Watch Our Dramatic Reading of "My Quarrel with Hersh Rasseyner"

Mosaic and Ruth R. Wisse invite you to a special holiday dramatization of the classic Yiddish story.


Two old classmates meet one another after the Holocaust and resume a quarrel they’ve been waging since their childhood, a debate that dramatizes essential arguments about what God demands of Jews, what Jews demand of God, and what men demand of one another.

In December 2020, Mosaic published the first unabridged English translation of “My Quarrel with Hersh Rasseyner,” a modern Jewish classic by the Yiddish writer Chaim Grade, along with a sparkling interpretive and introductory essay by Ruth R. Wisse.

The fiery text jumps off the page, so to bring you the full drama of Grade’s great quarrel, we’ve put together a staged performance of the story, using Wisse’s new translation as a script, and featuring two incredible actors, Michael Cuomo as Chaim Vilner and Christopher Tocco as Hersh Rasseyner himself.

In the tradition of going to the movies for the winter holidays, we’ve made the performance available for on-demand viewing right here. Just click play below.

More about: Arts & Culture, Chaim Grade, Dramatic Readings, Literature, Mosaic Video Events, My Quarrel with Hersh Rasseyner, Yiddish