The Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry

Chava Turniansky is professor emerita in the Department of Yiddish at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her fields of research include the history of Yiddish literature and Ashkenazi culture, especially in the Early Modern Period. She is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and an Israel Prize Laureate. Her critical edition and Hebrew translation of Glikl’s memoirs was awarded the Bialik Prize in Jewish Studies.

"This edition is also presented with an outstanding and fascinating introduction by Chava Turniansky, professor emerita of Yiddish literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an Israel Prize Laureate. Turniansky also provided the extensive annotations that confirm what Glikl claims about events and people about whom she writes. I cannot recommend this new edition highly enough. Not only is the translation more colorful and accessible to modern readers, but the inclusion of all of Glikl's stories helps one better appreciate the full scope of her literary achievement." - Judy Gruen, "The Life and Times of Glikl bas Leyb: a 17th-Century Woman for the Ages", AISH

“Glikl Hamel’s ‘Memoirs’ open up the life of an early modern Jewish woman in Germany and France in fascinating detail—children, the ups and downs of family fortune, trade, prayer, story-telling and more. Chava Turniansky has brought her immense Yiddish learning to this splendid edition and Sara Friedman’s translation does justice to Glikl’s lively prose. Kudos for this gift to European history.” —Natalie Zemon Davis, University of Toronto, author of “Women on the Margins: Three Seventeenth-Century Lives”

“One of the most riveting literary works of the seventeenth century, Glikl’s “Memoirs” is a unique human document that records Jewish history through the eyes of a learned, astute Jewish woman. This translation of Chava Turniansky’s magisterial edition is an occasion for celebration, as the complete edition has never before been available in its full glory in English.” —Elisheva Carlebach, Salo Wittmayer Baron Professor of Jewish History, Culture and Society, Columbia University

“There is much to reward the reader… (in) Glikl’s extraordinary memoirs.”— Times Literary Supplement

“This vivid translation, richly annotated and accompanied by a masterly introduction, presents the reader for the first time with the complete English version of an extremely rare early-modern ‘ego document’ authored by a Jewish woman. Glikl’s memoirs, comprising detailed accounts of the ups and downs in her life, her keen observations on the lives of others, her worldly preoccupations, her folk wisdom and pietistic ambitions, into all of which she skillfully weaves any number of instructive morality tales, are by now world-famous as a literary gem and a precious historical document, but they have so far been accessible only in heavily edited, abridged recensions and translations into various languages. The present volume is based on Israel-prize-laureate Chava Turniansky’s magisterial edition and Hebrew translation of the Yiddish text, faithfully restored to the full scope of their original form.” —Ada Rapoport-Albert, University College London

"Realizing how much fuller an experience this new book would provide, I rushed to get Glikl Memoirs: 1691-1719, translated by Sara Friedman and published by Brandeis University Press in 2019. This new edition not only includes all of Glikl’s writing, but also a fascinating introduction by Chava Turniansky, professor emerita of Yiddish literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an Israel Prize laureate. Turniansky also provided the extensive annotations that give historical confirmation and context for the events and people Glikl writes about. The new translation is also livelier, providing fuller expression to Glikl’s vibrant personality." —Judy Gruen, Jewish Action Magazine

"This translation of Glikl’s memoirs reads as well as the original. It is based on the Yiddish text, has benefited from Chava Turniansky’s own well-researched translation into modern Hebrew, and can be read along Turniansky’s scholarly edition (Jerusalem 2006). It is preceded by an excellent expert introduction by Turniansky and annotated throughout with succinct footnotes that help illuminate the text and its context. .....This new edition is not only an enjoyable and interesting read; it gives researchers ...an impetus and tool for exploring this extraordinarily rich material." - Marion Aptroot, In Geveb