Author Aaron Lansky Talk and Book Signing at Medfield HS

Medfield High School, 88r South St, Medfield, MA | Get Directions »
FREE

Editor's note: The following was submitted by Andrea Fiorillo, Medfield Public Library Adult Services Librarian.

As part of Medfield Reads, Aaron Lansky will speak at the Lowell Mason Auditorium of Medfield High School tonight at 7 p.m.

Lansky, recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" Award is the President of the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass. and author of the award-winning book "Outwitting History, the Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books."

When he was a 23-year-old graduate student, Lansky stumbled upon an alarming fact: throughout North America, thousands of Yiddish books – books that had survived Hitler and Stalin – were being discarded and destroyed. As an older generation passed on, more often than not their beloved books were literally thrown in the trash by children and grandchildren unable to read the language. An entire literature was on the verge of extinction. So Lansky issued a public appeal for unwanted Yiddish books. The response was overwhelming.

Initially, it was believed that fewer than 70,000 Yiddish-language books existed. Lansky and a team of young volunteers hauled books from cellars, attics, synagogues, abandoned buildings, and even dumpsters, and recovered that number in six months. Over 30 years and 1.5 million books later, the National Yiddish Book Center is one of the fastest-growing Jewish cultural organizations in the world.

Outwitting History is an inspiring adventure tale told with the exuberance of a man whose passion and persistence created a home for a precious legacy. And it confirms the prediction made by Isaac Bashevis Singer when he accepted the Nobel Prize: “Yiddish has not yet said its last word.”

The community is invited to participate in this unique and special engagement as the man who spearheaded what has been called "the greatest cultural rescue effort in Jewish history" recounts his poignant, intrepid, and often riotous quest to safeguard a vanishing civilization. Park Street Books will be on hand to sell copies of the book to have signed after the presentation.

Adapted from the Massachusetts Center for the Book. Contact Adult Services Librarian Andrea Fiorillo for further information at (508) 359-4544 ext 80022 or afiorillo@minlib.net or visit the Medfield Public Library website, www.medfieldlibrary.org/.