The Prince of Whitechapel: A Story of Exile and Survival
This is the story of Yiddish. It is also the story of a penniless, rakishly charming poet last seen wandering the streets of Whitechapel, and a historian on a quest to follow him to the ends of a rapidly vanishing world.
As a child, acclaimed author Rachel Lichtenstein heard stories of the émigré Polish poet from her grandparents. They had been regular members of his iconic Yiddish literary society, begun in East London in the Blitz, attending every Saturday afternoon for years.
When as an adult Lichtenstein began to dig deeper, she realised that her family’s past was part of a much larger and more astonishing story, of the survival of Yiddish against seemingly impossible odds. Yiddish speakers defied the devastations of the twentieth century simply by speaking insistently in their mother tongue, over books and food, in cafés and cabarets, kosher luncheon clubs, Lyons tea shops and literary societies, like her grandparents and their elusive friend.
Travelling from the East End across Europe to New York, from long-shuttered synagogues to suburban retirement homes and emptied villages, Lichtenstein excavates the vibrant Yiddish-speaking worlds her family and this poet once inhabited and the haunting absences that continue to resound within those places. But she also finds a new community of her own, redefining Jewish life and language for a new generation.
This is a story of exile and survival, erasure and recovery, displacement and return. It is an elegy to lost Jewish worlds, and a tribute to the resilience of a people and their language.
Original: $16.99
-70%$16.99
$5.10More Images
The Prince of Whitechapel: A Story of Exile and Survival
This is the story of Yiddish. It is also the story of a penniless, rakishly charming poet last seen wandering the streets of Whitechapel, and a historian on a quest to follow him to the ends of a rapidly vanishing world.
As a child, acclaimed author Rachel Lichtenstein heard stories of the émigré Polish poet from her grandparents. They had been regular members of his iconic Yiddish literary society, begun in East London in the Blitz, attending every Saturday afternoon for years.
When as an adult Lichtenstein began to dig deeper, she realised that her family’s past was part of a much larger and more astonishing story, of the survival of Yiddish against seemingly impossible odds. Yiddish speakers defied the devastations of the twentieth century simply by speaking insistently in their mother tongue, over books and food, in cafés and cabarets, kosher luncheon clubs, Lyons tea shops and literary societies, like her grandparents and their elusive friend.
Travelling from the East End across Europe to New York, from long-shuttered synagogues to suburban retirement homes and emptied villages, Lichtenstein excavates the vibrant Yiddish-speaking worlds her family and this poet once inhabited and the haunting absences that continue to resound within those places. But she also finds a new community of her own, redefining Jewish life and language for a new generation.
This is a story of exile and survival, erasure and recovery, displacement and return. It is an elegy to lost Jewish worlds, and a tribute to the resilience of a people and their language.
Product Information
Product Information
Shipping & Returns
Shipping & Returns
Description
This is the story of Yiddish. It is also the story of a penniless, rakishly charming poet last seen wandering the streets of Whitechapel, and a historian on a quest to follow him to the ends of a rapidly vanishing world.
As a child, acclaimed author Rachel Lichtenstein heard stories of the émigré Polish poet from her grandparents. They had been regular members of his iconic Yiddish literary society, begun in East London in the Blitz, attending every Saturday afternoon for years.
When as an adult Lichtenstein began to dig deeper, she realised that her family’s past was part of a much larger and more astonishing story, of the survival of Yiddish against seemingly impossible odds. Yiddish speakers defied the devastations of the twentieth century simply by speaking insistently in their mother tongue, over books and food, in cafés and cabarets, kosher luncheon clubs, Lyons tea shops and literary societies, like her grandparents and their elusive friend.
Travelling from the East End across Europe to New York, from long-shuttered synagogues to suburban retirement homes and emptied villages, Lichtenstein excavates the vibrant Yiddish-speaking worlds her family and this poet once inhabited and the haunting absences that continue to resound within those places. But she also finds a new community of her own, redefining Jewish life and language for a new generation.
This is a story of exile and survival, erasure and recovery, displacement and return. It is an elegy to lost Jewish worlds, and a tribute to the resilience of a people and their language.