Collected Writings

Collected Writings by Joseph J. Goodman A Book Found A Life Revealed A Legacy Preserved Enlightening and TouchingLong Lost Book Takes Readers on an Amazing Emotional and Historical Journey In 2008 Leah Hammer found her grandfathers book, CollectedWritings, at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. Gezamelte Shriften, published entirely in Yiddish in 1919, has nowbeen translated into English and presented in this bilingual edition. Collected Writings turned out to be a remarkable collection of poetry,essays and stories, not only about the author, Joseph J. Goodman, butalso about the Canadian Jewish immigrant experience. The editor ofCollected Writings, Harriet Goodman Hoffman, also a granddaughter ofJoseph Goodman, is a professional genealogist. Realizing a treasure hadbeen discovered that would give his descendants an incredible opportunityto know their ancestor, she has researched and written an extensive chronologyabout Goodmans life, a biography of his Russian years, information about people and placesmentioned in the text, the growth of the Canadian Jewish community, and the Yiddish language. Hoffmans work is a model of how to prepare and publish literary works discovered duringgenealogical research. Bilingual edition translatedfor the first time intoEnglish from the original Yiddish. For more than a thousand years, Yiddishwas the language of Ashkenazi Jews. Unlike most languages spoken inparticular areas, Yiddish at the heightof its usage, was spoken by millions ofJews of different nationalities. This side-by-side YiddishEnglishformat of Collected Writings maintainsthe authors intention to preserve theYiddish language. This presentationallows the authors work to be shownas it appeared in the original 1919publication Harriet Goodman Hoffman, JosephGoodmans granddaughter, is aprofessional genealogist. She hasappended an extensive chronology ofJosephs life, biographical informationabout his Russian and young adult years,sections about some of the people andplaces mentioned in the book, and a briefdiscussion about the Yiddish language. Hannah Berliner Fischthal, PhD, is anadjunct Professor of English at St. JohnsUniversity, New York. In addition tohaving published widely about Yiddishand Jewish literature, she serves as aYiddish translator for Jewishgen.org,and is co-Book Review Editor of Studiesin American Jewish Literature (SAJL). Dr. H.B. Fischthal has provided acomprehensive Translators Introductionfor the text. Collected Writings by J. J. Goodman is a remarkable text. Theauthor probably valued his poetrythe mostYet I believe that it isas a Jewish settler in Canada, as anintellectual and a writer, as a reporterof the provinces in the early twentiethcentury, that he reaches his greatestheights Hannah Berliner FischthalFrom Translators Introduction