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…
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…
If such news — that the land of Israel is going to be given to the Jews, had come 50 years ago, it would have made a totally different impression on the Jewish masses than it is making today. It would then have had a similar impact as the coming of the Messiah as it…
April 7, 1915 From Vilna a letter was posted to Mr. Arbeiter of 932 North 2nd What can I tell you about Vilna, whatever it is will only be one trop in a sea of great troubles and misfortunes that this war has brought upon us. The most awful thing occurred in Vilna—with a young…
It’s almost impossible to believe, but it happened. War has been declared. The great powers began a terrible blood bath. If the flames are not extinguished right away, the war will be the most terrible, the worst in human history. Think about what happens next. None of the peoples caught up in the war have…
When I came here I was a very young man. Many years have passed. I sometimes think it was only yesterday that I arrived here; but often that day feels so far away— like a half forgotten dream. I sometimes feel as if I’d been born here having spent my most interesting years here. It…
Photo: Simon Annand/JW3 The second act of David Schneider’s new play, “Making Stalin Laugh,” opens in 1935, the year the Moscow State Yiddish Theater decided to mount a production of “King Lear” with its legendary director Solomon Mikhoels as the lead. Lear, Mikhoels tells the cast as the party apparatchiki watch over his rehearsal, is…
(Reuters) — A U.S. judge declared a mistrial in the case against a New York state senator accused of trying to buy his way onto the Republican ticket in the 2013 New York City mayoral race, lawyers in the case said. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas in White Plains, New York, scuttled the trial of…
A sprawling New York state corruption trial could reportedly be seriously delayed or even derailed by some 300 recordings of an upstate Hasidic wheeler-dealer chatting in Yiddish. A federal judge is considering his options after defense lawyers for disgraced state Sen. Malcolm Smith complained that they had not had a chance to listen to the…
Have you ever wondered how you might say “quickie” in Yiddish? Or maybe “sugar daddy” or “one-night stand”? You wouldn’t be the first. In 60 years of researching the Yiddish language, linguist Mordkhe Schaechter collected vocabulary on every aspect of human life and developed vocabulary lists for many specialized subjects not covered in detail by…
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