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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Opinion The Battle Over What To Call Your Grandma
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. On January 15, 2017, I — the mother of three adult sons — finally became a grandmother. Following the Jewish tradition, the new parents, Menachem and Emily, chose not to divulge the name of the infant boy until the bris. So when the rabbi announced that my…
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Opinion Terms of Endearment: What Should We Call Our Grandmothers?
In a recent essay in the Forward, new grandmother Rukhl Schaechter wrote of her fondness for being called “Bubbe,” the Yiddish term for grandmother. But Schaechter lamented that “the B-word” is now “seen as a vestige of a previous era, causing modern, educated women to run the other way.” Beyond Jewish-specific titles for grandmothers to…
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Culture A Deadly Explosion In Chicago, And More Of The Forward Looking Back
100 Years Ago A massive gas explosion rocked the heart of the Jewish ghetto on the West Side of Chicago. At least 40 people were killed and hundreds were wounded in the blast, which occurred in the early morning hours on the 800 block of West 14th Place while most of the residents were sleeping….
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Community Remembering Yosl Bergner
This article originally appeared on Plus61J. Yosl Bergner never wanted to visit the places of his imagination. Many years ago, when I suggested a trip together to retrace the travels of his poet father, Melech Ravitch, across the Australian outback – a 1933 search for a homeland for German Jewish refugees – Yosl refused to…
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Culture David Ben-Gurion Makes An Argument For Israel, And More of The Forward Looking Back
100 Years Ago The Brownsville section of Brooklyn is so Jewish that in the local courthouse you’ll find a clerk who speaks a beautiful Yiddish. In the police station there’s a Jewish captain who also speaks good Yiddish. And what neighborhood sends a socialist assemblyman to Albany? Brownsville. There’s even a Hasidic rebbe, over whose…
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Life What’s the Yiddish for ‘Pussy Hat’?
Say you’re going to a Women’s March and have decided to knit, or wear, a protest Pussy Hat for the occasion. You may find yourself in need of brief moments of levity, and a fine diversion is contemplating possible Yiddish translations for “Pussy Hat”: A hat in the style of the Pussy Hat is called…
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Culture A Yiddish Theater Boom, and More of The Forward Looking Back
100 Years Ago There are currently 18 Yiddish theaters in America, and all of them are doing a bang-up business. This is in addition to the numerous Yiddish theater companies that are traveling around the country, performing in many different cities. There are five theaters in New York: Kessler’s, Shevski’s, People’s, Gabel’s and the Grand…
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Culture In Odessa, Everyone Has a Jewish History — And They’re Not Keeping it Secret Anymore
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Once, Odessa was very much a Jewish city. Before World War II, a third of those living in the Ukrainian port city were Jewish. According to the latest census, the Jewish population today is roughly 1%. And yet, during a recent trip to Ukraine, I was surprised…
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