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
-
The Schmooze Henry Winkler Shows Off His Yiddish Vocabulary
Who would have predicted that Henry Winkler, who became a household name in America as Arthur Fonzarelli (“The Fonz”) on “Happy Days” over 40 years ago, would be one of the most charming men in America in 2018? In an interview last week with People, the 72 year-old Winkler went on to quietly prove, as…
-
Culture WATCH: Yiddish Writer Yechiel Shraybman Describes His Moldovan Shtetl
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. A squeaky well, an old Jewish judge who refuses to open his eyes — these are the images that the writer Yekhiel Shraybman brings to life in vivid vignettes about his Moldavian hometown, Rashkev. In this video Shraybman describes his years in the Yiddish theater in Bucharest,…
-
Culture Rukhl Schaechter Discusses Judaism, Feminism And Yiddish
Rukhl Schaechter, editor of the Yiddish Forward will be appearing at the Own It summit 2018 on Sunday March 25. Schaechter, the first female editor and the first American-born editor of the Yiddish Forward, will be appearing on two panels: Jewish Women and Feminism and Interfaith Dialogue: Spirituality and Feminism Connection. Read about the event…
-
The Schmooze Joel Grey Will Direct The First Yiddish Production Of ‘Fiddler On The Roof’ In the US
As the brilliant Shalom Aleichem wrote in “Tevye The Dairyman,” the book of stories upon which the musical “Fiddler On The Roof” is based, “You see how it is, my dear friends. There’s no pleasing everyone. It’s hopeless to even try, and the more you play the peacemaker, the less peaceful things become.” But is…
-
Yiddish World I Miss Those Secular Jews Who Led Traditional Seders
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. I’m sitting here listening to the recorded voice of my Uncle Yoyne z”l as he leads the Passover seder in 1962… and I’m kvelling. Yoyne Gottesman was a secular Jew, or as we used to say in those days, a veltlekher yid. He didn’t keep kosher or…
-
Culture Google Translate for Yiddish? It Ain’t Worth Bupkis.
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Several years ago I wrote an article for the Forverts describing the bizarre phenomenon by which a Google search for the innocent Yiddish word “meydlekh” (girls) yielded results for pornographic websites, listings for Canadian escorts and so forth. Were pornographic websites actually advertising in Yiddish? No, it…
-
Culture With a New Director, Klezkanada Looks to the Future
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Since its founding in 1996, more than 10,000 people have attended Klezkanada, the annual festival of Jewish culture and Klezmer music held in Quebec’s Laurentian mountains. Despite Klezkanada’s ambitious scale (besides music it features theatrical workshops, Yiddish classes, creative writing seminars and concerts), the organization never had…
-
Culture A Yiddish Cruise on the Danube
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. The longtime editor of the Bundist journal Lebns-Fragn and an Israel-correspondent for the Forverts, Yitzhak Luden z”l, used to say that Yiddish today outside of the Hasidic world is a language mainly spoken at festivals. Soon we’ll be able to say that it’s also spoken on river…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV Bonhoeffer biopic tells of a pastor turned would-be Hitler assassin — but is the story true?
- 2
News Texas schools want to add Queen Esther to the curriculum. Here’s why Jews (and many Christians) are opposed.
- 3
News What Mike Huckabee’s ‘Kids Guide to Israel’ says about his views
- 4
Culture At 95, Shaindel Schreiber is still dispensing babka and advice on the Lower East Side
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Netanyahu was right to end the war in Lebanon — now Gaza must follow
-
Culture 10 wicked ways to avoid talking about Gaza and Trump this Thanksgiving
-
Fast Forward Israeli security cabinet approves ceasefire with Hezbollah, paving way for end of yearlong conflict in Israel’s north
-
Culture Who are the most (and least) Jewish Peanuts characters?
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
