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YIDDISH STORIES, OLD AND NEW by Irving and Eliezer Greenberg -- Eds. Howe

YIDDISH STORIES, OLD AND NEW

By

Pub Date: Oct. 20th, 1974
Publisher: Holiday House

The warmth and humor of the rich Eastern European Jewish culture, explain the compilers in their brief introduction, have been captured and preserved by a group of Yiddish storytellers, represented here by nine of the best. Each of the fourteen stories is preceded by an introduction of a few sentences -- not especially enlightening -- but which coupled with the glossary of terms and the brief biographies of the writers will help to orient readers. The editors are no strangers to Yiddish literature, having previously compiled adult collections of stories and an anthology of poetry as well as books of criticism. It is thus surprising that the three stories selected to represent as prolific a writer as Isaac Bashevis Singer should come from the same source (Singer's In My Father's Court) -- and one readily available at that. Except for Singer, and, perhaps, Sholem Aleichem, most of the authors represented are not well known in the Children's or YA room. But with such raconteurs as Singer, Aleichem, I.L. Peretz and Itzik Manger telling the stories, what could be bad