Welcome to 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…
Welcome to 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…
We were remiss in not wishing Leonard Cohen a happy birthday yesterday, but the 77-year-old Montreal poet, novelist and singer-songwriter has other consolations. On October 11, Legacy Recordings will re-release 17 discs of Cohen’s back catalogue as a box set, including all of his studio albums and a few live ones, as well. The “Complete…
100 Years Ago in the Forward Three Jews are about to go on trial on charges of espionage: brothers Shishl and Yosl Weissman, and their cousin, Wolf Steinberg, who runs a saloon not far from the Russian border. They were also part of an illegal immigration ring. Because the Russian border guardpost could be seen…
With only a day to go before the event, uncertainty surrounds the planned appearance of Lithuania’s foreign minister at a concert in New York City celebrating the music of the Vilna Ghetto. It is an appearance that has come to be seen as a flashpoint for a complex stew of issues roiling relations between Lithuania…
On a sunny Saturday in September, Lillian Brown Vogel rolled her wheelchair to the brink of a small gravesite just outside the city of Gunnison, in central Utah. She squinted at the two headstones before her, slabs of gray and brown rock etched with Hebrew letters. Each one was surrounded by a small pen of…
100 Years Ago in the Forward A large group of Jews wearing tallitot and holding prayer books and synagogue tickets showed up at a small Manhattan theater on Clinton Street for the High Holy Days. The problem was, the place was locked. Very upset, the crowd started banging on the doors. Eventually the boss showed…
Tzadik Records’ Radical Jewish Culture releases often split the difference between jazz and klezmer. Both genres drag long canonical histories behind them like the train on a wedding dress. Both are easily innovated upon, prone to flights of improvisation, and adept at locating individual musicians in the midst of a vast history. Joel Rubin and…
I don’t remember most of what my family ate on Rosh Hashanah when I was growing up. We likely had a platter of brisket and maybe a steaming tureen of tzimmes. There was probably a bottle of Martinelli’s sparkling apple cider on the table to be festive — but honestly, the details are fuzzy. What…
100 Years Ago in the Forward The most popular swindle currently in practice on the Lower East Side, according to an assistant district attorney, is known as the “Doctor Swindle.” What happens is that a well-dressed man knocks on people’s doors and informs them that he is a doctor from the board of health and…
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