Books

The Canvas and Other Stories by Salomea Perl- December 2019

This seminal book by Ben Yehuda Press, is a unique text presented as a Yiddish-English bilingual book of all of Salomea Perl's published Yiddish stories.

More about Salomea Perl

Questions remain about Salomea Perl’s fate. The publication of the book spurred independent research on Perl, and it was discovered that she did not die in 1916 as reported in Shatski’s Geshikhte fun yidn in varshe. Perl wrote letters to editors of Yiddish newspapers in 1928, placed ads in the Warsaw papers for her translation agency throughout the 1930s, and her name and address is listed in the 1939/1940 Warsaw telephone directory. Perl would have been 70 years old when the Nazi army arrived in Warsaw and given that no certificate of death for her has ever been found, we are forced to assume the worst. Olehasholem, Salomea Perl.

Jews Without Yellow Stars by Hersh Smolar- December 2024

(Available in an English-only or bilingual Yiddish-English editions)

This important translation of Hersh Smolar's Yidn on gele lates ("Jews without Yellow Stars"), released by Ben Yehuda Press in December, presents both literary and historical value. It is released in both a single English-only volume and a bilingual Yiddish-English version. The introduction is written by the well-known historian and Yiddish scholar, Dr. Solon Beinfeld. A review by Dr. Barbara Epstein (The Minsk Ghetto 1941-1943) is on the back cover.

This book is a collection of actual and semi-fictional short stories centered around the Minsk ghetto and the surrounding Naliboki forest (although Smolar [Yiddish: Smoliar] never explicitly names any location). The stories begin with Jews intent on escaping the ghetto, and continues with those who did escape and were able to join up with Soviet partisan groups that would accept Jews--as long as they had weapons. 

I am very excited that both the bilingual and English-only versions also feature the testimony of Smolar's brother, Nosn, who died "a hero's death" in the Warsaw ghetto. The translation is taken directly from the handwritten manuscript that is part of the Ringelblum Archives, and is a rare chance for Yiddish students to work with handwritten material.