You don't need to be Jewish to love Levy's rye bread, nor do you need to read Yiddish to appreciate these wise tales. This engaging collection offers access to modern works--translated for the first time into English--for anyone who appreciates a well-told story rich with timeless wisdom. A year-round book for families. Includes a comprehensive introduction on Yiddish culture. Largely overlooked or forgotten, these hidden treasures from the early and middle twentieth century by some of the most respected Yiddish writers of their time—including Jacob Kreplak, Moyshe Nadir, and Rachel Shabad—remain surprisingly resonant for a contemporary audience. Folktales can be scary, as wrongdoers often get their comeuppance in unsuspected or even macabre ways, but the reinvigoration of values sometimes perceived as quaint makes for a stimulating read. In this collection you’ll meet a king who loves honey so much that instead of ruling over his people, he licks honey all day. You’ll ponder the conundrum of the moon, who longs for a playmate—but where to find a child who isn’t fast asleep at night? You’ll enter a forest in which the king of mushrooms and the queen of ants coexist autonomously but face the same threat: the little hands and trampling feet of children at play. And you’ll learn how flavoring food with the salt from tears can pose a challenging dilemma. "Collected and arranged with the lightest of touches by David Stromberg, this gathering of little-known Yiddish tales enchants with an always-new old-world magic. In the Land of Happy Tears is utterly and actively refreshing, for the wide-eyed child in every grownup and children wising up everywhere." —poet, translator, and MacArthur Prize winner Peter Cole

In the Land of Happy Tears points back to a time that is closer than we think-a shared past that was almost lost but that can still be experienced one story at a time. Whether in the real world of the heder, where boys studied Hebrew and religion, or in fantastical worlds of kings, queens, and forests, these tales reveal the minds of their writers and readers-an inheritance nearly forgotten-offering a chance to enter the world in which these stories were created. In this busy era, when senseless events take up most of our daily attention, this collection gives children and adults alike a chance to dip in and out of a world that is oddly familiar-reminding them of a past that is always about to be forgotten, but that feels somehow so similar to the present. By portraying the images and values of a traditional life that was being upended, these authors created entry points into the past, not only for Jewish children of the time, but for all The stories in this collection come from a world where Jewish life was infused with Yiddish culture. This is not the Yiddish that has come to be depicted or portrayed in popular culture-a kind of nostalgic yearning for a lost authenticity. This is Yiddish as a culture of resilience. Even when they tell of magical realms or treasures buried in the snow, the stories are gritty reflections of real experiences-empowering their readers by increasing their awareness about the world and themselves. The stories are an attempt, by writers who were themselves grasping at straws, to create something for the younger generation, to help with the struggles that perhaps were sensed even if they were not yet known. This feels a lot like our situation today, when we are tasked with equipping the next generation just when we ourselves don't exactly know what to make of our historical moment. Perhaps the best option we have is to make the next generation aware of its own powers.

An unprecedented treasury of Yiddish children’s stories and poems enhanced with original illustrations While there has been a recent boom in Jewish literacy and learning within the US, few resources exist to enable American Jews to experience the rich primary sources of Yiddish culture. Stepping into this void, Miriam Udel has crafted an exquisite collection: Honey on the Page offers a feast of beguiling original translations of stories and poems for children. Arranged thematically—from school days to the holidays—the book takes readers from Jewish holidays and history to folktales and fables, from stories of humanistic ethics to multi-generational family sagas. Featuring many works that are appearing in English for the first time, and written by both prominent and lesser-known authors, this anthology spans the Yiddish-speaking globe—drawing from materials published in Eastern Europe, New York, and Latin America from the 1910s, during the interwar period, and up through the 1970s. With its vast scope, Honey on the Page offers a cornucopia of delights to families, individuals and educators seeking literature that speaks to Jewish children about their religious, cultural, and ethical heritage. Complemented by whimsical, humorous illustrations by Paula Cohen, an acclaimed children’s book illustrator, Udel’s evocative translations of Yiddish stories and poetry will delight young and older readers alike.

The author describes the remarkable similarities among the Jewish diaspora throughout the world -- from those living in Germany a generation after the Holocaust, to those in Argentina, Ireland, and the Ukraine.

This book turns our search for intimacy on its head, suggesting that our way to creativity in love may be through idiocy. The book takes its readers on a journey through the work of Plato and Melanie Klein in theorizing the dynamics of intimacy while exploring some of the paradoxical aspects of love in works by Fyodor Dostoevsky and French filmmaker Catherine Breillat. Revisiting core concepts of how we think about relationships, the book lays out a model for relational breakdown—the idiot lovecycle—in which we are constantly in the flux between seeing ourselves and seeing the other. Effecting close readings of literary, philosophical, and psychoanalytical sources, the book draws on parallels between these fields of inquiry while tracing their shared intellectual genealogy, suggesting that the tension between Narcissus and Cassandra, with its inherent conflicts, is also the space through which love emerges from intimacy.

"These stories follow the author's life in reverse, from Israel in the 1950s to his experiences in the postwar Soviet Union and his childhood in Poland"--