Between Two Worlds: Exploring Jewish Culture and Religion Through Yiddish Literature

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The American Library Association (ALA), in collaboration with the Yiddish Book Center, invites applications for the Public Libraries Program. Libraries in this program will host discussions on the theme Between Two Worlds: Exploring Jewish Culture and Religion Through Yiddish Literature.

Participating libraries will organize a reading group that will discuss three books of Yiddish literature in translation and one book related to a community served by their library. The libraries will receive a collection of Yiddish literature in translation, reading guides to support the discussions, and on-site training for one reading group facilitator at the Yiddish Book Center.

The program will use Yiddish literature to guide community conversations around assimilation, identity, and immigration. The Yiddish Book Center will offer three grants between 2025 and 2027. Additionally, the program will include a traveling exhibition and virtual programming to continue the conversation.

Questions? Contact the ALA Public Programs Office.

This Public Libraries Program theme is made possible thanks to a generous grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc.

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About The Yiddish Book Center

The Yiddish Book Center is a nonprofit organization working to recover, celebrate, and regenerate Yiddish and modern Jewish literature and culture. The million-plus books recovered by the Center since its founding in 1980 represent Jews’ first sustained literary and cultural encounter with the modern world.

Over the past 45 years the Yiddish Book Center has launched a wide range of bibliographic, educational, and cultural programs to share the treasures it has found with the wider world. In 2014, the organization was awarded a National Medal for Museums and Libraries in a White House ceremony. Learn more at yiddishbookcenter.org.