Darshanit Dr. Miriam Udel

Darshanit Dr. Miriam Udel is the Judith London Evans Director of the Tam Institute of Jewish Studies at Emory University, where she holds appointments in German Studies and Jewish Studies and teaches Yiddish language, literature, and culture. She holds an BA in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and a PhD in Comparative Literature, both from Harvard University. She graduated from the Kollel in 2019 and coordinates the Vatichtov: She Writes fellowship program at Maharat.

Udel is the author of NEVER BETTER!: THE MODERN JEWISH PICARESQUE (University of Michigan Press), winner of the 2017 National Jewish Book Award in Modern Jewish Thought and Experience. She is the editor and translator of HONEY ON THE PAGE: A TREASURY OF YIDDISH CHILDREN’S LITERATURE (NYU Press, 2020), winner of the Association for Jewish Libraries Reference Award. Her translations have formed the the basis for Theater Emory’s puppet film LABZIK: TALES OF A CLEVER PUP and for a radio play, SOMEWHERE VERY FAR AWAY, by Tales of the Alchemysts Theater. As an NEH Public Scholar, she is completing a study of Yiddish children’s literature as a neglected archive for understanding the transformations of Jewish modernity.