Arguing with the Storm: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers at the Toronto Jewish Book Fair

Arguing with the Storm: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers (Sumach Press) edited by Rhea Tregebov at the Toronto Jewish Book Fair at the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre (Leah Posluns Theatre). Readings, musical entertainment.

Arguing with the Storm: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers is a stunning collection of fourteen translated stories represents an outstanding contribution to the Yiddish renaissance that has been gaining momentum since the 1980s. The title Arguing with the Storm comes from a poem by Yiddish author Rachel Korn in which the speaker's mother argues with a hailstorm that threatens to lay waste her fields. Although the poem was published before the Second World War, the impending storm can be seen as a metaphor prefiguring the Holocaust and the destruction from which so few were successfully hidden. The mother's defiant argument, however, remains a paradigm of courage and resistance. The prayers and tirades, humour and rage, compassion and wisdom expressed in this collection offer readers a window onto the complexities of the lives portrayed.