Beautiful as the Moon, Radiant as the Stars: Jewish Women in Yiddish Stories: An Anthology (review)

Beautiful as the Moon contains twenty-three stories by female and male authors who write about Ashkenazi women in the 19^th and 20^th-century (generally pre-war) Europe, Russia, Israel and the U.S., as they struggle to live within and beyond the confines of a sexist and anti-Semitic world. Some accept and assimilate in marriage, or rebel and become freethinkers or midwives with hidden agendas, or use their cunning and wits, their class or other privileges, to survive and thrive. Each story includes a brief bio of the author and each has different translators, providing a unique resonance. While some reviews and publicity for the work have focused on the more "famous" (and male) authors—such as Sholem Aleichem or Issac Bashevis Singer, the delight of the anthology is the range of stories from those authors less known, many who made some of the same audacious creative choices as the protagonists.