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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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…
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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…
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Yiddish World I miss those secular Jews who led traditional seders
My Uncle Yoyne didn't keep kosher or the Sabbath but when he led the seder, he sounded like an Orthodox Jew
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Yiddish World WATCH: How Israel’s Yiddish Radio Pioneer Reached Past The Iron Curtain
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Few people today know that in the 1950s, Yiddish programming on Israeli radio had half a million listeners every evening. Even Jews from abroad would listen, including those behind the Iron Curtain, where Jews would seek out ways to listen to the banned transmissions on their transistor…
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Yiddish World How Paul Robeson Learned Yiddish And Battled Fascism
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. The American singer Paul Robeson is mostly remembered today for his hauntingly beautiful bass voice, his groundbreaking career as an actor and as his political activism and involvement in the Communist party. Often forgotten is his mixed and tragic role in Yiddish literary history. Besides his musical…
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