Proletpen

This unique anthology translates for the first time a little-known body of Yiddish poetry by American Yiddish proletarian writers who identified politically and poetically with the American Left from the 1920s to the early 1950s. In his introduction, Dovid Katz explains how a McCarthy-era "American Yiddish Political Correctness" wrote these leftist poets out of the canon. Amelia Glaser and David Weintraub correct this erasure, recovering the work of thirty poets. Proletpen introduces the reader to an untold chapter of American's tumultuous history during the pre- and inter-war period, revealing the depth and power of Yiddish literature through the backdrop of twentieth-century world politics. Published in Association with the Dora Teitelboim Center for Yiddish Culture. #x1C;A window into the lives of a group of socialist writers who spoke passionately about everything from racism to the plight of the worker and the grinding poverty they confronted on a daily basis.#x1D;- Jewish Book Council

    Amelia Glaser, formerly a fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center who received her Ph.D in comparative literature from Stanford University, is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Advanced Judaic Studies.
    David Weintraub is Executive Director of the Dora Teitelboim Center for Yiddish Culture in Coral Gables, Florida. The Center is in the forefront of revitalizing and reenergizing the Yiddish language, helping to reveal the rich Yiddish culture, language, and stories that were once so basic to Jewish life.