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 I’m Here To Perform Yiddish Music — Not Cater to Your Idea of Blackness
In case I’ve ever given you occasion to think otherwise, I’m black. My parents are black, and their parents (may they live to 120 years) are black as well, though they were not always so; they were previously “colored.” My three brothers happen to be black, as is basically mayn gantse mishpokhe, my whole family….
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Culture 6 Artists You Didn’t Know Used Yiddish, From Elvis to Public Enemy
It’s astounding how much Yiddish has infiltrated today’s popular culture. From classic musicals like “Fiddler on the Roof” to sitcoms like Seinfeld, some words and phrases of Ashkenazi Jews’ native tongue have become Americanized, naturalized, and sometimes clichéd. So, when Public Enemy released its latest album, “Man Plans, God Laughs,” emblazoned with , we decided…
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Culture Why Are These Secular Kids Learning Yiddish?
If you visit Brooklyn’s Middle School 88 late on a Wednesday afternoon, you’ll witness something pretty unusual. The building sits on the southern edge of Park Slope, down the block from Green-Wood Cemetery and next to the noisy Prospect Expressway. Huddling around a table in a science classroom a handful of kids are studying Yiddish….
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The Schmooze ‘2 By Wolf’ — A Yiddish-Gaelic Theatre Delight
On my way to see The New Yiddish Rep’s production of “Two By Wolf” which includes Wolf Mankowitz’s play “The Bespoke Overcoat,” I flashed back to 1956, when in the darkness of the Thalia Theatre on Upper Broadway, I saw the British film “The Bespoke Overcoat” based on Mankowitz’s play about a Jewish tailor and…
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The Schmooze Hasidic Stars Bring Yiddish Soul to Central Park
It’s as if the rain knew to stop precisely at 6 o’clock. After one of the wettest days of the month, the sky turned from gray to blue, the clouds parted for the last hour of Tuesday sun, and Yiddish Soul took the stage at Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield. The concert, a showcase of cantorial…
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Opinion What Flag Should Yiddish Fly?
In mid-2012, I received a friend request from “Yiddish Flag,” a fictional image that purported to be the flag of Yiddish language and culture. Not in the habit of accepting requests from anonymous non-humans, I clicked “reject” without a second thought. Yet the flag, a black-and-white banner featuring a menorah on a stylized tallis (prayer…
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The Schmooze Forget American Pharoah — This Yiddish Horse Made Me Win Big
I have always been intrigued by the inventive and unusual names of racing horses. A few years ago, I wanted to bet on what was supposed to be a sure winner — Rachel Alexandra — because my two youngest granddaughters are sisters Rachel and Alexandra. The horse lost. Unable to attend the 147th Running of the…
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Culture New York Gets the Biggest Yiddish Festival of All
The largest Yiddish cultural festival since the 1930s is coming to New York. Kulturfest: The First Chana Mlotek International Festival of Jewish Performing Arts, of which the Forward is a media sponsor, will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene with a weeklong series of Jewish music, theater, film and art events….
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Yiddish װי די סאָװעטישע געהײם־פּאָליצײ האָט נאָכגעשפּירט די ייִדישע ליטעראַטןHow the Soviet secret police kept surveillance on Yiddish writers
נײַע אַרכיװאַלע דאָקומענטן אַנטפּלעקן אַ ים מיט מסירות, װאָס אײניקע ייִדישע ליטעראַטן האָבן געשריבן אױף זײערע קאָלעגעס.
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