Person

I study texts produced in Yiddish – alanguage created by Jewish immigrants to the German lands some 1,000 years ago– be they a memoir from the 16th century or a poem penned in a ghettoduring the Holocaust. Moving between the disciplines of history and literature,I endeavor to contextualize Yiddish literature vis-à-vis Jewish culture, whichis key to its understanding, in addition to investigating the influence thatGerman and other cultures have often exerted on it.

I currently research:

- the beautiful genre of epic poems composedbetween the 14th and 18th centuries. I am preparing ascientific edition of the 16th-century epic Shmuel-bukh thatretells the biblical books of Samuel (supported by the ISF).

- how the Tanach (Bible) was translated andretold over the years. I am particularly interested in the Binding (Sacrifice)of Isaac.

- how news was transmitted from onecommunity to the other across Europe in the early modern era.

- the poetry of Avraham Sutzkever (1913–2010).