The Book of Schmutz

We sit down with legendary actress Jackie Hoffman, who plays Yenta in the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, and Motl Didner, the Folksbiene’s associate artistic director. Hoffman tells us about learning her lines in Yiddish and her favorite role of all time. Didner teaches us a few key phrases in Yiddish.

We also chat with Australian punk rocker-turned-novelist Bram Presser, who wrote The Book of Dirt, which won the National Jewish Book Award for debut fiction. He tells us about discovering the real story of his Holocaust survivor grandfather’s wartime years, which shapes the book, as well as his Yiddish punk background with the band Yidcore.