JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
I used to read “Harry Potter” to my son every night. (I do a killer Hagrid.) You may recall that in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (“the Philosophers’ Stone” in the UK) Hagrid takes young Harry to Gringotts Bank, which is run by goblins. JK Rowling describes the first goblin that appears as “a…
The summer before 10th grade, some friends of mine pulled off what I have long thought had to be the most outrageous prank of all time: spoiling the biggest twist in the Harry Potter series for an entire sleepaway camp. It happened at Camp Ramah in Ojai, Calif., on July 18, 2005, two days after…
Less than 48 hours after the Yiddish edition of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” translated by Arun Viswanath, became available for pre-order, the book sold out its first print run of 1,000 copies. (Viswanath is Forverts editor Rukhl Schaechter’s nephew.) For a Yiddish publisher in 2020, that’s a sales number that’s almost magical. A…
Read in Yiddish. When Arun Viswanath, the Yiddish translator of J. K. Rowling’s worldwide bestseller “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” was 12 years old, he suddenly had a revelation that made him feel dejected. Although he’s a grandson of the venerable Yiddish linguist Mordkhe Schaechter, the son of the Yiddish poet Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, and…
Daniel Radcliffe, the 29-year-old star of “Harry Potter,” “Viktor Frankenstein,” and multiple Broadway hits, is one of the wealthiest and best-known actors in the world. Radcliffe is Jewish on his mother’s side and considers his heritage a central part of his identity, though he’s not a person who’s usually associated with being Jewish. Samuel Gershon,…
(JTA) — If you read the “Harry Potter” series in Hebrew you may have noticed a curious Jewish fact: Though Sirius Black isn’t Jewish, the character sings a Hanukkah song in one scene. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hebrew translator Gili Bar Hillel reveals some behind-the-scenes tidbits about her “Harry Potter” translation process. In…
A five-part “Harry Potter” movie spinoff based on a fictional textbook that JK Rowling wrote for charity in 2001 is something nobody asked for. The five-movie series that began with “Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them” in 2016 released a trailer for its follow-up, “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” out November 16, on…
The woman who wrote a seven-book series featuring unforgettable Jewish side-character Anthony Goldstein has taken to Twitter to call out instances of anti-Semitism across the web. JK Rowling, as handy with a click as she is with the quill, took to the web on Monday to post screenshots of anti-Semitism from the internet, focussing on…
Hybrid event in London and online.
Aug 14, 2022
1:30 pm ET ·
Join audiences and participants from across the globe for this live celebration of Yiddish songs, poems, jokes, stories, games, serious and funny - all performed in Yiddish with English translation.
