Translation in Pre-Zionist Jewish Literature with Scholar Ken Frieden

Wednesday, July 13th, 2016 | 6:00 pm
YIVO at the Center for Jewish History | 15 West 16th Street • New York, NY 10011

Tickets are $5 (General Admission), Free (Members and Students)
Advance tickets available at: yivo.org/Translation-in-PreZionist-Jewish-Literature

New York, NY - On Wednesday July 13th, noted academic Ken Frieden (Syracuse University) will be appearing at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011) at 6:00pm to talk about the centrality of translation to the emergence of modern Jewish literature. Professor Frieden argues that although the dominant narrative has attributed the revival of Jewish writing to figures like Mendele Moykher Sforim (S.Y. Abramovitsh), translations by earlier writers like Nathan Sternharz, Mendel Lefin, and others were central to the development of Yiddish and Hebrew prose. This lecture will represent a summary Freiden’s new book Travels in Translation.

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Alex Weiser
Director of Public Programs
(212) 294-6152

About YIVO

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide. For nearly a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression. Our public programs and exhibitions, as well as online and on-site courses, extend our outreach to a global community. The YIVO Archives contains 24 million unique items and YIVO’s Library has over 400,000 volumes—the single largest resource for the study of East European Jewish life in the world. yivo.org / yivo.org/the-whole-story

About Ken Frieden

Ken Frieden is the B. G. Rudolph Professor of Judaic Studies at Syracuse University. His most recent publication is Travels in Translation: Sea Tales at the Source of Jewish Fiction (2016). Prior books include Classic Yiddish Fiction (1995) and anthologies of Yiddish literature in translation, such as Tales of Mendele the Book Peddler (1996) and Classic Yiddish Stories (2004). He has been a visiting professor at the universities in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Heidelberg, and the University of California at Davis, and a research fellow at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Free University of Berlin, and Harvard. At Syracuse University Press, Frieden edits (with Harold Bloom) the series on Judaic Traditions in Literature, Music, and Art. He translates from Yiddish and Hebrew and has edited collections by the Israeli authors Etgar Keret (Four Stories) and David Ehrlich (Who Will Die Last: Stories of Life in Israel).