Honolulu, HI – (Release Date TBD) – In 2008 Leah Hammer found her grandfather’s book, Collected Writings, at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. Gezamelte Shriften, published entirely in Yiddish in 1919, has now been translated into English and presented in this bilingual edition. Collected Writings turned out to be a remarkable collection of poetry, essays and stories, not only about the author, Joseph J. Goodman, but also about the Canadian Jewish immigrant experience. The editor of Collected Writings, Harriet Goodman Hoffman, also a granddaughter of Joseph Goodman, is a professional genealogist. Realizing a treasure had been discovered, that would give his descendants an incredible opportunity to know their ancestor, she has researched and written an extensive bio-chronology about Goodman’s life, a biography of his Russian years, information about people and places mentioned in the text, the growth of the Canadian Jewish community, and the Yiddish language. Hoffman’s work is a model of how to prepare and publish literary works discovered during genealogical research.
JOSEPH J. GOODMAN wrote poems about love and heartbreak, stories telling of the difficulties of life, essays about the Canadian prairies and reflections about how life should be lived. Raised in a Russian shtetl, Goodman immigrated to the United States in the late 19th century and settled in the prairie provinces of Canada at the beginning of the 20th century. He was able to converse with the Slavic immigrants who were important to the construction of the transcontinental railroads and was appointed Naturalization Commissioner for Western Canada. He traveled widely and wrote for both English and Yiddish newspapers. Sensitive to the difficulties of immigrants, he describes the struggles of pioneering Jewish settlers in Canadian prairie homesteads and towns. The range of feelings and observations in Collected Writings reveals Goodman’s keen eye for life as he laments cultural changes and social inequalities. Joseph Goodman was also dedicated to Jewish people and the Zionist cause and became one of the best known and admired Jews in Western Canada. Joseph Goodman’s Collected Writings is both an historical document and a personal testament.
“It’s always gratifying when lost works of literature are rediscovered, translated, annotated, and made accessible to new generations. This book gives voice to a remarkable person at a remarkable time and place, and goes a long way toward furthering our understanding of both Jewish and Canadian history.”
—Aaron Lansky
President, Yiddish Book Center
Author of Outwitting History
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Collected Writings * by Joseph Goodman
A Translation From Yiddish To English
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