Outwitting History The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books

by Lansky, Aaron

• ISBN13: 9781565125131
• ISBN10: 1565125134
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781565126367
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-09-02
• Publisher: Algonquin Books

Summary

In 1980, a twenty-three-year-old student named Aaron Lansky set out to rescue the world's abandoned Yiddish books before it was too late. Twenty-five years and one and a half million books later, he's still in the midst of a great adventure. Filled with poignant and often laugh-out-loud tales from Lansky's travels across the country as he collected books from older Jewish immigrants-books their own children had no use for- Outwitting History also explores brilliant Yiddish writers and enables us to see how an almost-lost culture is the bridge between the Old World and the future.

Author Biography

Aaron Lansky is the founder and president of the Yiddish Book Center (www.yiddishbookcenter.org) in Amherst, Massachusetts. The recipient of a MacArthur “genius” fellowship, he has helped fuel the renaissance of Jewish literature in this country. He lives with his family in western Massachusetts.
 

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Part One: Learning Yiddish	1	(40)
Out of the Dumpster	3	(6)
Bread and Wine	9	(10)
``Come Back after Yontef!''	19	(10)
``What Is Mendele Doing in a Fruit Basket on the Floor?''	29	(12)
Part Two: On the Road	41	(82)
A Ritual of Cultural Transmission	43	(4)
``Don't You Know That Yiddish Is Dead?''	47	(10)
A Day in the Life	57	(12)
A Brief History of Yiddish Literature	69	(10)
``People Are Dying Today Who Never Died Before''	79	(7)
``Pretty Soon We'll Have a Whole Forest in Israel and No More Members Here''	86	(7)
``Love and Peace''	93	(9)
``Ostroff! Sea Gate!''	102	(16)
The Great Newark Book Heist	118	(5)
Part Three: ``Him I Don't Talk To!''	123	(58)
``You're a Liar!''	125	(15)
``They're Tearing Apart the Library''	140	(10)
A Ghost in the Attic	150	(9)
``If Not Higher''	159	(11)
``Hitler's Fault''	170	(11)
Part Four: Ganvenen dem Grenets---Crossing the Border	181	(78)
Squandered at the Concord	183	(11)
Kaddish	194	(16)
A Job for the Young	210	(9)
The Four Corners of the Earth	219	(22)
Back in the U.S.S.R.	241	(18)
Part Five: Bringing It All Back Home	259	(54)
Der Oylem Redt---The World Takes Notice	261	(16)
A Home of Our Own	277	(12)
Immortality	289	(12)
The Valise at the Bottom of the Sea	301	(12)
Notes	313	(4)
Acknowledgments	317