In the early 1990s, after writing for most of his life in Yiddish, his mother tongue, Jacob Rosenberg decided to switch to English. The period of extraordinary creativity that followed was cut short only by his death in 2008, at the age of 86. During those fifteen-odd years, Rosenberg wrote and published three collections of poetry, a book of short stories, a novel, and two prize-winning memoirs that chart his journey from youth in the Lodz ghetto, through the nightmare of the Holocaust and the loss of his entire family, to the rebuilding of a future in Australia.
Singing for All He's Worth brings together twelve men and women from Australian literary and intellectual life who knew Jacob Rosenberg and offer their responses to his writings. It is a colourful and moving collection, each contributor illuminating different facets of Rosenberg's remarkable mind and personality.
As Raimond Gaita points out in his foreword: "All the contributors to this volume were his friends. All esteemed him as a man and as a writer. Many loved him. The love and the esteem are warmly evident in the essays.
Singing for All He's Worth will enrich the experience of those already familiar with Rosenberg's work, while helping to introduce him to a new community of readers.