Yiddishlands by David G. Roskies - 9780814350720

Wayne State University Press

YiddishlandsA Memoir\nAuthor(s): David G. Roskies\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Wayne State University Press, United States\nImprint: Wayne State University Press\nISBN-13: 9780814350720, 978-0814350720\nSynopsis\nThis lively and irreverent memoir explores the settings where Yiddisha language of song, rebellion, and eternal longinghas thrived: in the cabaret and caf, the kitchen and classroom, the literary salon and mystical commune, the partisan brigade and on pilgrimage to Poland. Inspired by his mother's recitations of their family saga in his youth, author David Roskies uncovers a tale of survival, intrigue, sacrifice, and divided loyalties that began over 4,000 miles away and two generations ago. A careful reconstruction of the details of his parents' escape from Europe at the outbreak of the Second World War is juxtaposed with his personal odyssey in the postwar center of Yiddish culture that was Montreal. Roskies embarks on a search for other speakers of his mother tongue wit.