Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man who Rescued a Million Yiddish BooksThe great Yiddish scholar Max Weinreich was delivering a lecture in Finland when the Nazis invaded his native Poland. The lecture saved his life. He made his way to New York, where he opened his doors to new students. Many thought his work was hopelessÑespecialy since half of the world's Yiddish speakers had been killed in the Holocaust. Asked why he persevered, Weinreich answered simply: "Because Yiddish has magic, it will outwit history." And so it hasÑthough in ways few could have imagined. In 1980, a twenty-three-year-old student named Aaron Lanksy set out to rescue the world's abandoned Yiddish books before it was too late. Precious volumes that had survived Hitler and Stalin were being passed down from older generations of Jewish immigrants to their non-Yiddish-speaking childrenÑonly to be thrown away or destroyed. With little more than his own chutzpah, Lansky issued a worldwide appeal for unwanted Yiddish books, and the response was overwhelming. Outwitting History is an adventure tale filled with unforgettable characters and told with the exuberance of a man whose passion led him from house to house, country to country, collecting treasured books and heartfelt, often hilarious stories of the vibrant intellectual world these older Jews inhabited. Lansky and a team of young volunteers crisscrossed America, shlepping books from attics and basements, demolition sites and Dumpsters, while shmoozing with their owners, who insisted on feeding them a little noshÑgefilte fish, kasha, blintzes, latkes, kugelÑbefore handing over, one book at a time, their beloved literary history. When Lansky started out, experts believed that fewer than 70,000 Yiddish-language books still existed. Twenty-five years and 1.5 million books later, the organization Lansky founded, the National Yiddish Book Center, is one of the largest and fastest-growing Jewish cultural groups in the world. As he takes us along on his groundbreaking journey, Lansky explores the roots of the Yiddish language and introduces us to the brilliant Yiddish writersÑfrom Mendele to Sholem Aleichem to I.B. SingerÑwhose lasting cultural relevance is evident on every page. He shares the humor, tenacity, and love for the written word that unites Jewish immigrants with everyone who cares about the future of great literature. And he enables us to see how an almost-lost culture is the bridge between the old world and the future. |
Contents
Out of the Dumpster | 3 |
Bread and Wine | 9 |
Come Back after Yontef | 19 |
What Is Mendele Doing in a Fruit Basket on the Floor? | 29 |
On the Road | 41 |
A Ritual of Cultural Transmission | 43 |
Dont You Know That Yiddish Is Dead? | 47 |
A Day in the Life | 57 |
A Ghost in the Attic | 150 |
If Not Higher | 159 |
Hitlers Fault | 170 |
Ganvenen dem GrenetsCrossing the Border | 181 |
Squandered at the Concord | 183 |
Kaddish | 194 |
A Job for the Young | 210 |
The Four Corners of the Earth | 219 |
A Brief History of Yiddish Literature | 69 |
People Are Dying Today Who Never Died Before | 79 |
Pretty Soon Well Have a Whole Forest in Israel and No More Members Here | 86 |
Love and Peace | 93 |
Ostroff Sea Gate | 102 |
The Great Newark Book Heist | 118 |
Him I Dont Talk To | 123 |
Youre a Liar | 125 |
Theyre Tearing Apart the Library | 140 |
Back in the USSR | 241 |
Bringing It All Back Home | 259 |
Der Oylem RedtThe World Takes Notice | 261 |
A Home of Our Own | 277 |
Immortality | 289 |
The Valise at the Bottom of the Sea | 301 |
Notes | 313 |
Acknowledgments | |
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Common terms and phrases
Aaron Lansky America Amherst apartment arrived asked Avrom basement began Bontsha boxes building called Chava Chone Shmeruk collection dish door Dumpster English explained floor Fran friends Gail hand Hebrew Holocaust hundred I. L. Peretz immigrant Isaac Bashevis Singer Israel Itzik Manger Jewish culture Jewish history Jews Jules Langert language Lansky later Leah learned Lithuania lived looked Marjorie Max Weinreich morning never night opened Ostroff Pesakh pile political published pulled rabbi returned Roger Ruth scholars Sea Gate Shabbos Sharon shlepping Sholem Aleichem Sholem Asch shtetl shul sitting Soviet speak spoke story street synagogue talk teacher tell Tevye thousand titles told took translation truck turned Vilna volumes waiting week Weinreich woman Yiddish Book Center Yiddish culture Yiddish language Yiddish library Yiddish literature Yiddish organizations Yiddish writers Yiddish-speaking Yonia York young zamlers