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…
Yiddish
The Latest
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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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Yiddish World Popular Tel Aviv organization, “Yung Yidish”, forced to shut by December 5
According to a verdict by the Tel Aviv Local Affairs Court, the popular Yiddish cultural center and library,”Yung Yidish”, located inside the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station, will be forced to close its doors by December 5, 2021. The eviction is part of a grand plan by the city to shut down the huge station…
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Yiddish World Poet Abraham Sutzkever’s memoirs of the Vilna Ghetto are now in English
Abraham Sutzkever From the Vilna Ghetto to Nuremberg: Memoir and Testimony Edited and translated by Justin D. Cammy Afterword by Justin D. Cammy and Avraham Novershtern McGill-Queen’s University Press (2021), 488 pp. Although Abraham (Avrom, in Yiddish) Sutzkever is usually referred to as one of the greatest Yiddish poets in the twentieth-century, he also played…
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Yiddish World Getting over the feeling that Yiddish is just for old folks
I’ve recently pondered: “When is a person old enough to flavor one’s language with Yiddish expressions?” There have been many times where a Yiddish expression was so on-target that I would use it, but I would always attribute it to my mother or grandmother, implying that Yiddish was only a language for older folks, as…
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Yiddish World Yiddish Folklore Inspires American Artist Debra Olin
Read this article in Yiddish. As seen in a new exhibit at the Museum at Eldridge Street, artist Debra Olin has created large format monoprint collages that explore Jewish folkloric superstitions and religious practices, particularly those of women in the Russian Pale of Settlement. Olin based her art on the information she gleaned from an…
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Yiddish World Online Yiddish Hanukkah song workshop and sing-along
If you’d like to learn or brush up on your knowledge of Yiddish Hanukkah songs, you might consider joining an online workshop and sing-along, led by the conductor of the Yiddish Philharmonic Chorus, Binyumen Schaechter. Schaechter is a brother of Forverts editor, Rukhl Schaechter. Sessions will take place on November 7 and 14, culminating in…
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Yiddish World New edition of landmark English-Yiddish Dictionary includes “lockdown” and “breakout room”
Read this article in Yiddish The world has changed massively in five years – from new political movements to a global pandemic, and now your Yiddish can keep up with it. Five years after the Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary was first published, comes a revised and expanded second edition. Both versions, edited by Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, Dr….
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Yiddish World How an indigenous hero inspired an epic poem in Yiddish
For Indigenous People’s Day, read this translated excerpt of the poem “Hatuey” by the Cuban Yiddish author, Osher Penn.
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