When Nobel Prize-winner Isaac Bashevis Singer died in 1991 aged 87, he was already a canonical American writer. Yet Singer never wrote in English, although he did edit his stories in their English translations. His fame is as a Yiddish writer who kept the language, and the lost world it sprang from, alive in the world of the imagination. For writer Adam Thirlwell, Singer’s fascination is as a master storyteller with a strikingly modernist approach. Extreme, ironic and unsentiment...

David Schneider spoke to Paul Kriwaczek about his engaging and entertaining, though controversial book on the history of the Yiddish-speaking Jews. Why does he describe Yiddish as a civilisation rather than a culture or language? Why does he start his story with the Roman Empire and end it in the 19th century when Yiddish continued to flourish for at least another century? What is the legacy of Yiddish and what its future? A strong challenge to traditional thinking about Yiddish, drawing on t...

Opening with a melange of memoir, twisted folktale and a Yiddish lesson from one of the pioneering figures in the North American storytelling revival, Michael Wex – who believes he would have been the George Formby of Yiddish if he could only sing or play the ukulele… or if he ever made a living from it. It’s like an hour of Hebrew school, with Sidney James as the teacher. Then, after the interval, we were joined by some of the most exciting Jewish talent around as they captu...

A Purim Spiel, with a contemporary twist, bringing a little bit of Persia to Bloomsbury, with a backbeat of Iranian rhythms and all hosted by our favourite modern-day Sheherazade, David Schneider. Unmasking the Book of Esther we revealed the story behind the story of Purim, hatching all-new conspiracy theories and, in the spirit of the festival, blurring boundaries between good and evil, sacred and profane. Bringing the world of inversions, masks and hidden meanings to life was our all-star c...

Put together one of America’s best novelists – the irreverent Russian-born Gary Shteyngart – and the only UK comedian who is an expert in Yiddish – the sparkling David Schneider – and you will get a super-funny, super-sharp conversation about the future of books, media culture, the fall of the American empire and our need for love.

Entirely made up by David Schneider. From a young Israelite shepherd named David pipping the Philistine champion to the gold medal in the slingshot to the modern Jewish domination of synchronised kvetching, here’s the real history of the Olympic Games and the People of the Book AKA “How To Avoid Sport”. Actors and comedians David Schneider, Beverley Klein and Josh Howie presented some of the Jews greatest Olympic triumphs from Talmudic gymnastics (with commentary by Rashi) to 4 x...