An artful online video adaptation of Sholem Asch’s groundbreaking 1906 Yiddish play, “God of Vengeance”, is now streaming through May 31, 2021. The 100-minute video is in English. The play, known in Yiddish as “Got fun nekome”, tells the story of a seemingly observant Jewish couple and their daughter Rivkeleh who live upstairs in their…
Read this article in Yiddish On May 23rd at 1:00 pm EDT, the Workers Circle will host a book party for a new bilingual edition of stories by the short story writer, Salomea Perl, “The Canvas and Other Stories.” The discussion will be in English, with the readings in Yiddish and English. The volume includes…
Read this article in Yiddish On May 15th at 7 pm EDT, the Boston Workers Circle chorus, “A Besere Velt”, will perform a special online concert entitled “Singing for a Better World” with guest performers Polina Shepherd, Lorin Sklamberg, Anthony Russell, Daniel Kahn and Judy Bressler. “A Besere Velt” was founded in 1997 and is…
Read this article in Yiddish Listening to Maria Ka’s Yiddish electropop album, “Di Arumike Velt” [The Surrounding World], was for me like hearing music from a parallel universe. Not only are the Yiddish songs about the coronavirus era and issues facing women in 2020s Poland, but the music itself is unlike anything I’ve heard performed…
Read this article in Yiddish In the heat of the COVID pandemic, the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora has recently re-opened under a new name – ANU: Museum of the Jewish People. The word “anu” means us in Hebrew. But it’s not only the name that’s been changed. The inner architecture and permanent exhibit have…
Read this article in Yiddish Recently I came across an unexpected clip from the Tonight Show from 1955 featuring a swing version of the Yiddish song, “In mayne oygn bistu sheyn” (you’re beautiful in my eyes), sung by a duo called the Burton Sisters. The recording was surprising to me for several reasons. First, it’s…
A Forverts reader has informed us that two former Ukrainian pop stars, known as The Alibi Sisters, recently performed the Yiddish song “Chiribim-Chiribom” at the blind auditions on the Ukrainian version of “The Voice.” In the video, the judges, presumably none of them Jewish, initially appear mystified by the act – some sporting a slightly…
Read this story in Yiddish Who doesn’t sometimes feel like telling about the seders of his childhood, the seders of his home. And I too have a story to share and I will try to do it here. Both my mother and father were poets – at least in small measure. And whose mother and…
Read this article in Yiddish Yiddish has appeared, in various guises, with increasing frequency and prominence in cinema in recent years. A new documentary by the French documentary filmmaker Nurith Aviv, simply titled “Yiddish,” debuted on French television last year and can now be streamed online. The film explores the current status of the language…
Read this article in Yiddish P’tcha, also known in Yiddish as galyer, galareta and fusnoge, is a classic Ashkenazic dish made from jellied calves’ feet. In this video, two lifelong friends, Irene Kronhill Pletka and Ruth Sher-Friede, who grew up together in Melbourne’s Bundist community, demonstrate how to make ptcha with a twist: Since the…
Read this article in Yiddish Every Passover Seder night at my house, we – as well as many other Jewish families across the country – encounter the same scenario. According to Jewish law, the Seder can’t begin until the start of the new day, which is roughly an hour after sunset. Because Passover always falls…
