David Weinberg
Nick Underwood's in-depth analysis effectively captures the vibrancy and vitality of interwar Yiddish Paris. Using hitherto unexamined documents from archives in the United States, Europe, and Israel, as well as contemporaneous newspaper articles and advertisements, the author introduces us to the multiple facets of the rich culture that left-wing east European immigrant Jews developed in a period of significant political, economic, and social challenges. Particularly fascinating is his investigation of Yiddish theater and music, which both coalesced and transformed the community. Underwood argues convincingly that by balancing ideals of French Republicanism and diaspora nationalism in their cultural life, east European Jewish immigrants in the period between the two World Wars had begun to transform the City of Light into a new home for themselves.
Nadia Malinovich
Yiddish Paris provides a rich tapestry of an Eastern European Jewish immigrant world that was both transnational and French-specific. As Underwood deftly illustrates, Yiddish-speaking Jews in interwar Paris participated in journalistic, literary, theatrical and musical endeavors that linked them to their brethren in Eastern Europe and beyond, while simultaneously carving out a place for themselves in French progressive culture of the day.
Jonathan Boyarin
As Nick Underwood writes, "Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants formed a distinct cultural community in [interwar] France." That community was at once deeply Jewish, cosmopolitan, and politically progressive. Yiddish Paris lays out the tense blend of cultural autonomy and political engagement that characterized the dynamic Paris Yiddish sphere in the interwar years. It resurrects a vital moment in the history of twentieth-century Jewish diaspora.
Laura Hobson Faure
In this innovative study of Eastern European Jewish immigrants in interwar France, Underwood explores the cultural endeavors of a population that deserves renewed attention in the historiography. Deepening our knowledge of both French immigration and Jewish life, Yiddish Paris places these Jewish immigrants on a national and transnational stage, showing how these political and cultural actors carved out new spaces for the expression of Yiddish culture in Paris.
Nancy L. Green
I was one of the skeptics. Was there really enough extant material to write a book about Yiddish cultural life in interwar France—Nick Underwood's wonderful book answers this question with a resounding Yes. At the intersection of French and Yiddish life, he has provided us with a fascinating story of interwar Yiddish cultural activists à la française.
