The Mullica Hill library will host a new book discussion series called Stories of Exile that offers library reading groups three tales from Yiddish literature, with the first on Wednesday, June 14.
The program is sponsored through a partnership between the library and the Yiddish Book Center (YBC), a nonprofit based in Massachusetts whose aim is to celebrate works of Yiddish and Jewish literature and aspects of their culture.
“The YBC’s Stories of Exile reading groups for public libraries include discussion programs to engage teens and adults in thinking about experiences of displacement, migration and diaspora,” said adult services librarian Debbie Drachman.
The series is made possible by a gift from Sharon Karmasin.
Each of the stories is translated from Yiddish to English, and copies of each featured book will be presented to attendees. The first featured title is On the Landing: Stories, by Yenta Mash, with translations by Ellen Cassedy. It features 16 tales that detail the struggles of protagonists to find a place where they can belong.
The other two works for discussion will be In the Land of the Postscript: Short Stories by Chava Rosenfarb, translated by Goldie Morgentaler; and The Glatstein Chronicles, by Jacob Glatstein, edited by Ruth Wisse and translated by Maier Deshell and Norbert Guterman.
The latter follows its characters around the globe as they search for hidden records of people in Jewish Bessarabia, a historical region in Eastern Europe, among other objectives.
“On the Landing opens by inviting us to join a woman making her way through her ruined hometown, recalling the colorful customs of yesteryear, and the night when everything changed,” according to the YBC website.
“We then travel into the Soviet gulag, accompanying women prisoners into the fearsome forests of Siberia,” the site added. “In postwar Soviet Moldova, we see how the Jewish community rebuilds itself. On the move once more, we join refugees struggling to find their place in Israel. Finally, a late-life romance brings a blossoming of joy.”
The other two works in the discussion series will be In the Land of the Postscript: Short Stories by Chava Rosenfarb, translated by Goldie Morgentaler; and The Glatstein Chronicles, by Jacob Glatstein, edited by Ruth Wisse and translated by Maier Deshell and Norbert Guterman.
Dates for those book discussions have yet to be determined.
The June 14 event is free and begins at 2 p.m. Space is limited, so separate registration is required for each attendee. To do so, visit the Gloucester County Library System’s (GCLS) website or call Drachman at (856) 223-6042.
The Mullica Hill Library is a part of the GCLS. Each attendee must register for the event separately.
