Yiddish-speaking Israeli soldier shows us what gift he received for Hanukkah
Photo by Yonatan Alman
Yonatan Alman, who’s stationed on Israel’s northern front with Lebanon, recently shared a video clip where he wishes his viewers a happy Hanukkah in Yiddish and shares what gift he received. “Who knew we’d still be here on Hanukkah!” he says with disbelief.
Although there are no subtitles, you’ll probably understand the gist of it, even if you don’t know the language.
This is one of a series of Yiddish videos that Altman has made since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. In one of them, he’s riding in a tank down a dusty road, boldly singing the Hymn of the Partisans, a Yiddish fighting song inspired by the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943. In another, he wishes his viewers “a gitn shabes” — a good Shabbos — while displaying a kugel the army sent over for the Sabbath meal.
To find out more about this unique IDF soldier and his reason for promoting the Yiddish language, read this article.
A message from Forverts editor Rukhl Schaechter
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forverts' 127-year legacy — and its bright future.
In the past, the goal of the Forverts was to Americanize its readers, to encourage them to learn English well and to acculturate to American society. Today, our goal is the reverse: to acquaint readers — especially those with Eastern European roots — with their Jewish cultural heritage, through the Yiddish language, literature, recipes and songs.
Our daily Yiddish content brings you new and creative ways to engage with this vibrant, living language, including Yiddish Wordle, Word of the Day videos, Yiddish cooking demos, new music, poetry and so much more.
— Rukhl Schaechter, Yiddish Editor
