The study of modern Jewish cultural production in the United States has focused on the East and West coasts, particularly on New York city. The materials collected here spotlight the Midwest as an interconnected region where Jewish writing and art also flourished in multiple languages, including Yiddish.

Curated by scholars and students of Yiddish at the University of Michigan, this rich archive features translations of Yiddish poetry, prose, journalism, and letters, and reveals the larger histories of Midwestern urban sites such as Detroit, where immigrant communities thrived over the past century.

This project emerged from the 2021 seminar, Jewish Multilingualism in the Midwest: Yiddish Translations of Urban Experience, directed by U-M Professor Maya Barzilai in collaboration with Marina Mayorski and Julian Levinson.

Deitch, Mattes, Editor. Anṭologye Miṭṿesṭ-Mayriṿ, 1932-1933. M. Ceshinsky, 1933. Available online: https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/yiddish-books/spb-nybc205976/deitch-mattes-ben-shalom-antologye-mitvest-mayriv-1932-1933.

Illustration by Mitchell Siporin.