08/17/2026
"If you want to understand the modern Jewish project of cultural survival, you have to look closely at the stories written for its children. For most of my career, I have worked with Yiddish children’s literature as both a translator and a critical scholar. I see these two practices as deeply intertwined: the painstaking, intimate decisions required of literary translation heighten your consciousness as a critic, allowing you to go back into the primary texts with a kind of attunement that would otherwise be impossible.
Historically, this literature was not just entertainment; it was a highly organized nation-building project. Because Yiddish culture addressed a nation without traditional geographic borders, a sovereign state, or a military to defend them, language and literature became the primary coordinates of its collective identity. Passing this heritage to the next generation through storytelling was a vital, urgent political act."
Professor of German studies and Jewish studies at Emory University, Miriam Udel, PhD ’08, works at the intersection of literary translation, cultural history, and democratic theory.
In a recent interview with Harvard Griffin GSAS, Udel reflects on the power of children’s literature in the modern project of Jewish cultural survival, her passion for language, and a defining lecture delivered after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
SUNY Press
Read more: https://buff.ly/N1zHPKS
