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 Yiddish World, and for stories written in Yiddish,…
Yiddish
The Latest
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Books More Moses Than Job
A version of this article appeared in Yiddish, here. ‘I am to be read not from left to right, but in Jewish: from right to left’: The Poetics of Boris Slutsky. By Marat Grinberg Academic Studies Press, 400 pages, $65 In the poem “Dream,” Boris Slutsky laconically summed up two defining facts of his generation:…
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Culture Looking Back: October 7
100 Years Ago in the Forward As 25-year-old Bronx resident Flora Kirsch was walking her 3-year-old son, Aaron, to the store, 35-year-old Jacob Spielman accosted her and began yelling at her. As she walked away, Spielman drew a revolver and began running toward her. Bystanders screamed for her to take cover, but her frightened boy…
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News Lithuania Tries to Heal Rift Over Holocaust
Stung by accusations about Lithuania’s complicity in the Holocaust, the Baltic nation’s foreign minister announced a series of measures aimed at bolstering its Jewish heritage during a concert at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. The measures did little to allay the concerns of critics who had opposed YIVO’s decision to invite the minister to…
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The Schmooze Monday Music: The Klezmatics at 25
Courtesy of GAT publicity The Klezmatics are 25 this year (where does the time go?), and to mark the anniversary, they’ve released “Live at Town Hall,” a two-disc recording of a performance given in New York five years ago. That concert, itself an exuberant 20th anniversary celebration, was recorded in conjunction with “The Klezmatics: On…
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Life American Soap Operas Taught Me Yiddish
The language of soap operas is universal: vexing vixens, meddling matriachs and busy men with even busier zippers. When All My Children joined numerous cancelled soaps with its final episode on September 23, it prompted me to reflect on how the voices gone silent did more than entertain; they helped teach me Yiddish. Like monarchies…
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The Schmooze Leonard Cohen’s Yiddish Song
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…
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Culture Looking Back: September 30
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…
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News Lithuanian Official’s Attendance at YIVO Concert Is Uncertain
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…
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