The 'Yiddish Voice' Podcast

Prof. Cecile (Tsirl) Kuznitz talks about the upcoming “Schaechter Conference”, which she is chairing, sponsored by the League for Yiddish, JTS, and Columbia University. Info: League for Yiddish Rokhl Zicherman , a survivor of Auschwitz who grew up in Tybava , a small village in the Carpathian Mountains which was in Czechoslovakia before WWII, part of Hungary during the war, and is now...

Jessica Kirzane discusses her recent recent translations from Yiddish into English. She is perhaps best known for her translations of the late Yiddish writer Miriam Karpilove: Diary of a Lonely Girl, or the Battle Against Free Love (Syracuse University Press, 2020) and Judith: A Tale of Love and Woe (Farlag Press, 2022). Kirzane is a professor at the University of Chicago, teaching Yiddish languag...

אַ גוטן מועד Happy Succos! For Chol Hamoed Succos , we present two very special guests: Rabbi Yitzchok-Boruch Teitelbaum of Monroe, NY, the Pshischer Rebbe , a descendant of several Polish Chassidic masters including the Yid Hakodesh of Peshischa, gives a shiur for Succos and also shares a nigun he composed himself. Kolya Borodulin , director of Yiddish classes at Arbeter Ring , talks about the la...

Feature interview: Dovid Braun , academic director of Yivo Institute’s Uriel Weinreich Summer Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture , discusses the ZumerProgram , Yiddish courses at YIVO , and Yiddish education generally, including the topic of “ Chassidic Yiddish ”. Happy New Year! אַ גמר טובֿ! אַ גוט יאָר Greetings from our friends and sponsors Holocaust survivor...

Feature interview: Rabbi Moshe Kesselman of Congregation Shaarei Tefila in Los Angeles reflects with host Meyer on Rosh Hashona. Happy New Year! אַ גוט יאָר Greetings from our friends and sponsors Holocaust survivor Tania Lefman , on behalf of the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors (AAJHS) of Greater Boston. Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath , on behalf of the League for Yiddish - די ייִדי...

Feature interview: Hy Wolfe chats with host Meyer about various things, including Yidish-Vokh 2022, Meyer’s recent trip to Germany for a dedication of Stolpersteine for his father’s family, and Hy’s experience of 9/11 . Happy New Year! אַ גוט יאָר Greetings from our friends and sponsors Holocaust survivor Tania Lefman , on behalf of the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Su...

Part 1: Last July 13 we aired a quick interview with Gitu Cycowics just hours after her meeting with President Biden at Yad Vashem to get her first impressions, and she made us promise to let her come back to look back when she was not so tired and had time to think about things. We reached her by phone at her home in Jerusalem on Aug. 25, 2022.. Gitu – a/k/a Giselle (Gita) Cycowicz (née Fri...

Interview with acclaimed performing artist Eleanor Reissa discussing her recently published memoir The Letters Project: A Daughter’s Journey . In 1986, after her mother’s death, Reissa discovered fifty-six letters written by her late father. She set them aside for forty years before finally having them translated, which led to set her on a journey to her father’s history during t...

We continue our summer rerun season with a panel discussion of the tragic events of August 12, 1952, in Moscow, with Gennady Estraikh , Jana Mazurkiewicz Meisarosh , and Sholem Beinfeld , which was originally aired August 12, 2020. Air date: July 27, 2022 PS: you can still find the original podcast in our archive: https://podcast.yv.org/episodes/estraikh-mazurkiewicz-meisarosh-beinfeld-august-12-1...

Part 1: We took a temporary break from our summer rerun season to bring our dear listeners breaking news, of a sort, from the real world: we reached friend of the show Gitu Cycowics hours after her meeting with President Biden at Yad Vashem to get her first impressions. Gitu – a/k/a Giselle (Gita) Cycowicz (née Friedman) – who was born in 1927 in the town of Chust in the Carpathian Mou...

This week we listen back to our February 2018 interview with Zvi Gitelman, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, author and editor of numerous books, including A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1881 to the Present (2001) and The New Jewish Diaspora: Russian-speaking Immigrants in the United States, Israel and Germ...

This week we listen back to our March 2020 interview with Elissa Bemporad , author of the book Legacy of Blood: Jews, Pogroms, and Ritual Murder in the Lands of the Soviets (Oxford University Press, 2019), interviewed by Sholem Beinfeld . Today we’re re-airing the entire interview. It was originally aired in two parts in amid the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, and may have gotten a bit l...

This week, we’re listening back to a favorite Yiddish Voice interview from the past: our interview with famed American-Israeli actor and singer Mike Burstyn , discussing the streamed production Megillah Cycle as well as many aspects of Yiddish theater and his history with it, originally aired in February 2021. Air date: June 22, 2022 PS: you can still find the original podcast containing thi...

This week, we’re listening back to a favorite Yiddish Voice interview from the past: our interview with Rachel Rojanski , author of Yiddish in Israel: A History . This is part 1 of the interview, originally aired in May, 2021. This podcast includes a current (June 2022) announcement: Event announcement: Linda (Libe) Gritz announces the forthcoming Bostoner Arbeter Ring Chorus concert, featur...

Interview with Sheldon (Shulem) Londner, discussing growing up speaking Yiddish as the child of Holocaust survivors, and later joining and eventually leading the Los Angeles Yidish-Leyenkrayz (Yiddish reading circle), which started in the 1990’s and, under his leadership, has met on Zoom practically every week during the Covid Pandemic. Event announcement: Linda (Libe) Gritz announces the fo...

Dr. Sheva Zucker presents her new bilingual audio album The Golden Peacock: The Voice of the Yiddish Writer , which she edited and produced. It was originally published in 2001 in an all-Yiddish CD format. In 2021, it was released as a revised bilingual edition, making it available either as MP3 files or as two audio CDs. The set now includes the voices of twelve Yiddish writers and a 138-page boo...

Joseph Alexander , a 99-year-old Holocaust survivor now living in Los Angeles, originally from Kowal, Poland, talks about his Holocaust experiences. We recorded this interview with him via Zoom on May 17, 2022. Miriam Libenson ז״ל: Lag B’Omer (from our archive, originally recorded and aired in the 1990’s) Music: Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS , an instrumental track from...

Tonight’s show aired on the night after Yom HaZikaron and on the eve of Yom HaAtsmaut. We present a new interview with Yehuda Neufeld , an Israeli war veteran, now living in Los Angeles, who was wounded in Israel’s war with Egypt arising out of the Suez Crisis of October 1956. We also heard from our archives: Hasia Segal ז״ל on the Boston Zionist hero Dewey Stone . We also heard music...

Tonight’s show aired on the eve of Yom HaShoah. We present a new interview with Naftali (Tuli) Deutsch , an Auschwitz survivor, as well as recordings of three others from past years. They are Al (Zoli) Langer , Rokhl Zicherman , and Matele Friedman ז״ל. All of these survivors were born in Carpathian Ruthenia, then in Czechoslovakia, now known as Zakarpatska Oblast, in the western part of Ukr...

Happy Passover! ‫אַ זיסן און כּשרן פּסח און אַ גוטן מועד!‬ Happy Passover and thanks to friends, participants, and sponsors of this show: Israel Book Shop ( Eli Dovek recorded Mar 28 2007) The Butcherie ( Max Gelerman ז״ל recorded Mar 28 2007) Cheryl Ann’s Bakery , featuring kosher and pareve breads and pastries American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Greater Boston ( Tania Lef...

Happy Passover! ‫אַ זיסן און כּשרן פּסח!‬ Happy Passover and thanks to friends, participants, and sponsors of this show: Israel Book Shop ( Eli Dovek recorded Mar 28 2007) The Butcherie ( Max Gelerman ז״ל recorded Mar 28 2007) Cheryl Ann’s Bakery , featuring kosher and pareve breads and pastries American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Greater Boston ( Tania Lefman , Treasurer,...

Happy Passover! ‫אַ זיסן און כּשרן פּסח!‬ Happy Passover and thanks to friends, participants, and sponsors of this show: Israel Book Shop ( Eli Dovek recorded Mar 28 2007) The Butcherie ( Max Gelerman ז״ל recorded Mar 28 2007) Cheryl Ann’s Bakery , featuring kosher and pareve breads and pastries American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Greater Boston ( Tania Lefman , Treasurer,...

Happy Passover! ‫אַ זיסן און כּשרן פּסח!‬ Happy Passover and thanks to friends, participants, and sponsors of this show: Israel Book Shop ( Eli Dovek recorded Mar 28 2007) The Butcherie ( Max Gelerman ז״ל recorded Mar 28 2007) Cheryl Ann’s Bakery , featuring kosher and pareve breads and pastries American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Greater Boston ( Tania Lefman , Treasurer,...

Hear all about the upcoming 2022 YIVO Summer Program from Dovid Braun , the summer program’s academic director. There’s still time to register, for in person or online classes. For more info, check out their web site: https://summerprogram.yivo.org Hear an interview with Lilly Segelstein , an Auschwitz survivor who was born in Klitsherkes (קליטשערקעס), then in Czechoslovakia, and today...

Interview with Gennady Estraikh discussing the war in Ukraine. Estraikh, who was born in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, is a professor at NYU who specializes in Jewish intellectual history, Yiddish language and literature, and Soviet Jewish history. He has written numerous books, academic papers, and journal and newspaper articles in English, Russian, Ukrainian, and Yiddish, notably for the Yiddish Forver...