On the Waves of Destiny

Reviews / Votes

"This volume of Lili Berger's translated work brings to life a literary world of pre- and post-World War II Polish Jewry with a particular emphasis on its Polishness. The essays in On the Waves of Destiny are often thick with poignant descriptions of the rich intellectual and social world in which Lili Berger lived and wrote, testifying to an unfinished world of education theory, political thought, and literary talent that was brutally cut short. Readers interested in Polish and Jewish literary, intellectual, and social history will find compelling sources in this book. This volume will fast take its place alongside Anastasia Lyubas's recent volume of Dvora Vogel translations, Blooming Spaces, as an essential work of interwar Polish Yiddish writing in translation." -- Jessica Kirzane, Associate Instructional Professor in Yiddish, University of Chicago "This translation of Lili Berger's writing helps make Yiddish sources accessible and makes a significant contribution to the shift in attention from women writers as primarily poets to women writers working across genres. Berger's writing is well translated and well contextualized through the extensive footnotes, the introduction, the excerpts of critical reviews of Berger, and the bibliography. On the Waves of Destiny is sure to be of interest to academic audiences as well as engaged readers of Yiddish literature in translation, Jewish history and cultural studies, Holocaust literature and primary sources, and those interested in the recovery of women's voices." -- Madeleine Cohen, Academic Director, Yiddish Book Center "This selection of elegant translations introduces the remarkable life and writings of Yiddish novelist, literary critic, and essayist Lili Berger to the English-speaking reader. A Polish Jew who began her career as a teacher, Berger served in the anti-Nazi resistance in France and returned to post-war Poland in the hopes of building a progressive Yiddish culture. But the "anti-Zionist" campaign of 1968 exiled her from her native land. She writes with deep insight and pathos about major figures in Polish Jewish culture and society - many of whom she knew personally - as well as the art and literature they produced. Hers is a voice seldom heard in English expressing not only the pain of her generation of Polish Jews but also the bitter recognition that communist Poland had little desire to remember the foundational contributions that centuries of Jewish life had made to that country." -- Kalman Weiser, Silber Family Professor of Modern Jewish Studies, York University