The National Yiddish Book
Center has identified the “100 Greatest Works of Modern
Jewish Literature” – written in Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian,
German, Spanish, English and other languages. Our plans
are to integrate them into the mainstream of contemporary
Jewish education.
The seven distinguished
judges compiling the list are: Glenda Abramson of Oxford
University; Robert Alter of the University of California
at Berkeley; Hillel Halkin of Zichron Ya-akov, Israel;
Gershon Shaked of Hebrew University in Jerusalem; Kenneth
Turan of The Los Angeles Times; Ilan Stavans of
Amherst College; and Ruth Wisse of Harvard University. The
project coordinator is Dr. Jeremy Dauber, a former Yiddish
Book Center intern, a recent Rhodes Scholar, and assistant
professor of Yiddish at Columbia University.
Deliberations began in
the spring of 2000 and concluded in December 2001. The
Center’s president, Aaron Lansky, describes the results as
“a fascinating, challenging, sometimes surprising list
with books ranging from Mendele to Maus.”
Professor Ruth Wisse, author of The Modern Jewish Canon,
says that the final list reflects “a mighty literature.” |
|
|
Tales of Mendele the Book Peddler (Fishke
der krumer, 1869) (Kitser masoes Binyomin hashlishi, 1878)
S.Y. Abramovitch |
The Nag (Di Kliyatshe, 1873-1909)
S.Y. Abramovitch |
Ash on a Young Man’s Sleeve (1954)
Dannie Abse |
A Guest for the Night (Oreakh nata lalun, 1939)
S.Y. Agnon |
|
A Simple Story (Sipur Pashet, 1935)
S.Y. Agnon |
Only Yesterday (Tmol shilshom, 1945)
S.Y. Agnon |
The Joy of the Poor (Simkhat aniyyim, 1941)
Nathan Alterman |
Selected Poetry
Yehuda Amichai |
|
Pioneers (Pionern, 1904-05)
S. An-ski |
The Dybbuk (Der Dibuk: Tsvishn tsvey veltn, 1911)
S. An-ski |
The Age of Wonders (Tor hapelaot, 1978)
Aharon Appelfeld |
Salvation
(Der tilim-yid, 1934)
Sholem Asch |
|
Collected Stories
Isaac Babel |
The First Day and Other Stories (2001)
Dvora Baron |
The Garden of the Finzi-Contini (Il giardino dei
Finzi-Contini, 1962)
Giorgio Bassani |
Feathers (Notzot, 1979)
Haim Be’er |
|
Herzog (1964)
Saul Bellow |
Mr. Sammler’s Planet (1970)
Saul Bellow |
Selected Stories
Michah Yosef Berdichevsky |
Descent (Opgang, 1920)
David Bergelson |
|
Selected Poems
H.N. Bialik
|
Breakdown and Bereavement (Shekhol vekishalon, 1920)
Joseph Hayyim Brenner
|
The Rise of David Levinsky (1917)
Abraham Cahan |
The Memoirs (1977-1986)
Elias Canetti |
|
Selected Poems and Prose (2000)
Paul Celan
|
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2000)
Michael Chabon |
Belle du Seigneur (1968)
Albert Cohen |
Tales in Praise of the Baal Shem Tov (Shivkhei Ha-Besht,
1814)
Dov Ber of Linitz |
|
|
Whither? (Lean, 1927)
Mordecai Ze’ev Feierberg
|
Jud Süss (1925)
Leon Feuchtwanger |
The Journey (Podroz, 1990)
Ida Fink |
The Diary of A Young Girl
Anne Frank |
|
|
The Williamsburg Trilogy (1961)
Daniel Fuchs
|
The Jewish Gauchos of the Pampas (Los
gauchos judios, 1940)
Alberto Gerchunoff |
The Things We Used to Say (Lessico famigliare, 1963)
Natalia Ginzburg |
Selected Poems
Jacob Glatstein |
|
|
Next To (Etzel, 1913)
Uri Nisan Gnessin
|
The Fragmented Life of Don Jacobo Lerner (1978)
Isaac Goldemberg |
The Yeshiva (Tsemakh Atlas, 1967)
Chaim Grade |
Selected Poetry
Uri Zevi Greenberg |
|
|
See Under: Love (Ayen erekh ahava, 1986)
David Grossman
|
Life and Fate (Zhizn i sudba, 1980)
Vasily Grossman |
The Victory (1969)
Henryk Grynberg |
Selected Poems
Moishe Leib Halpern |
|
|
The Dweller in Gardens (Yoshevet baganim, 1943)
Hayim Hazaz |
Jewish Stories and Hebrew Melodies (1987)
Heinrich Heine |
Heschel’s Kingdom (1999)
Dan Jacobson |
The Castle (Das Schloss, 1926)
Franz Kafka |
|
|
Collected Stories
Franz Kafka
|
The Trial (Der Prozess, 1925)
Franz Kafka |
A Walker in the City (1951)
Alfred Kazin |
Fateless (1975)
Imre Kertesz |
|
|
The Second Scroll (1951)
A.M. Klein
|
Zelmenyaner (1928)
Moyshe Kulbak
|
Hebrew Ballads and Other Poems
(1902-1939)
Else Lasker-Schüler |
The Golem (Der Goylem, 1919)
H. Leivick |
|
|
If This Is a Man (Se questo e un uomo, 1946) [Survival
in Auschwitz]
Primo Levi
|
The Complete Stories (1997)
Bernard Malamud
|
Khumesh Lider and Selected Poems
Itzik Manger
|
Selected Poetry
Peretz Markish |
|
|
The Pillar of Salt (La statue de sel, 1953)
Albert
Memmi
|
Victoria (Viktoryah, 1993)
Sami Michael
|
Death of a Salesman (1949)
Arthur Miller
|
Paper Bridges (2000) Kadya
Molodowsky |
|
|
The Tales (Mayses, 1815)
Nachman of Bratslav
|
The Family
Mashber (Di mishpokhe mashber, 1939; 1943)
Der Nister |
Unto Death
(Ad mavet, 1971)
Amos Oz |
The Pagan Rabbi (1971)
Cynthia Ozick
|
|
|
Selected Poetry (1989)
Dan Pagis [1]
|
Collected Stories (1994)
Grace Paley [2] |
Selected Stories
I.L. Peretz
[3] |
Revealer of Secrets (Megale temirin, 1819)
Joseph Perl
|
|
|
Selected Poems
Rakhel
|
Blood from the Sky (Le sang du ciel, 1961)
Piotr Rawicz
|
Collected Poems (1937)
Isaac Rosenberg
|
Call It Sleep (1934)
Henry Roth
[4] |
|
Leviathan (Der Leviathan, 1940)
Joseph Roth [5] |
The Counterlife (1986)
Philip Roth
|
Patrimony (1991)
Philip Roth
[6] |
The Street of Crocodiles (Sklepy cynamonowe,
1934)
Bruno Schulz |
|
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities (1938)
Delmore
Schwartz |
The
Centaur in the Garden (1980)
Moacyr Scliar
|
Past Continuous (Zikhron Devarim, 1977)
Yaakov Shabtai
|
The
Blue Mountain (Roman rusi, 1988)
Meir Shalev |
|
The Jewish Government and Other Stories (1971)
Lamed Shapiro |
Menakhem-Mendl and Mottel Peyse the Cantor's Son
(Menakhem-Mendl, Mottel Peyse dem khazns, 1909)
Sholem Aleichem |
Tevye the Dairyman (Tevye der milkhiger,
1895-1914)
Sholem Aleichem [7] |
Fables (Mesholim, 1932)
Eliezer Shteynbarg
|
|
The Brothers Ashkenazi (Di brider ashkenazi, 1937)
Israel JOSHUA Singer |
Satan in Goray (Sotn in goray, 1935)
Isaac Bashevis
Singer |
The Collected Stories (1953)
Isaac Bashevis Singer
|
Maus: A Survivor's Tale (1986)
Art Spiegelman
|
|
|
As a Driven Leaf (1939)
Milton Steinberg
[8]
|
The Collected Poems of Abraham Sutzkever
(1991)
Abraham Sutzkever [9] |
Selected Poems
Saul Tchernikhovsky |
The Investigation (Die Ermittlung, 1965)
Peter Weiss |
|
|
Night (1958)
Elie Wiesel
|
Five Seasons (Molkho, 1987)
A.B. Yehoshua |
The Days of Ziklag (Yemei Ziklag, 1958)
S. Yizhar |
Selected Poetry
Natan Zakh |
