Proletpen: America's Rebel Yiddish Poets, Edited by Amelia Glaser and David Weintraub, Translated by Amelia Glaser

Bilingual Yiddish/English text

Staff Pick: David Mazower, Yiddish Book Center bibliographer and editorial director

Yiddish writers in America wrote extensively about racial discrimination and civil rights. This groundbreaking anthology translates for the first time a little-known body of poetry by American Yiddish authors on the left from the 1920s to the early 1950s. The themes range from the Scottsboro trial and civil rights protests to the Spanish civil war and the McCarthy years. It includes a superb introduction by Dovid Katz, biographies of all the featured poets, and a fine selection of photos and artwork. It's never been more relevant.

Paperback book 2005