Very remarkable Yiddish literature collection. Thanks for the review copy. The stories are inspiring.

a really beautiful collection of Yiddish poems and folk stories illustrated beautifully as well. I love the illusion of the title to the tradition of drizzling honey on the page of new torah students

A wonderfully written and beautifully illustrated book. This treasure would make a precious addition to any classroom library (as well as a beautiful addition to a personal library) I would also use it as a reference book for students to experience folktales.

Those like myself who grew up with the Chelm stories adore them—they focus on an entire village of silly people who nonetheless persevere and celebrate their Judaism. Still, those who study the Chelm stories or the other authentic Jewish folktales quickly notice there’s a short supply. Only a few authors transmitted and translated those stories from Yiddish-speaking Eastern Europe, and so many of our books repeat the same collection of tales. Frustratingly, more is available, free from The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, but almost all remains in Yiddish…until now.


Honey on the Page: A Treasury of Yiddish Children’s Literature brings readers something we’ve rarely experienced—more Jewish stories from a century past. The title, of course, references the Jewish custom of introducing little children to study by having them lick honey from the page and experience sweetness. This book is likewise a taste of the vanished Jewish world—one many modern children have never gotten to explore. The editor, Professor and Rabbi Miriam Udel, did the research and translation herself in order to share the best of the stories in archive.


This large book is perfect for reading aloud. It begins with holiday tales from Shabbat to Lag B’Omer, as are popular to share with today’s kids. Isaac Bashevis Singer fans will quickly fall into familiar patterns: magic and moral tales blend smoothly, offering readers sweet new Jewish fairytales of rabbis and princesses. After holidays, there’s a massive folklore section with some stories from everyone’s favorite fictional place: the silly town of Chelm. There are also fables, including the delightful rhyming “The Horse and the Monkeys” by Der Tunkeler, a popular cartoonist. Charmingly, Ida Maze contributed a ballad on “Where Stories Come From.” Authors hail from everywhere, from South America to Israel, with plenty of writing from Europe and the United States. There are animal stories, silly stories, and serious ones, all standing out for their moral teachings and the Jewish culture they embody.


Some of the stories focus on education with metafictional fun like “The Alphabet Gets Angry” by Moyshe Shifris. Others are particularly deep, as a tale of sprouting children, “Children of the Field” by Levin Kipnis, becomes a diaspora and assimilation metaphor. Similarly, “The Girl in the Mailbox” is a light story but hints at the confusion of children evacuated to distant lands ahead of the Nazis. “Boots and the Bath Squad” mixes a “Cat in the Hat” type story with the reality of life in the USSR as Soviet agents arrive to bathe a particularly dirty child in a rhyming poem. A historical fiction section also appears with tales of the Gur Aryeh, Judah Abravanel, and the Jews of Spain and Frankfurt. The collection is curated for children, but as with nursery rhymes, the stories offer vague hints of a dark past. As such, they could be used as gateways for teaching about history.

There’s also an insightful introduction by fairytale scholar Jack Zipes and lengthy biographies on the original authors, some of whom have other available works in English. It’s a delightful taste of a vanished world, and more fascinatingly, it’s a collection of stories never available before in English.

https://bookishlyjewish.com/?p=240

I picked this volume out of curiosity. I love fairytales, being a graduate in cultural studies, their symbolism and reflection of a time and society is not lost on me. I think they are wonderful reflection of humanity and it’s moral codes. And knowing nothing about Yiddish tales I obviously wanted to dig. I have no religion but love philosophy and reflections on human desires and happiness. As my children are growing and understanding more and more at 2 and 5 I am starting to read more complex tales to them, I make it a point to read them stories from everywhere. This volume is a remarkable work of historical research and I greatly appreciated it. There was a lot more to reflect on than I thought and it made for a fascinating read even for an adult.

What a delightful book! Definitely would make a great gift, and a collection of stories to read together and save for years. Some of these stories were new to me, but many I had seen before. The introductions add context and the illustrations are magical (though I wish there were more of them) I read a few of these to my kids. I love the title, a reference to a custom of putting honey on a page with the hebrew letters to make a child's first introduction to reading a sweet experience.

I was excited to receive this as I love fairy tales and children's literature and folk tales from other countries and beliefs [I find them to be so interesting and educational - it is so important to learn about the world around us and their cultures and where their stories come from] and I know very little about the Jewish culture, especially stories that were told only in Yiddish.

Unfortunately, this one didn't really work for me. One, I was expecting illustrations [and I am not sure why as there is no illustrator mentioned - I think the cover was just so gorgeous that I assumed. Sigh] and there were not. Second, if I was of Jewish descent, currently Jewish or a scholar of Judaism, this would be perfect as it goes into great detail about the origins of Yiddish literature and the origins of each author and how and when they wrote the story all before the story even gets started. And then I believe that some of the magic that would be in these stories is lost in the translation as that sometimes happens; I didn't find all of them to be fully fleshed out in the sense that the some of them felt incomplete [to me].

That all said, I am sure people are wondering at the 4 star rating then. Well, I do recognize the importance of this piece of literature and the work that must have gone into writing and translating it. And just because it didn't work for me, doesn't mean it will not work for someone else [a friend of mine [who is an English professor and teaches World Lit regularly] read it as well, and she loved it] and I do believe that scholars and people who are seeking the stories of their ancestors [and people who are just learning about their Jewish heritage] will love this, both for the stories and the background on each of them. While I am not sure this will work for families of young children [because of all the above said detail], if they do get it, they can pick and choose what they decide to read to their children and as they grow explore it more deeply. I think that those of the Jewish faith will recognize the need for this and will enjoy it for what it is. and scholars will love it for the depth it goes into.

Thank you to NetGalley and NYU Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A fascinating collection with some truly magical entries. In her translation, Udel does a fine job of maintaining the distinct voices of the different authors.

While the work is highly informative, all of the contextual information, both at the beginning of the book and in the introductions to each selection, makes it feel more like a study piece than a collection that targets children and their families.

The audience and purpose of the work seem somewhat muddled; nevertheless, there is much of worth here for scholars, teachers, parents, and children. This is a volume that will be returned to again and again.

Thank you to New York University Press and NetGalley for a Advance Review copy in exchange for an honest review.

An important, lovely, and very readable book that would make a nice holiday gift for a Jewish family.

Wow! A lovely compilation of Yiddish children's stories, all tied together with gorgeous illustrations. Nice to have all of these stories in one manuscript.