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
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Fast Forward How learning Yiddish can get you a free bagel next Tuesday
If you weren’t already interested in learning Yiddish, Duolingo may have given you another reason, — free bagels! That’s right, in honor of the launch of a new Yiddish course on the popular language-learning platform, Duolingo is offering to pay for your bagel order at a handful of stores around the country when the course…
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Yiddish World WATCH: Learn some fun Yiddish words and proverbs about Purim
Ever wonder what Ashkenazi Jews baked for Purim, aside from homentashen? Learn about it in this special Purim edition of “Yiddish Word of the Day” by Forverts editor Rukhl Schaechter. You’ll also hear how to pronounce the names of the characters in the megillah, the story of Purim, in Yiddish, as well as a couple…
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News Yiddish professor goes viral in town hall with President Biden
President Joe Biden engaged in a rare moment of kvelling during a live broadcast of a CNN town hall in Milwaukee on Tuesday night. “I actually know some Yiddish,” Biden revealed during an exchange with a Jewish member of the audience. The light remark came after the president was introduced to Joel Berkowitz, a foreign…
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Yiddish World Why ‘Hester Street’ meant so much for Jewish women (and for Yiddish)
Before 'Hester Street,' Jewish American women characters who looked and acted 'too Jewish' were often ridiculed
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Yiddish World At 93, Yakob Basner is still L.A.’s go-to Yiddish teacher
Read this article in Yiddish. Yakob Basner may be 93 years-old, but that doesn’t stop him from doing a job he loves: teaching Yiddish. Since immigrating to Southern California from the former Soviet Union in 1980, Basner has taught the mame-loshn to over 2,000 people. “If you want to understand the history of the Jewish…
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Yiddish World The 20 best Yiddish words for discussing 2020
Click to hear this article read aloud. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought us many challenges. But ironically, it’s also helped make 2020 a great year for learning Yiddish. The annual YIVO Yiddish summer program had so many registrants this summer — 60% more than last year — that administrators had to scramble to schedule more…
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Culture Celebrate Beethoven’s 250th birthday with ‘Ode to Joy’ in Yiddish
Read this article in Yiddish. This week marks the 250th anniversary of what is believed to be the birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven, one of the most influential composers of all time, and a favorite among the Jews in Eastern Europe. Beethoven’s popular “Moonlight Sonata,” for example, is the topic of a wonderful children’s tale…
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Yiddish World A new look at the Yiddish literature that flourished in Weimar Berlin
Read this article in Yiddish Yiddish Writers in Weimar Berlin: A Fugitive Modernism Marc Caplan Indiana University Press, $40, 394 PP The brief but lively and productive Berlin period in the history of modern Yiddish culture is a special source of interest for contemporary researchers. Out of a melting pot of various languages, styles and…
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