Category: Uncategorized
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Recognition in Academia
For 18 months since the Aharon Pick memoir was published, I’ve wondered whether it would ever attract any interest from scholars and researchers of the Holocaust. Finally, there has been some: Two journals featured warm reviews of the book, from two very different points of view. One appeared in the “Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism”, and…
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Lithuania slideshow
On Aug 22, 2023 we flew to Dublin, spending three days there before flying on to Vilnius. Over the following 10 days we x-crossed Lithuania, stopping at Kėdainiai, Palanga and Šiauliai before returning to Vilnius Sept. 3 and flying home Sept. 5. A brief highlight slideshow:
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Another book report
UPenn wrote about my journey through its Masters of Liberal Arts program, and how it intersected with the translation of Dr. Aharon Pick’s book. https://omnia.sas.upenn.edu/story/translating-Holocaust-memoir
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Sholem Aleichem’s yortzayt
We’re reaching the yortzayt of Sholem Aleichem (May 13, 1916); and I thought I’d show how translation became a sort of legacy in my family. Below is a letter my grandfather received and passed down. I have the original. Geneve, (Suisse) Rue Dancet, 1 1 July, 1907 Dear Friend Cassel, If the mountain doesn’t come…
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Aharon Pick’s Diary
Here’s what I’ve been up to: As a young man, my grandfather had a friend named Aharon Pick. The two of them collaborated on a project to collect Yiddish folksongs in and around their hometown, Keidan, in Lithuania. My grandfather emigrated to the U.S. in 1904; Aharon Pick went to France, where he graduated from…
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The Information Problem
A friend who works as a public-health researcher was complaining the other day that the various guidelines being issued by state and federal agencies, supposed to tell us all how to behave during the coronavirus pandemic, seemed vague and general. Yes, we grasp the concept of social distancing, means, and the meaning of “stay home”…
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The Joy(?) of Yiddish
Yiddish humor, it’s often said, is about laughing to keep the darkness away. I’m sure I’m not the first to make this connection, which is funny (in the classic Yiddish manner) but requires explanation. (How can a joke be funny if you have to explain it? I don’t know; ask a comedian.) First, you need…
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