Jessica Kirzane
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zanykirz.bsky.social
Jessica Kirzane
@zanykirz.bsky.social
Yiddish Studies scholar & translator & language instructor & editor
Nothing says Christmas Sunday like klezmer.
January 28, 2024 at 5:28 PM
My New Year's resolution is to try to do more creative writing in Yiddish. yiddishbranzhe.com/2023/12/31/%...
December 31, 2023 at 7:57 PM
Der Tog, June 9, 1927: In a speech, David Sarnoff, Vice President of the RCA, tells the Chicago Association of Commerce that he believes that soon people will communicate more with pictures than with written words.
December 29, 2023 at 1:30 AM
You haven't lived until you've spent hours asking various programs and departments to sponsor little pieces of your conference travel, and then spent hours processing reimbursements, only to feel utter dread that you've gotten something wrong, as well as embarassment over the cost of your coffees.
December 21, 2023 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by Jessica Kirzane
Some thoughts for the academic recommendation letter season; a poem from the December 2023 issue of Poetry Magazine, by Keith Leonard. #poetry
December 10, 2023 at 4:15 AM
Drop everything and read Jonah Lubin's translation from Mimi Pinzón’s novel Der Hoyf on Fentster, published on the website of the Yiddish Book Center.
Dovid | Yiddish Book Center
A chapter from Mimi Pinzon's novel The Courtyard without Windows, translated by Jonah Lubin.
www.yiddishbookcenter.org
December 7, 2023 at 4:51 AM
Excited to be included in this assortment of stories by students in Boris Sandler's Yiddish prose writing class at The Workers Circle!
מײַסטער־קלאַס פֿון פּראָזע בײַם „אַרבעטער־רינג‟
ווי ס׳איז פֿריִער אַנאָנסירט געוואָרן, ווערן דורכן "זום" דורכגעפֿירט 5 מײַסטער־קלאַסן פֿון ייִדישער פּראָזע, �...
yiddishbranzhe.com
December 1, 2023 at 8:41 PM
I have encountered Helena Frank's translations before (and even taught them!) but I had no idea what a significant founding figure she was! So grateful to learn more about her.
Aharon Varady profiles the first Yiddish-to-English translator, Helena Frank, and translates a tribute by Jacob Glatstein:
"Hele­na Frank was a cham­pi­on of Yid­dish...She lit­er­al­ly intro­duced Rosen­feld, Y.L. Peretz, and oth­er poets and writ­ers... to an Anglo­phone audi­ence."
געשטאַלטן װאָס זוכן תּיקון: העלענאַ פֿראַנק | Figures in Need o...
Aharon Varady profiles the first Yiddish-to-English translator, Helena Frank, drawing on archival sources and the translation of a tribute by Jacob Glatstein.
ingeveb.org
November 30, 2023 at 3:24 PM
What fun to spend time talking about Miriam Karpilove as a guest on the History of Literature Podcast!
567 Your Dream Guest: Jessica Kirzane on Translating Yiddish Literature | My Last Book with Jack Zip...
Your wish is our command! Jacke talks to listener-nominated "dream guest" Dr. Jessica Kirzane about her work with Yiddish literature, including her recen…
www.historyofliterature.com
November 21, 2023 at 2:58 AM
Just wrote a letter of recommendation for a student I care about and believe in so much that even doing the hard and thankless work of writing a letter of recommendation was nothing but pure pride and pleasure.
November 14, 2023 at 5:42 PM
Reposted by Jessica Kirzane
Shachar Pinsker translates Avrom Karpinovitsh's 1951 story פֿאַרגעס נישט / Don't Forget, which, as Pinsker explains, "shows the prox­im­i­ty between the trau­ma of the Holo­caust and the trau­ma of the 1948 War."
פֿאַרגעס נישט | Don't Forget | In geveb
Shachar Pinsker translates a harrowing story of a Jewish Holocaust survivor and Palmach soldier's confrontation with a Palestinian Arab.
ingeveb.org
November 6, 2023 at 5:36 AM
This was the question I was faced with in early October and did not know how to answer. Thanks to all the people I crowdsourced from to gather some possibilities, and especially to Shachar Pinsker (my co-author).
Like many of you, in the midst of our anguish we also found ourselves with the very practical worry of “what will I do in Yiddish class now, of all times?” This is our effort to help to lift at least this small burden.
Resources for Teaching about Israel/Palestine | In geveb
As the war in Israel/Palestine continues to unfold, we aim to support our readers, many of whom are teachers and students of Yiddish, as they look for ways to l
ingeveb.org
October 25, 2023 at 6:01 PM
red, autumn leaves are falling and I'm thinking of this poem again:

"My children, in the slaughter-knife wind 
Red dew drips from the world’s dawn. 
Don’t be uprooted by the slashing wind 
Grow stronger, green brighter!"
"Red Dew" and "Red Dew, Again" | Yiddish Book Center
A poem of courage in the face of violence; and a reprise, eighty years later.
www.yiddishbookcenter.org
October 19, 2023 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by Jessica Kirzane
A new Yiddish poem by Ber Kotlerman, composed on Motsei Simchat Torah 5784, and translated by @zanykirz.bsky.social

ingeveb.org/texts-and-tr...
וְהָיָה הָעולָם | New Creation | In geveb
A new Yiddish poem by Ber Kotlerman, composed on Motsei Simchat Torah 5784, and translated by Jessica Kirzane.
ingeveb.org
October 17, 2023 at 3:40 PM
Had this song on my mind today
Sunday After the War
Provided to YouTube by The Orchard EnterprisesSunday After the War · Daniel Kahn · the Painted BirdLost Causes℗ 2010 Oriente Musik OHGReleased on: 2010-11-16...
youtu.be
October 13, 2023 at 9:58 PM
Who will sing this song woth me? Found in an issue of Oktyaberl magazine. (I am having fun teaching Yiddish students from materials in UChicago's Special Collections this quarter!)
October 6, 2023 at 8:47 PM
"All night parties with 6000 Jews decked out in literary and artistic costumes, the Shnorer Balls must have been wild. One can only imagine the thousands of partiers cosplaying their favorite characters from literature and the arts all at the behest of the Shnorers."

Let's relive this please.
"Dancing: Are you serious? Until 6am."

@eddyportnoy.bsky.social reports on The Shnorer Association, also sometimes known as The Shnorer Club, a Yiddish arts organization which sponsored a variety of cultural events - some rather raucous - from 1915 through around 1925.
Ain’t No Party Like a Shnorer Party: The Wild and Short Life of a Literary Support Group | In geve...
The Shnorer Association, also sometimes known as The Shnorer Club, sponsored a variety of cultural events in New York City from 1915 through around 1925.
ingeveb.org
October 5, 2023 at 3:39 AM
Cleveland, Jan 13, 1918: The Jewish Business Girls Club Dance: The Jewish Business Girls Club Vacation camp in Huron, Ohio will give its third annual dance this evening... Proceeds will go to the improvement of their camp Ms Rose Wasserman is the president of the club, which has over 150 members.
October 4, 2023 at 5:42 PM
Please get me this for Khanike, I am begging
October 4, 2023 at 4:41 PM
Thanks to Mindl Cohen and the Yiddish Book Center, now you can read about A Provincial Newspaper and Other stories on the website of the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative!
#Yiddishlitmonth: “A Provincial Newspaper” and Other Stories
by Jessica Kirzane A Provincial Newspaper and Other StoriesWritten by Miriam KarpiloveTranslated from the Yiddish by Jessica KirzaneSyracuse University PressISBN: 978-0815611585 Purchase this book or ...
glli-us.org
October 4, 2023 at 4:36 PM
I was listening to Supreme: The Battle for Roe (podcast) on my commute this morning. Forgive me for being cheesy, but I absolutely sobbed at the celebratory tone at the end when (spoiler alert) there's a constitutionally protected right to abortion.
October 2, 2023 at 6:36 PM
I hear that the internet loves cats. Here you go.

(source: www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/...)
October 1, 2023 at 1:34 AM
Extraordinary music! And guess what? The cost is surprisingly low - No higher than that of ordinary music.

(spotted in The Sentinel, January 1923)
September 30, 2023 at 9:49 PM
Tomorrow my Yiddish class will go to Special Collections in our library to type on a Yiddish typewriter. I have a great job.
September 28, 2023 at 7:00 PM
Is there something cool happening in *your* corner of Yiddishland? Consider writing about it for the In geveb blog!
Ula Urszula Chowaniec describes how Spanish/Lithuanian artists Adrian Schvarzstein and Jūratė Širvytė-Rukštelė delivered an interactive, dynamic, wordless performance, titled אָנקומען /Arrived/Przybyli in the Kraków Street Theatre Festival this past summer.
אָנקומען /Arrived/Przybyli: Searching for Love and Home in a Street Performance | In geveb
Spanish/Lithuanian artists Adrian Schvarzstein and Jūratė Širvytė-Rukštelė delivered an interactive, dynamic, wordless performance, titled אָנקומען /Arrived/P
ingeveb.org
September 26, 2023 at 3:16 PM