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A Wandering Feast: A Journey Through The Jewish Culture Of Eastern Europe

An original and uplifting view of a world lost, reborn, and rediscovered This is a delightful book that welcomes the reader to a wonderful journey through the Jewish culture of Eastern Europe: the still-vibrant villages and homes, the Yiddish folkways, the toe-tapping Klezmer music, and heart-warming traditional food. Yale Strom documented his journey--organized around fourteen specific visits to authentic villages in Eastern Europe--with a fascinating travelogue that includes inspiring stories, photographs, music that has never been printed, and recipes. He reveals that a culture long feared to be gone forever is still very much alive.

Paperback: 272 pages

Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (October 19, 2004)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 078797188X

ISBN-13: 978-0787971885

Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.7 x 9.3 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #334,078 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #188 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Religious Studies > Judaism #263 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Judaism > Jewish Life #318 in Books > History > World > Religious > Judaism

This remarkable and moving book takes the reader through the heart of central Europe to places few tourists will ever visit. The author, Yale Strom, is seeking old Jewish music. He wants to find and record klezmer tunes and Chasidic Ngunnim. His quest takes him to tiny forgotten villages, ancient schuls, kosher kitchens and kehilum.On his journey, he finds the buildings and streets that bear the imprint of old Jewish communities and he finds unfogettable people. They shelter him, feed him, show him the places that mark the Jewish past. They tell him their proud, heartbreaking stories, full of courage and tragedy and faithfully recorded by the author. Most of all, they play and sing the music he came to hear. He meets Rom people as well and notes with some surprise, the similarities between their music and Jewish music.His gift to us, his readers, is that he brings it all back in this wonderful book. It includes the music itself, recipes for the food he ate, biographies and photographs of the people he met and accounts of his wonderful adventures among these fierce and loving people. There is even a Yiddish glossary and thumbnail histories of Jewish life in various places. The richness of even the remnant of Jewish culture will amaze you.I hope that you will buy this book and share it with friends and family. It provides a glimpse of a wonderful world that is almost gone, but as the author demonstrates, not quite.

I loved reading the author's memoirs about his travels and his experiences and was not overwhelmed by the discussions about music. I knew nothing of Klezmer before I started reading, but that din't matter. I love cooking and so enjoyed being given recipes with their cultural heritage and history. That made cooking them all the more exciting and meaningful. Each recipe I have tried, I will cook again; some have become favorites already. They are very accessible recipes with easy to find ingredients. I am interested in anything related to the Holocaust and parts of the world affected by it but little know to the rest of the world. He gave such an endearing picture of life in these places, I will always rememeber the people and places he shared with me through this memoir.

I love this book and read it at least once a year, just to reacquaint myself with its lovely portrayal of humanity and the resilience of the human spirit. Musician, Yael Strom, travels through the remnants of what were once thriving Jewish communities in Eastern Europe before they were brutally destroyed by the Nazis. The history of each community and the personal accounts by Holocaust survivors are extremely moving and of course harrowing. They challenge the reader to try and comprehend the appalling evil unleashed by Hitler and his minions that led to the destruction of a beautiful, cultured, devout way of life.The book both saddens and delights. Apart from searching for remnants of klezmer music, the traditional Jewish songs of the fiddle, Yael is a committed vegetarian and includes many of the delicious Jewish recipes he enjoyed on his travels. I've tried one or two and they're simple but superb.I would recommend this book to anybody who is interested in Jewish history, but it has universal appeal in its testament to the human spirit.

Yale captures what is lef.t of yiddish eastern european jewish culture, the food and the music and the people and their history I keep this book as as a reference and loan it out, It brings to life a taste of what was lost in the war. Cooked the recipes and and my friend plays the muisic. Wonderful

A wonderful read and great recipes.

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