Show Notes
In a live conversation at the Yiddish Book Center, award-winning photographer, filmmaker, and author Harvey Wang visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about his work and his recently opened exhibit, "Harvey Wang’s New York."In the early years of his career, in the 1980s, Harvey’s photographic beat was the New York City nightlife scene. Yet a very different facet of the downtown landscape fascinated him. Cycling through the Lower East Side, he’d notice old businesses clearly not long for this world—venerable holdouts from when the neighborhood was an epicenter of Jewish immigration.
Episode 381 October 9, 2024 Amherst, MA"
More from The Shmooze, The Yiddish Book Center's Podcast
Daniella Rabbani joined The Shmooze to talk about her debut album, Klezmerette. Daniella is a New York actor, filmmaker, and Yiddish singer who has been performing in Yiddish for more than twenty years, from NYC’s Town Hall to the State Jewish Theaters in Warsaw and Bucharest. Klezmerette features ten Yiddish standards and was produced by Grammy winner Joanie Leeds and klezmer clarinetist Michael Winograd. Episode 417 October 18, 2026 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, MA
This week on The Shmooze, Sarah Bunin Benor, Ph.D., joins us to talk about her latest project—a book built around the theme of heirlooms. In conversation she speaks about how she is seeking stories about family heirlooms, and she shares how these heirlooms provide a connection to place and language. These stories will be part of a forthcoming book. Sarah founded and directs Hebrew Union College’s Jewish Language Project, which runs the Jewish Language website and the Jewish Language Lexicon and hosts the Heritage Words podcast. All of these efforts intersect in this latest project. Episode 416 September 28, 2026 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, MA
Elissa Bemporad joins The Shmooze to speak about the recently published translation of Rokhl Faygenberg’s The Destruction of Dubova Shtetl. In conversation, Elissa—who edited the work and wrote the book’s introduction—provides context for Faygenberg’s account of a Jewish shtetl’s elimination during the pogroms of the Russian Civil War, 1917–22. In chronicling the shtetl’s demise, Faygenberg provides a firsthand account of a largely forgotten era of history.
Steven Pressman joins The Shmooze to talk about his latest documentary, Dust Bowls Jewish Souls and Another Side of Woody Guthrie. In conversation, we talk about Guthrie’s journey from "the dusty soil of Oklahoma to the lox and bagels along Coney Island's Mermaid Avenue” Dust Bowls and Jewish Souls tells a rich and colorful story not only about Woody Guthrie, but about those who opened up a whole new Jewish world for him. What informed Woody Guthrie - one of America's most famous songwriters and cultural icons. Episode 414 September 2, 2026 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, MA
Author Matthew Goodman talks about his latest book, Paris Undercover, which tells the story of two women’s remarkable courage. Etta Shiber and Kate Bonnefous are the unlikeliest of heroines: two seemingly ordinary women, an American widow and an English divorcée, living quietly together in Paris. Yet during the Nazi occupation, these two friends find themselves unexpectedly plunged into the whirlwind of history. In researching this story, Matthew Goodman uncovered military records and personal testimonies that reveal, for the first time, the shocking truth behind Etta’s memoir and the unexpected, far-reaching consequences of its publication. More than just a story of two women’s remarkable courage, Paris Undercover is a vivid, gripping account of deceit, betrayal, and personal redemption. Episode 413 Yiddish Book Center August 16, 2026 Amherst, MA