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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The Schmooze How Do You Say ‘Uppercut’ in Yiddish?
A version of this post appeared in Yiddish . According to the usual stereotype, Jews don’t know how to fight. In fact, Jews have been quite adept at defending themselves, and there is even a rich Yiddish vocabulary to describe how it’s done. A new exhibit, “Yiddish Fight Club,” opening April 30 at the YIVO…
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The Schmooze How Ziggy Gruber Became a ‘Deli Man’
Photo courtesy Cohen Media Group A version of this post appeared in Yiddish here. Like many other aspects of Ashkenazi Jewish culture, old-time Jewish delicacies are becoming harder and harder to find. In 1931 there were more than 2,500 delis and 150 kosher dairy restaurants in New York City alone; today there are only 21…
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The Schmooze Enough With The ‘Ashkenormativity,’ Buzzfeed
Another day, another Buzzfeed Jewish-centric video. And much like their other chosen productions, it’s incredibly Ashkenormative. “11 Things Jewish Friends Just Get” tells the tale of two nominally Jewish ladies, who have to stick together in the face of incredibe goyish ignorance. Thank God someone in this room understands what “schlepping” means, amirite? Aside from…
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The Schmooze New Festival Celebrates Hebrew Language and Culture
Photo: Larson Harley A version of this post appeared in Yiddish here. As the musicians began playing the first strains of Sergei Prokofiev’s classic children’s symphony, “Peter and the Wolf,” on the stage of the Steven Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan on March 15, the hundreds of children in the large, awe-inspiring sanctuary stopped their…
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The Schmooze ‘When Blood Ran Red’ Drama Wins Playwriting Prize
Ben Gonshor The first-ever David and Clare Rosen Memorial Play Contest, an international playwriting competition for projects with Jewish and Yiddish themes, has chosen its winner, Montreal-based Ben Gonshor. His historical drama “When Blood Ran Red” chronicles the friendships between African-American actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson and leading Soviet Jews after World War…
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Culture Joshua Fishman, Yiddishist and Linguistics Pioneer, Dies at 88
A version of this piece appeared in Yiddish here. Sociolinguist, Yiddish scholar and advocate for endangered languages Joshua (Shikl) Fishman died March 1 in New York. He leaves behind his wife of more than 60 years Gella Schweid-Fishman, three sons, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He is predeceased by his sister, the Yiddish poet Rukhl…
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The Schmooze My Memories of Leonard Nimoy, Yiddish-Speaking Vulcan
I first met Leonard Nimoy — a.k.a. Spock from the hit TV series “Star Trek,” who died today at 83 on February 27, 2015 — when as a celebrity at the 1973 American Booksellers Convention in Anaheim, California. He stopped by my publishing company’s exhibit booth. A distant Litvak cousin of my mother’s from Grodno…
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Culture All The Yiddish That’s Fit To Print in Easthampton, Massachusetts
Who knew that we loved to listen to the air? Until the death of analogue music we never realized we craved the warmth of vinyl’s atmospheric cracklings, but in 2014 record sales spiked 49%. And so it is with printing. Once we no longer rely for our news on swathes of newsprint hurtling through factories…
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