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Yiddish World Yiddish translation of iconic Russian song plays on national Russian TV
Yoel Matveyev, the Forverts’ correspondent in Russia, was sitting alone in a Moscow train station in the middle of the night, when he suddenly got the inspiration to translate the Russian song, “Nadezhda”, about two lovers separated by a long and difficult journey, into Yiddish. Although the song was written in 1971, it remains hugely…
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News The global proportion of Jews living in Europe is as low as it was 1,000 years ago. And the future there doesn’t look bright.
Jews’ share of the population of Europe is as low now as it was 1,000 years ago and is declining even further, according to a landmark new demographic study. The study published Wednesday by the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research found 1.3 million people who describe themselves as Jewish in continental Europe, the United…
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Community Adin Steinsaltz was essential to the revival of the Russian Jewish community
In the wake of his passing on August 7, 2020, I remember Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz in conversation, as the ever youthful rebel, questioning the whole universe, with a biting sense of humour. In the Orthodox world, where clothing defines the person, he made sure to stand out as a unique creature, combining worn jeans with…
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News Russia has a full-time surgeon whose only job is circumcising Jewish men
(JTA) — The religious Jewish world has created some unusual jobs, from shofar makers to etrog pickers to mashgichim – kosher certifiers whose job is literally to watch others cook. But one of the more bizarre surely belongs to Dr. Yeshaya Shafit, who is Russia’s only mohel, or professional circumciser, for adult men. Shafit, a…
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Fast Forward Yefim Haim Goldberg, A Celebrated Russian-Jewish War Veteran, Dies At 106
(JTA) — Yefim Haim Goldberg, a 106-year-old Jewish veteran of World War II who was honored frequently by the governments of Belarus and Russia, has died in Russia. Goldberg served in the Red Army’s 36th Tank Brigade and the troops he commanded — he was in charge of a platoon — continued from the Belarusian…
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Fast Forward Synagogue torched in northern Russia
(JTA) — A synagogue in northern Russia was severely damaged in a fire that the local Jewish community said was caused by arsonists. The fire consumed the entrance hall of the Northern Star Jewish community center and synagogue in Arkhangelsk, the Russian Jewish Congress wrote. No one was hurt in the fire. Anatoly Obermeister, who…
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Fast Forward Putin Pardons Israeli-American backpacker who was sentenced to prison
(JTA) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has pardoned Naama Issachar, an Israeli-American backpacker who was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for drug smuggling. The Russian news agency Interfax News reported Wednesday that Putin had issued the pardon. Issachar, 26, had been returning from India to Israel by way of Moscow in April last year…
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Opinion ‘Blood Flows Like Water And People Fall Like Flies,’ The Forverts Remembers The Great War
In April, 1915, as The Great War was raging in Europe, your favorite Yiddish newspaper had 176,125 daily readers, according to the masthead’s circulation figures. The United States had yet to enter the fight, but The Forverts covered it aggressively. And on April 9th, New York-based editors and publishers of foreign language newspapers who differed…
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