What Elie Wiesel saw in Moscow on Simchat Torah in 1965
Defying the KGB agents milling around, thousands of Jews tried to get into the great hall of the synagogue
Yiddish World
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Japanese Students Learn Traditional Yiddish Dances
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Dr. Walter Zev Feldman, a leading researcher of Turkish and Jewish music and an exquisite dancer, visited Japan this year with his wife Dr. Judit Frigyesi – a writer, artist and professor of musicology at Bar Ilan University. The couple lectured as part of a symposium at…
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LISTEN: Catalan Nationalist Song’s Popular Yiddish Translation
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Catalonia might not be the place that comes to mind when you think of Yiddish, but a Yiddish version of an unofficial Catalonian independence anthem is now gaining popularity. On October 1, residents of Catalonia will vote on a historic referendum to decide if their region should…
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Chart-Topper ‘Despacito’ Goes Yiddish
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. No matter where you travelled this summer, you were bound to hear Daddy Yankee and Luis Fonsi’s reggaeton hit “Despacito.” The Spanish-language chart-topper has become one of the most popular songs in history; its music video has been watched 3 billion times on YouTube, and the song…
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Acclaimed Director Lila Neugebauer Touts Her Yiddish Roots
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Lila Neugebauer is constantly busy these days. For several years now the award-winning 32-year-old Off Broadway director has been working on between five to seven plays a year, not to mention smaller projects on the side. Her resume includes collaborations with Karen O, lead singer for the…
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Video: The curious history of Rosh Hashanah cards
How the huge popularity of postcards led an artist to produce Rosh Hashanah cards from his photo studio in Warsaw
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The Jewish Designers of North Korea’s Hydrogen Bomb
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. The whole world was recently unnerved to learn that North Korea successfully tested a hydrogen bomb on September 3rd, 2017. According to an analysis of the seismic activity measured from the blast, North Korea’s nuclear scientists seem to be familiar with the Teller-Ulam design for thermonuclear weapons….
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Finally, Der Nister Gets a Gravestone
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Abez. A small station on the Northern railway line more than 2,200 kilometers from Moscow – and only 7 kilometers before the Arctic Circle, where the taiga forest turns into the endless tundra. You won’t find the name Abez on any train station because there is no…
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The Surfing Orthodox Rabbi Who Inspires Kids To Get Fit
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. As a young boy growing up near the ocean in Los Angeles, Rabbi Nachum Shifren would often take a surfboard under his arm and hit the waves. It wasn’t until he was 30, while living in Santa Barbara, that he became inspired by the local Chabad to become an Orthodox Jew. At…
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Why Does This Moscow Shul Attract So Many Converts?
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. In the center of Moscow stands the historic Choral Synagogue – a beautiful yellow-white Neoclassical structure, the most famous shul in the Russian capital. The building, which now belongs to the Lithuanian Jewish community and its “Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia,” was built in 1891 by…
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Fyvush Finkel Tells His Grandfather’s Best Joke
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. The legendary actor Fyvush Finkel, who got his start in Yiddish theater and later made the transition to the English stage and television, died a little over a year ago. The last surviving star of the heyday of America’s Yiddish theater, he was still performing only weeks…
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