https://michael-casper.com Michael Casper Tue, 04 Jul 2023 00:13:50 +0000 https://michael-casper.com en https://michael-casper.com/About Tue, 04 Jul 2023 00:13:49 +0000 Michael Casper https://michael-casper.com/About I am an American writer and historian. With Nathaniel Deutsch, I am the coauthor of the award-winning book A Fortress in Brooklyn: Race, Real Estate, and the Making of Hasidic Williamsburg (2021). My writing has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement and other publications.I received a PhD in History from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2019 and I have held postdoctoral fellowships at Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania and Fordham University-New York Public Library. See here for an interview with the Lithuanian news outlet NARA (in&nbsp;English). <img width="1152" height="1536" width_o="1152" height_o="1536" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0c0e8cad8a1ff476736b4a86401a1836745db2651b67bd86189b98e6f2251626/IMG_0978.JPG" data-mid="184335214" border="0" data-scale="60" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0c0e8cad8a1ff476736b4a86401a1836745db2651b67bd86189b98e6f2251626/IMG_0978.JPG" /> https://michael-casper.com/Writing Tue, 04 Jul 2023 00:13:49 +0000 Michael Casper https://michael-casper.com/Writing Some Essays and Reviews On the Bund, Times Literary Supplement, 2026 On Tomas Venclova, Poetry Foundation, 2026 On “The Last Intellectual,”&nbsp;n+1, 2026 On Westbeth, New York Review of Architecture, 2025 On Delmore Schwartz, Dissent, 2024 On Co-op City,&nbsp;New Left Review, 2024 On Harry Smith, The Baffler, 2023 On W.H. Auden in Los Angeles,&nbsp;Times Literary Supplement, 2023 On Jonas Mekas at the Jewish Museum,&nbsp;Jewish Currents, 2022 On Samuel Greenberg,&nbsp;Los Angeles Review of Books, 2021 On Jonas Mekas,&nbsp;New York Review of Books, 2018 Some Scholarship “The Learning of the Jews and the Language of the Germans: Edward Isaacson in Utah and the Hebrew Book of Mormon,”&nbsp;American Jewish History 104:1 (2020): 1-29. “‘Principled Diasporism’: Folkists, Zionists and the Meaning of Doikayt,” Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook 17 (2018) [2020]: 57-85. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<img width="1849" height="1802" width_o="1849" height_o="1802" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e66983a983a261d4291b9453eedbedb788b83aefc8239694c1f3b89f2040a5c2/mssCI_i-CI-4523c-011-20230705-copy.jpg" data-mid="184284683" border="0" data-scale="72" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e66983a983a261d4291b9453eedbedb788b83aefc8239694c1f3b89f2040a5c2/mssCI_i-CI-4523c-011-20230705-copy.jpg" /> https://michael-casper.com/Books Tue, 04 Jul 2023 00:13:50 +0000 Michael Casper https://michael-casper.com/Books <img width="662" height="1000" width_o="662" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/501042285a086648c1f4d704c6a7241f8af59cb3750a15cc3a81347a5d2ccb22/Fortress-paperback.jpg" data-mid="196707570" border="0" data-scale="58" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/662/i/501042285a086648c1f4d704c6a7241f8af59cb3750a15cc3a81347a5d2ccb22/Fortress-paperback.jpg" /> A Fortress in Brooklyn Race, Real Estate, and the Making of Hasidic WilliamsburgYale University Press 2021; paperback 2022 Coauthored with Nathaniel Deutsch, A Fortress in Brooklyn tells the story of how a group of determined Holocaust survivors encountered, shaped and sometimes fiercely opposed the urban processes that transformed their neighborhood, from white flight to gentrification. Winner of a National Jewish Book Award, a Jordan Schnitzer Book Award and the Saul Viener Book Prize. Praise for A Fortress in Brooklyn: “This expert account enlightens.”&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;—Publishers Weekly“[A] meticulously researched study of Hasidic survival in Brooklyn.” &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; —New York Review of Books “Fascinating and colorful.”&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;—Haaretz“A brilliant study.”&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;—The Forward“Groundbreaking.”&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;—Los Angeles Review of Books ׳׳אלעס איז באזירט אויף הונדערטער מקורות און דאקומענטן, אריינגערעכנט פון די היימישע צייטונגען.׳׳ &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;דער וועקער –– &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; “A Fortress in Brooklyn is one of the most creative and iconoclastic works to have been written about Jews in the United States. This book makes you rethink everything you know about American Jewish history and identity.”&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;—Eliyahu Stern, Yale University“Anyone who wants to understand the peculiar dynamic that is contemporary Brooklyn needs to read this book.”&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;—Deborah Dash Moore, author of Jewish New York“Absorbing and well researched, it is a signal contribution to our understanding of Brooklyn in all its richness and complexity.”&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;—Thomas J. Campanella, author of Brooklyn: The Once and Future City &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; <img width="1370" height="2173" width_o="1370" height_o="2173" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bae52bf20e43c8fd3c1e5cec14cb073e5a8941c14882a5ffc36ea22d393d93f3/2025.01.31-Nemirtingasis-apelsinas-virselis.jpg" data-mid="233364973" border="0" data-scale="55" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bae52bf20e43c8fd3c1e5cec14cb073e5a8941c14882a5ffc36ea22d393d93f3/2025.01.31-Nemirtingasis-apelsinas-virselis.jpg" /> Nemirtingasis apelsinasTarpukario Lietuvos jidiš literatūros vertimų antologija Hubris 2025 Coedited with Mantautas Šulskus, this volume – The Undying Orange: An Anthology of Interwar Lithuanian Translations of Yiddish Literature – gathers short stories by classic Yiddish authors and lesser-known local writers that were published in Lithuanian versions in newspapers, books and pamphlets in the 1920s and 1930s. Book design by Jūratė Gačionytė. Praise for Nemirtingasis apelsinas: “Po Holokausto ir sovietų okupacijos lietuviams ir žydams teko naujai ieškoti kelių vieniems kitų link. Ne visi žino, kad tokio dialogo pagrindai buvo padėti tarpukariu. Viena abipusės pažinties forma tapo vertimai. Antologija ,Nemirtingasis apelsinas’ atgaivina tarpukario vertėjų ir knygų sudarytojų pastangas pristatyti žydų literatūrą lietuvių skaitytojui – uždavinys, ir šiandien nepraradęs aktualumo, kaip ir patys knygoje surinkti tekstai.” &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; —Lara Lempertienė, National Library of Lithuania “Ši knyga – dviejų atviros Lietuvos vizija puoselėjančių draugų sukurta laiko kapsulė. Kruopščiai atrinktos istorijos atveria tarpukario Lietuvos žydų pasaulėžiūrą, humorą, vargus ir džiaugsmus, santykį su lietuviais. Buvau sužavėtas to meto žmonių geranoriškumo ir optimizmo. Kaip rašoma viename iš vertimų: ,Niekas taip kelio neskina prie žmonių susiartinimo, kaip pažinimas viens kito.’ Šiuos tekstus skaityti ir saldu, ir rūgštu, it valgyti antologijos pavadinime minimą apelsiną. Jie leidžia pabėgti į realybę, kurioje multikultūrė Lietuva buvo savaime suprantamas dalykas, o jidiš&nbsp; – viena kertinių šalyje vartojamų kalbų. Kartu tai ir labai liūdna knyga, nes ji mums dar kartą primena, ką praradome. Tačiau galime pabandyti nors šiek tiek tai atkurti.” &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; —Karolis Vyšniauskas, journalist