This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Ellie R. Schainker, “Confessions of the Shtetl: Converts from Judaism in Imperial Russia, 1817-1906” (Stanford University Press) In Sholem Asch’s novel “Petersburg,” Madam Kvasnetsova, an interesting Jewish woman who has converted to Christianity, owns a house in St. Petersburg and an inn for Jews who come to…
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. This year the theme of the annual festival, Yiddish Summer Weimar, will be “The Other Israel: Seeing Unseen Diasporas.” Besides its usual programming the five-week celebration of Ashkenazi culture will also include a series of concerts and workshops dedicated to the various cultures of Israel and the…
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. The legendary Yiddish folksinger, folklorist and teacher, Arkady Gendler, died at the venerable age of 95 at his home in the Ukrainian city of Zaporozhe on May 22nd. Gendler, a constant ebullient presence at klezmer music festivals around the world, played an important role in the modern…
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Not long ago, I arrived in a small corner of Eden in rural western Pennsylvania: a bit of forest, a burbling brook, manicured lawns and camp-style wooden cabins and lodges. Displayed in and around the main lodge was all that a young child might desire—charmingly wrought sand…
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Watch the star of the Mongolian version of American Idol, Amalia Rubin, describe her fascinating life in the land of Genghis Khan in this Yiddish Forward exclusive.
This article originally appeared in the Forverts. The well-known Yiddish teacher, communal activist and unforgettable advocate for Yiddish and Yiddish culture Gella Schweid Fishman died at her home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx on Tuesday, May 16. She was 90 years old. Fishman was born in New York City to immigrant parents. She…
This article originally [appeared](http://yiddish.forward.com/articles/203879/-years-of-the-forverts-the-hindenburg-disaster/ “appeared”) in the Forverts. Saturday, May 6, marked 80 years since the Hindenburg exploded while attempting to land in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 35 passengers, crew members and one man on the ground. Widely seen newsreels, along with the now legendary radio broadcast featuring Herbert Morrison crying while reporting the tragedy…
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. In the summer of 1976, against the backdrop of the dramatic Entebbe Operation, the Bicentennial celebrations on the Hudson River and the nomination of Jimmy Carter for President at the Democratic National Convention in New York, the Yiddish Forward, then located at its historic building in the…
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Regardless of how you feel about America’s current president, there’s at least one aspect of Trump that everyone can agree on: many Americans have become newly engaged in politics. By the time the polls closed last November, only 55% of eligible Americans had even bothered to vote….
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. For the past few months I’ve been living in a place that no longer exists. I may be sleeping in my own bed in Tel Aviv, but every morning, at the light of dawn, I steal across the borders of time to a thriving Jewish street in…
This article originally [appeared](http://yiddish.forward.com/articles/203732/ray-of-hope-for-sex-abuse-victims-in-the-orthodox/? “appeared”) in the Forverts. When a notable anti-domestic violence activist asked her father, the founder of a Baltimore yeshiva, how rabbis had dealt with child sexual abuse in prewar Europe, he told her, “We closed the shutters.” Up until a few years ago, this selective blindness was the de facto rabbinic…
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