Yiddish Book Club

The Renner Frankford Public Library is pleased to share that we have been accepted into the Yiddish Book Center’s 2025–26 Public Libraries Program: Between Two Worlds: Exploring Jewish Culture and Religion through Yiddish Literature. Between Two Worlds focuses on engaging people with Yiddish literature and Jewish life, religion, and culture, and fostering vibrant cross-cultural dialogue and discussion in their communities. As part of this program, we will be hosting 4 book club events.

This edition of the Yiddish Book Club will discuss A Jewish Refugee in New York by Kadya Molodowsky. Rivke Zilberg, a 20-year-old Jewish woman, arrives in New York shortly after the Nazi invasion of Poland, her home country. Struggling to learn a new language and cope with a different way of life in the United States, Rivke finds herself keeping a journal about the challenges and opportunities of this new land. In her attempt to find a new life as a Jewish immigrant in the US, Rivke shares the stories of losing her mother to a bombing in Lublin, jilting a fiancé who has made his way to Palestine, and a flirtatious relationship with an American "allrightnik." In this fictionalized journal, author Kadya Molodovsy provides keen insight into the day-to-day activities of the large immigrant Jewish community of New York.

The titles in this book club series are:

Registration is not required for this event, but it will be used to gauge interest in the program.

Presented as part of the Yiddish Book Center's Public Libraries Program, in partnership with the ALA and funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc.