This is 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…
This is 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…
The following article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. It was translated from the Yiddish by Meena Viswanath. Dr. Avrom Nowerstern, the long-standing Yiddish teacher and researcher, is the director of Beth Shalom Aleichem in Tel Aviv. He was born in Argentina in 1951 and moved to Israel in 1969. Nowerstern is no newcomer to…
In a previous article I explained how people misuse Yiddish and Yiddish curses in American English. Though written to accurately reflect the correct form of Yiddish curses, the following are not meant in any way to poke fun of or make light of the sad events and tragedies of the past twelve months. Rather they…
As often happens when a popular Yiddish-related article is making the rounds, I received multiple Facebook messages asking what I thought of Gersh Kuntzman’s article in the New York Daily News declaring “farkakt” the best word to describe 2016. I wasn’t impressed. Kuntzman’s article is a pretty typical example of what I, for lack of…
100 Years Ago There was joy in the offices of the Hachnosas Orchim (Welcoming of Guests) organization on East Broadway in New York City this week. A group of about 200 immigrants from northeastern Poland and Lithuania had arrived, and their relatives were helping them enjoy the bounty of this land. Many of the immigrants…
A friend from Georgia once joked to me, “Everyone down here celebrates Christmas, even if you don’t celebrate Christmas.” The meaning of a Christmas tree in a Jewish home is different in a rural Southern town than it is in a Northern industrialized city. The story of Jewish assimilation and acceptance in the South has…
Among the numerous meanings Hanukkah has accrued over the centuries, the one that feels most urgent to me now is the opportunity to recall that bravery in the face of tyranny need not be confined to Jewish history. The tired, poor and huddled masses still yearn to breathe free, and Hanukkah is a reminder that…
(JTA) — Rachel Freier of Brooklyn officially became the first Hasidic woman to be sworn in as a judge in the State of New York. Freier, a mother of six and former lawyer who practiced commercial and residential estate law, was sworn in Thursday as the Civil Court judge in Kings County’s 5th judicial district,…
For 20 years, I was a pop music critic. Every year as the calendar wound down, here came one of music journalism’s over-roasted chestnuts: the annual roundup of new Christmas albums. I never groaned. I’m one of those Christmas music people. As soon as the Thanksgiving turkey is down my gullet, I’m trotting out the…
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