Tenement Talk: Shanda

“Shanda” is a Yiddish word that translates into English as shame, or disgrace.

Watch a past conversation with Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Ms. Magazine co-founder and author of Shanda: A Memoir of Shame and Secrecy. Pogrebin’s new memoir unearths hidden stories across extended family members and explores how a tenement past influenced how and why secrets were kept and covered up. How did immigration, as well as movement from the working class to middle class, create both opportunities as well as tensions?

Pogrebin is joined by Tenement Museum President Annie Polland in our recreated 1900s tenement apartment to explore stories of religious transgressions, sexual identity, radical politics, and the nature of family secrets.