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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Culture Neither a Niftar Nor a Nishperer Be
Time to catch up on some mail! Gary J. Frenkel takes issue with my statement in my August 17 column that the name Jesus in Hebrew is Yeshu (a shortened form of Yeshu’a, itself a shortened form of Yehoshua or Joshua). Mr. Frenkel writes: “My understanding is that Yeshu is, not a shortened version of…
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The Schmooze Cursing the GOP in Yiddish
May your son the doctor introduce you to his fiancée, Bristol Palin. May your child give his bar mitzvah speech on the genius of Ayn Rand. May your insurance company decide constipation is a pre-existing condition. It’s not clear who’s behind these Yiddish Curses for Republican Jews. But in just three days, the online phenomenon…
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The Schmooze Yiddish Theater for Smart Alecks
Allan Lewis Rickman likes to say that the best audiences for “The Essence: A Yiddish Theatre Dim Sum” are gentile college students — a demographic that seemed (shockingly!) underrepresented at the show’s opening NYC Fringe Festival performance at the Robert Moss Theater on August 14. More than a few people in this crowd murmured recognition…
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News Why Bubbe’s Accent is Dying, Jewish Denmark
In this week’s podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis is joined by Forward editor Jane Eisner to discuss Mitt Romney’s Vice Presidential pick, Paul Ryan and what his plans for Medicare mean for Jewish seniors. Then, Forward contributor Eddy Portnoy phones in to explain the death of the eastern european Yiddish accent. Finally, staff writer Paul Berger…
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Culture The Disappearing Yiddish Accent
They say that Yiddish has been dying for the past 200 years. Up until about 50 or 60 years ago, saying as much was kind of a crude bluff, but now it would be a lie to say that Yiddish hasn’t been severely diminished. According to UNESCO’s most recent list of endangered languages, Yiddish falls…
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Culture Yoshke of Nazareth
Henry Sapoznik, director of the Mayrent Institute for Yiddish Culture at the University of Wisconsin, has taken me to task for writing in my July 27 column that the song “Yoshke Fort Avek” was written by the Yiddish performer Aaron Lebedeff during the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War. Lebedeff, Mr. Sapoznik writes, had nothing to do with…
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Culture Looking Back: August 10, 2012
100 Years Ago in the Forward Has anybody seen Abie Levitt’s wife? The Levitts moved with their son to Portland, Ore., from New York a few years ago. Not long after, Rosie Levitt started making noises about how the family should move back to New York. Abie didn’t want to go back — he was…
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Culture Looking Back: August 3, 2012
100 Years Ago 1912 — Joseph Sidernscher, better known as Whitey Lewis, was arrested as an accomplice in the murder of Herman “Beansie” Rosenthal. Initially it appeared that Lewis had a watertight alibi, but after a few hours in police custody, he appeared distressed, as the police were able to link him to the two…
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