Miriam Hoffman to Be Inducted into the Bronx Jewish Hall of Fame; New Book Out This Month!

Author, scholar, journalist and playwright, Miriam Hoffman, will come to New York this month to be inducted into the Bronx Jewish Hall of Fame, as she launches her newest book, A Breed Apart: Reflections of a Young Refugee.

Hoffman will also be honored on Wednesday, November 29th at The Bronx Museum of the Arts.

Established by the Bronx Jewish Historical Initiative in 2015, the Hall of Fame honors Jewish individuals from the Bronx in recognition of their lifetime achievements. Other 2017 inductees include famed architect Daniel Liebeskind, TV anchor Marvin Scott and Ron Blomberg, MLB's first designated hitter and great Jewish hope of the '70's NY Yankees. For directions and more information, click here.

"In 1949, after four years in the Hindenburg-Kaserne Displaced Persons camp in Ulm, Germany, I emigrated to The Bronx," said Hoffman. "This honor is so meaningful to me, since it's taking place the day before the release of my new book, about our emotional journey as refugees."

On Thursday, November 30th, Yiddishkayt Press (a division of Yiddishkayt Initiative, Inc.) will be hosting the official book launch of Hoffman's newest book A Breed Apart: Reflections of a Young Refugee at PowerHouse Arena in Dumbo, Brooklyn. Hoffman's son, Avi (2016 Inductee), is a multi-talented actor, director, comedian, singer and Jewish cultural activist who, along with Tony Award-nominated director and actress Eleanor Reissa, will be reading selections from Hoffman's book. The evening will also include a discussion, Q&A and book signing. For directions and more information, click here.

A Breed Apart: Reflections of a Young Refugee is an engaging non-fiction tale of war and survival, seen through the eyes of a young Miriam Hoffman and her father. Hoffman's personal tale captures the beauty and importance of keeping the Yiddish language and Jewish culture alive during the twentieth-century, despite countless attempts to destroy it.

Miriam Hoffman, author, scholar and survivor of the Russian gulag and the post-World War II DP camps, has spent her life preserving the Yiddish language and culture that she cherishes so dearly. Her accomplishments in education, arts and literature have impacted both Jews and non-Jews alike. As a child in the post-war DP (Displaced Persons) refugee camp in Ulm, Germany, she brought with her an album of pictures of life in the DP camp as well as keeping a journal of over 80 songs in four different languages - Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian and Polish. The Ulm Album has been shared with the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. She has written over a dozen plays which have won awards and have been produced all over the world. Hoffman recently retired after 25 years as professor of Yiddish Language and Culture at Columbia University. She has published over 2,000 weekly columns in New York's Yiddish Forward Newspaper as a feature writer. Additionally, Miriam has written university textbooks and was the founder of the Joseph Papp Yiddish Theatre with the world-renowned Broadway impresario.