|
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.”
|
