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 Will This Be The First Yiddish-Language Album To Win A Grammy?
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. A Yiddish-language album “Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of WWII” was nominated for a Grammy for Best World Music Album. The unusual honor is only the second time that an album of Yiddish songs has been nominated for music’s most esteemed prize. The first was the soundtrack…
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Yiddish World How Paul McCartney Turned Isaac Bashevis Singer Into A Polish Hero
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. 116 years after his birth, Isaac Bashevis Singer has found a new champion: Paul McCartney. Yes, really. When the Polish Parliament passed a resolution honoring the Nobel Prize-winning author on November 21, the anniversary of his birth, it was thanks to the efforts of the former Beatle….
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Yiddish World This Australian Yiddish Big Band Will Blow Your Mind
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. It all started with a joke. Simon Starr, an Australian music producer, band director and bass guitarist, had been living in Israel for six years when he and his family had to return to Melbourne to be closer to aging relatives. Professionally speaking, the timing was not…
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Yiddish World The Night That Golda Meir Slept In My Bed
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. In the 1930s, Golda Meir, then known as Golda Meyerson, worked on a mission for Pioneer Women in Israel in the United States, collecting funds for women and children in Palestine. In 1931, the organization held its annual fundraising dinner in Buffalo, New York and Meir came…
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Yiddish World WATCH: In This Classic Yiddish Joke, A Maybe-Atheist Confronts God
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. The Yiddish Forward is producing a series of classic Yiddish jokes presented in Yiddish by Leana Jelen, a young Yiddish-speaking sign-language interpreter. In this joke famed Jewish folk-hero and alleged atheist Hershele Ostropoler gives a unique answer to a friend questioning his piety.
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Opinion How Old Is Yiddish? It’s Not As Old As You Think.
The question of how old Yiddish is has long preoccupied Yiddishists. And as it turns out, it’s a question that’s deeply connected to the nature of Yiddish as a language. On the one hand, you have the Jewish-oriented approach, advocated by Max Weinreich, a 20th century Yiddishist, which sees in modern Yiddish an inheritor of…
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Life Anonymous Hasidic Writer Speaks Out On Failing Schools
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. People close to me know that I’ve always felt a kinship with the Hasidic community. Part of the appeal for me is their success at maintaining Yiddish as the lingua franca of their community. Where else but in Williamsburg or Mea Shearim do you hear Yiddish wherever…
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Culture How A Forverts Video Reunited Two Old Friends
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. In an apartment somewhere in the metropolis of New York City, the distinguished composer Gershon Kingsley was sitting by his archive when he found sheet music for a composition he had created years ago for the dancer Naomi Leaf Halpern, and he realized that it had been…
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