Aaron Lansky was a young graduate student in Montreal in the late 1970s when he had an epiphany that changed the course of his life. He had been taking courses in Yiddish literature at McGill University, but was finding it hard to find the books he needed. At times, he relied on older neighbors in Montreal’s vibrant Jewish community who would welcome the opportunity to chat with a young visitor over a cup of tea or a plate of noodle kugel before surrendering their books. As a result, whole libraries filled with works of writers like Sholem Aleichem, I.L. Peretz and Sholem Asch — as well as science and history texts, translations of classics like Shakespeare and Guy de Maupassant, even cookbooks and sex manuals — were being consigned to dumpsters, attics and cellars.

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Persons: Aaron Lansky, Sholem, I.L, Peretz, Sholem Asch, Shakespeare, Guy de Maupassant Organizations: McGill University Locations: Montreal, United States, Canada