Jacob Glatstein

Poetry dominated early Yiddish literature in America, and Jacob Glatstein was perhaps the country's greatest Yiddish poet. In this episode, Professor Wisse examines Glatstein's foreboding, realist, but still inspirational work. Through his poetry, as well as his essays and criticism, Glatstein challenged American Jewry, lamented the commodification of Judaism, excoriated Nazism and Communism, and served as both defendant and prosecutor of God after the Holocaust.