Published January 2008

Modern Language Review 103.1

including:

Review of Benjamin Harshav, Barbara Harshav, Sing, Stranger: A Century of American Yiddish Poetry. A Historical Anthology
Jordan Finkin
doi:10.2307/20467765

Published July 2008

Modern Language Review 103.3

including:

Review of Benjamin Harshav, The Polyphony of Jewish Culture
Jordan Finkin
doi:10.2307/20467925

Published April 2010

Yiddish in Weimar Berlin: At the Crossroads of Diaspora Politics and Culture
Edited by Gennady Estraikh and Mikhail Krutikov
Studies In Yiddish 8

including:

‘Like fires in overgrown forests’: Moyshe Kulbak’s Contemporary Berlin Poetics
Jordan Finkin
  • ‘In the 1920s, Yiddish was more than just a lingua franca for East European Jewish émigrés; it was also a language of high culture, as demonstrated by a brilliant new book, Yiddish in Weimar Berlin: At the Crossroads of Diaspora Politics and Culture.’ — Benjamin Ivry, The Arty Semite online
  • ‘To be commended for keeping alive the names, literary output, and civilization of a Yiddish world that is lost forever.’ — Ellen Share, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews February/March 2011, 15
  • ‘There are many interesting articles in this volume. It is clear that in this brief period of flourishing Yiddish cultural activity there is much to disentangle. Berlin is a cultural and political hub in the Weimar period. An influx of multilingual Jews... enter a German Jewish world within a German world. Each of these ‘migrants’ arrives with existing cultural attachments into a war-time/post-war landscape which is signalling all kinds of modernisms. Some Yiddish writers in Berlin acknowledge the city in their literary work, others do not or only minimally. Berlin often emerges later once writers have moved elsewhere and begin to ‘recreate their past’.’ — Helen Beer, Slavonic and East European Review 90.2, April 2012, 332-34 (full text online)

Published March 2011

A Captive of the Dawn: The Life and Work of Peretz Markish (1895-1952)
Edited by Joseph Sherman, Gennady Estraikh, Jordan Finkin and David Shneer
Studies In Yiddish 9

including:

The Lighter Side of Babel: Peretz Markish’s Urban Poetics
Jordan Finkin
  • ‘This volume is not only the best study of Markish’s career available in English — it is the only one. And yet, one could not hope for a better treatment of its worthy subject... Given Markish’s signiicance to the development of Yiddish literature in Poland as well as the Soviet Union, there is no doubt that any scholar of Yiddish will consult these essays frequently and gratefully.’ — Marc Caplan, Slavonic and East European Review 92.2, April 2014, 321-23 (full text online)

Published April 2011

Modern Language Review 106.2

including:

Review of Stephen Paul Miller, Daniel Morris, Radical Poetics and Secular Jewish Culture
Jordan Finkin
doi:10.5699/modelangrevi.106.2.0513

Published June 2012

Translating Sholem Aleichem: History, Politics and Art
Edited by Gennady Estraikh, Jordan Finkin, Kerstin Hoge and Mikhail Krutikov
Studies In Yiddish 10

  • ‘I would highly recommend this volume for a range of readers: those interested in issues of translation generally, those who wish to know more about the life and work of this central Yiddish writer, and those desirous of understanding the complexities of translating Yiddish.’ — Leah Garrett, Modern Language Review 109.1, January 2014, 221-22 (full text online)

Published April 2014

Uncovering the Hidden: The Works and Life of Der Nister
Edited by Gennady Estraikh, Kerstin Hoge and Mikhail Krutikov
Studies In Yiddish 12

including:

Der Nister’s Hebrew Nosegay
Jordan Finkin
  • ‘I’ve often hoped that a collection would come out that would help me grapple with this mysterious individual and his extraordinary yet often enigmatic writings, and so I was pleased to read this excellent new collection... All of the chapters in this book offer important new insights into Der Nister the man and the artist.’ — Leah Garrett, Slavic Review 74.2, Summer 2015, 423-24
  • ‘A very welcome addition to the scarce literature on Soviet Yiddish writer Pinkhas Kahanovitsh (1884–1950)... Fifteen years prior to his arrest, Der Nister wrote that 'history will judge us by our construction work: how our regime was built, on what kind of underlying moral foundations, and in what kind of political and cultural-customary forms it was shaped'. For an author who wished to remain 'hidden' on the sidelines of political life, the wide range of articles exhibited in this collection attest to how the author himself would have wanted his literary 'construction work' to be judged.’ — Naya Lekht, Slavic and East European Journal 59.2, Summer 2015, 325-27