order to dialogue with the Yiddish Labor Bund, a Socialist-Diasporist organization that was quite prominent in the early years of the 20th century.

Weinreich, Uriel. Modern English-Yiddish, Yiddish-English Dictionary. New York: YIVO, 1968. Condition: quite worn.

My first Yiddish dictionary, worn from constant use.

Periodicals

Mikaan V’eylakh. Vols. 1 (2016), 2 (2017). Berlin/Paris: Bibliotheque Medem. Condition: good.

A modern journal of diasporic Hebrew. Beautiful editions. A really fascinating project. I got to talk with the editor-in-chief when I was in Berlin.

Veker. Vols. 15 (2019), 18 (2021). New York. Condition: good.

A contemporary Hasidic Yiddish journal. It is independent from any one group or rabbi, so they are able to cover a wide variety of taboo issues, like the groundless erasure of phtography of women, which was the cover story of volume 15. Volume 18 focuses on the Covid pandemic.

Sammelband

I could not figure out how to cite this properly – please excuse me. This is a Sammelband: six religious Hebrew texts, mostly of a Kabbalistic bent, bound together. Though the binding is broken, I consider this the crown jewel of my collection. Most of the texts were printed in the Russian Empire, excepting the first one (Butsina Dinhora) which was printed in Lemberg (modern day Lviv, Ukraine) in the Austro-Hungarian empire. Those printed in the Russian empire have stamps that certify that they have been approved by the imperial censor.

Condition: very worn, needs rebinding.

Barukh of Medzibezh, Butsina Dinhora. Lemberg, 1884.

Translation: “Candle of the River”

Khayim Ber Betsalel. Egeret Hatiul. Piotrków: Fayvl Belkhatovski, 1883.

Translation: “Letter of the Journey.”

Pirkei Rabbi Eliezer. Warsaw, 1879