Why is Ken Burns so negative about Yiddish?
The “Yiddish is dying” claim reduces its speakers to “nonpersons” without a place in the popular discourse
Isaac Bashevis Singer
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Culture How Isaac Bashevis Singer’s translator edits without editing
David Stromberg, the Yiddishist behind a new collection of the Nobel Prize winner's essays for the Forward, talks about the challenges of bringing his work to a modern audience
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Yiddish World I.B. Singer’s many newspaper articles are now available in English
In his nonfiction work, Singer often portrayed himself as the sole guardian of the annihilated world of Polish Jewry
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Culture Once upon a time, eager acolytes thought their false Messiah could make their country great again — sound familiar?
On the strange but insistent parallels between Sabbatai Sevi of Smyrna and Donald Trump of Queens
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Yiddish World Yiddish literature scholar David Roskies’ extraordinary archive now accessible online
The collection includes studies on classic writers of Yiddish literature, teaching notes and irreplaceable memoirs
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Culture Isaac Bashevis Singer’s return to Ellis Island, in never-before-seen photos
The day Isaac Bashevis Singer returned to Ellis Island was “a beautiful, cold day,” said the photographer Robert A. Cumins. Singer, who was born in Poland, had first set foot there in 1935 as a refugee fleeing antisemitism. Nearly half a century later, in 1979, he returned with a delegation of international Jewish leaders brought…
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Culture Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Love Affair With The Forward
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. It is part of a series on Forverts memories written by and about present and past Forverts writers and editors. “I can say I have achieved one thing in my life,” said Isaac Bashevis Singer. “My chaos has reached perfection!” This is what Bashevis Singer declared whenever…
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Yiddish World How Paul McCartney Turned Isaac Bashevis Singer Into A Polish Hero
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. 116 years after his birth, Isaac Bashevis Singer has found a new champion: Paul McCartney. Yes, really. When the Polish Parliament passed a resolution honoring the Nobel Prize-winning author on November 21, the anniversary of his birth, it was thanks to the efforts of the former Beatle….
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