Aaron Lansky on the Yiddish Book Center & Preserving Jewish Culture

In this Passover episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts Alisha Searcy of the Center for Strong Public Schools and Eos Foundation’s Andrea Silbert speak with Aaron Lansky, founder of the Yiddish Book Center and author of Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books. Lansky delves into his personal relationship to Yiddish literature and the formative educational experiences that led to him found the Yiddish Book Center in 1980. He explains the history of the Yiddish language, and how many of its words have been integrated into the English vocabulary over the years. Rescuing over one million Yiddish books, Lansky elaborated on why it was so important for him to honor the victims of the Holocaust and by preserving the enduring legacy of Jewish literature. He also reflected on his experience writing Outwitting History sharing how the book is another opportunity to preserve the Yiddish language, books, and memory of those Eastern European Jews who perished due to the tyranny of Nazi Germany. Lansky concluded by reading an excerpt from his book and offering advice on how the following generations can continue to uphold the Yiddish language and culture.