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
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The Schmooze Agudah Editor Joseph Friedenson Dies at 90
Joseph Friedenson, the founder and long-time editor of the Agudath Israel organ Dos Yiddishe Vort, passed away February 23 at his home in Manhattan, the Forverts reported. Friedenson, a survivor of the Holocaust, founded the monthly Yiddish journal in the Feldafing and Landesberg displaced persons camps in Germany, and edited it continually in New York…
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Culture Bertrand Russell Challenges Nikita Khrushchev on Anti-Semitism
Forward Looking Back brings you the stories that were making news in the Forward’s Yiddish paper 100, 75, and 50 years ago. Check back each week for a new set of illuminating, edifying and sometimes wacky clippings from the Jewish past. 100 Years Ago 1913 As the Yiddish theater strike on Manhattan’s Lower East Side…
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Books A Family Like No Other
The Zelmenyaners: A Family Saga By Moyshe Kulbak, translated by Hillel Halkin, introduction and notes by Sasha Senderovich Yale University Press, 304 pages, $25 Near the end of “The Zelmenyaners,” a novel by Soviet Yiddish writer Moyshe Kulbak, one of the younger characters takes the stand to denounce her family. The proceedings are officially about…
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Books New Yiddish Dictionary Explores Intracacies of Language
Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary Edited by Solon Beinfeld and Harry Bochner Indiana University Press, 744 pages, $45 The binding of my copy of Uriel Weinreich’s “Modern English-Yiddish Yiddish-English Dictionary” broke sometime between my third and fourth semesters studying the language. The beginning Yiddish student can get by with only the glossary in the back of Weinreich’s…
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News The Forward Says Good-Bye to Mister Katz
The honorific “Mr.” is applied to just one member of staff at the Forward. Not to Forward Association president and newspaper publisher Samuel Norich, nor to the chairman of the board, Jacob Morowitz, but to a Yiddish copy editor, Louis Katz. The elfin Mr. Katz — or simply “Katz” or “Ketsele,” as he is referred…
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News David Ben Gurion Defends Israeli Military Rule in Arab Areas
Forward Looking Back brings you the stories that were making news in the Forward’s Yiddish paper 100, 75, and 50 years ago. Check back each week for a new set of illluminating, edifying and sometimes wacky clippings from the Jewish past. 100 Years Ago 1913 Two of the biggest Yiddish theaters in New York have…
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The Schmooze Dispute Settled Over Yiddish Literary Trove
The dispute over the papers of the late Yiddish writer Chaim Grade has been settled in favor of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and the National Library of Israel, according to a recent press release. The two organizations have also gained control over copyright to Grade’s published work. Grade was one of the most…
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Life Yenta’s Real Yiddish History
This post is in response to “Yenta’s Dirty Roots,” which ran on The Sisterhood on February 10, 2013. One of the many interesting things about Yiddish is that no one is entirely sure how it started. Though it originated in Medieval Europe, its exact roots are the subject of competing hypotheses among scholars. What isn’t…
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