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“Her doctoral dissertation, “Black Ashkenaz and the Almost Promised Land: Yiddish Literature and the Harlem Renaissance,” compares the Yiddish-language poetry of Jewish immigrants to America and the poetry of African-American writers between 1915 and
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“An American web mini series that portrays attractive young women as part of a “group of dangerous Indian beauties” is creating ripples in the expatriate Indian community.”
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“The country’s most senior Asian police officer has accused his own force of racial discrimination.”
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“The Supreme Court has essentially declared Indian tribes to be nothing more than glorified country clubs, with their authority “confined to managing tribal land, protect[ing] tribal self-government, and control[ling] internal relations.””
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“I am sick of Republicans pronouncing Barack Obama’s name like it was some sort of cuss word,” Mr. Strabone wrote in a manifesto titled “We Are All Hussein” that he posted on his own blog and on dailykos.com.”
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Anna wrote:
Re: the dissertation on the Harlem Renaissance and Yiddish lit —
There is an excellent new book by Merle Bachman, with a chapter on that same subject, called “Recovering ‘Yiddishland.’” I haven’t read this woman’s thesis, but Bachman also discusses the influence of Black American literature on Yiddish poets (such as their “Yiddish blues lullabies”). I recommend it.
And the new biography of Ralph Ellison claims he spoke Yiddish, while we’re on the subject of Black/Yiddish literatures and their cross-pollinations. . .
Posted 30 Jun 2008 at 7:31 pm ¶
Matt wrote:
Thanks, Anna. I’ll have to get that book sooner or later.
I’ve noticed a real movement toward reclaiming Yiddishkeit (Yiddish culture, which is just one type of Jewish culture, for those unfamiliar). Often it goes back to Black/Yiddish relationships in America (and not to Europe!). I think part of that is that that was a time when our Jewish sense of social justice was most on display. The Yiddish press referred to lynchings as “pogroms” which immediately identified Blacks and Jews as the same side.
Posted 01 Jul 2008 at 8:58 am ¶