This is the Forward’s coverage of the Yiddish language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews in Europe and still spoken by many Hasidic Jews today.
For more stories on Yiddishkeit, see Forverts in English, and for stories written in…
Yiddish
The Latest
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Culture An Immigrant’s Life, Told Graphically
In 1906, Nasye Frug wrote to the Forverts about her life as a new wife and recent immigrant. Even before receiving unhelpful wedding gifts, she had realized that the Goldene Medina of the New World was not turning out to be quite the life she had imagined. Writing about her childhood in the Old Country…
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Culture Nudge, Nudge. Wink, Wink.
Charles Krauthamer of Teaneck, N.J. (not to be confused with the Washington columnist of the same name), writes to ask: “A word used in Israel to mean ‘to pester’ is l’najez. I always assumed that it came from the Yiddish word ‘nudge’ until I was told that it came from Arabic. Can you help?” The…
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Culture Looking Back: March 9, 2012
100 Years Ago in the Forward When Celia Kuperstein saw smoke and flames pouring out of the windows of her Brooklyn apartment, she dashed inside to rescue her three children. Sadly, she never made it out. Her charred corpse was eventually found by firefighters. In a twist of fate, a neighbor who saw the fire…
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Culture Psoy Korolenko’s 21st Century Humor
It’s about two hours before their show at the JCC in Manhattan, and I’m having dinner with Psoy Korolenko and Daniel Kahn, the duo known as the Unternationale. As a solo performer, Korolenko has been winning fans in the United States, mostly at clubs and gatherings catering to young Russian émigrés and at university campuses….
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Culture Looking Back: March 2, 2012
100 Years Ago in the Forward The worst disgrace is to be a moron. According to the Talmud, a stupid person is like a dead man. So how does one become a knowledgeable, intelligent person? There’s no need to go to college or to night school; some people become educated by reading the kinds of…
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Culture I’ve Been Thinking ‘Bout the Railroad
Maurice Wolfthal writes from Houston: “I recently enjoyed Theodore Bikel’s rendition of the Yiddish song ‘Di Ban’ [‘The Train’] after not having heard it for more than 30 years. Part of the humor stems from his choice of dialect. Where most Yiddish speakers use the vowel ‘oy,’ he uses the ‘ey’ of English ‘grey,’ as…
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Culture Looking Back: February 24, 2012
100 Years Ago in the Forward A bloody war between rival gangs exploded on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Numerous shots were fired, bringing many residents onto the streets, where chaos reigned. Although many calls were placed to the police, the gangs had scattered by the time they arrived. Two gang members, 21-year-old Nathan Levi and…
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Culture Looking Back: February 17, 2012
100 Years Ago in the Forward When Barnett Nemeth went to open his safe in his jewelry store on Manhattan’s Broome Street, he was surprised when two men rushed him, held a revolver to his head and said: “Hands up! We want a look in that safe.” While one of the bandits rifled through the…
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