The 'Yiddish Voice' Podcast

This week, we present our second interview in the past year and a half with Marvin Zuckerman . Our first took place in his warm and welcoming home in LA’s Pacific Palisades, where the walls were adorned with beautiful paintings and lined with bookshelves holding thousands of volumes. Unfortunately, that house was destroyed in the LA fires of January 2025. Marvin and his wife, Kathy Kohner Zuckerma...

Adi Mehalel (עדי מהלאל) talks about teaching Yiddish language and literature at Univ. of Maryland and Yivo Summer Program and discusses the writers I. L. Peretz, the subject of his book The Radical Isaac: I. L. Peretz and the Rise of Jewish Socialism , and Hanan Ayalti, whose book Boom and Chains: A Yiddish Novel Set in Israel/Palestine is forthcoming with Mehalel’s translation and introduct...

Sholem Beinfeld (in Cambridge, MA, recorded by phone, June 26, 2025) Leybl Botwinik (in central Israel, recorded via Zoom, June 26, 2025) Avremi Zaks (recorded June 20, 2025, courtesy of Kan Israel radio ( https://www.kan.org.il/content/kan/kan-reka/p-10820/ )) Music: (Yiddish music performed by various artists) Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS from Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz A...

Leybl Botwinik is a writer of science fiction, poetry and songs (in both Yiddish and English) who grew up in Montreal’s vibrant Yiddish cultural scene. He is the son of the late Dovid Botwinik, a composer of Yiddish songs, music educator, and Yiddish activist, and the brother of Sender Botwinik, a Yiddish educator, choral director, and music producer. Now living in Israel, Leybl has passed o...

Samuel Kassow is interviewed by Sholem Beinfeld about Rokhl Auerbach and her book Warsaw Testament („וואַרשעווער צוואָות“), which Kassow translated into English. The interview was by Zoom on May 30, 2025, with Kassow and Beinfeld at their homes in Connecticut and Cambridge, MA, respectively. Samuel Kassow is the Charles H. Northam Professor, Emeritus, of History at Trinity College, and is recogniz...

Highlights: On Lag B’Omer by Miriam Libenson ז״ל from our archive from the 1990’s. A report from Israel by Yiddish radio presenter Avremi Zaks , host of the Kan Yiddish כאן יידיש radio show in Israel. We reached Avremi in Jerusalem via Zoom on May 8, 2025. Music: Tova Ben-Zvi: Lag B’Oimer Tova Ben-Zvi: Arum dem Fayer Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS , an instrumental...

This week’s show is in observance of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Highlights: Rabbi Arthur Schneier , Holocaust survivor, world-renowned human rights activist, and senior rabbi of Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue for more than fifty years, shares his wartime memories of the Carpathian town Yasinia (Ukrainian: Ясіня; Hungarian: Kőrösmező; Czech: Jasiňa; Yiddish: Yasin (יאַסין)...

This week’s highlights: We welcome back Rabbi Yitzchok-Boruch Teitelbaum , known in his Monroe, NY, community as der Pshischer Rebbe , for Pesach greetings and words of wisdom. We meet Chazan Dr. Moshe Moskovitz , the High Holiday cantor at Los Angeles’s Congregation Shaarei Tefila , to discuss his background, his yiches (he’s the grandson of two post-war Carpathian cantors), and his journey...

Happy Purim ! אַ פֿריילעכן פּורים Highlights: Sholem Londner : 2 jokes for Purim Shane Baker : Yiddish story for Purim: Drunk All Year, Sober on Purim אַ גאַנץ יאָר שיכּור, פּורים ניכטער Used with the permission of Shane Baker and the Congress for Jewish Culture, originally released on YouTube in 2023. From our archive: Hasia Segal (2010): Purim greetings from FL Iosif Lakhman (2010): Purim greeti...

Highlights: Sholem Beinfeld , regular co-host of The Yiddish Voice and professor emeritus at Washington University, St. Louis, shares thoughts on the new Trump administration as of March 5, 2025, one day after President Trump’s first speech to Congress of his second administration. Rukhl Schaechter ( שׂרה-רחל שעכטער ), editor of Forverts (a/k/a the Yiddish Forward , פֿאָרווערטס ), online at...

This week on The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול, we featured an in-depth conversation with historian Benyomen Moss (Kenneth B. Moss), the Harriet and Ulrich E. Meyer Professor of Jewish History at the University of Chicago. He spoke with Sholem Beinfeld , professor emeritus at Washington University, St. Louis, about his book An Unchosen People: Jewish Political Reckoning in Interwar Poland (Harv...

In honor of International Holocaust Memorial Day, which this January 27, 2025, marks 80 years since the Soviet Red Army liberated the Auschwitz death camp, we present interviews in Yiddish from your archive with four survivors of Auschwitz. As of the broadcast date all were alive and well to the best of our knowledge. The interviewees are: Joseph Alexander , originally from Kowal, Poland, who surv...

Episode Highlights Air date : January 15, 2025 Rabbi Sholom Ber Diskin A shaliach at Chabad of Pacific Palisades, Rabbi Diskin shares his first-hand experience of surviving the Los Angeles wildfires that destroyed his home. He discusses the ongoing relief efforts he and his team are leading. We reached him at his temporary residence in the Pico Robinson neighborhood on Jan. 15, 2025. ➡️ Learn more...

Arele Schaechter Viswanath , the translator of the Harry Potter book series into Yiddish, was interviewed about, and read excerpts from, his translation of the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets , which was recently published by Olniansky Press (Sweden, 2024) under the Yiddish title הערי פּאָטער און די קאַמער פֿון סודות . Arele works in the field of strategy and analytics at tech...

Highlights: Moyshe Hoffman , proprietor of Hoffy’s Kosher Restaurant in Antwerp, Belgium, where you can “enjoy Yiddish traditional cuisine”. He talks about his restaurant, some personal and family history, and a bit about Yiddish life in Antwerp. We interviewed Moyshe Hoffman at Hoffy’s on Nov. 14, 2024. Hoffy’s website: https://hoffys.be Richard Fein ( רובֿן-יעקבֿ פֿ...

Highlights: Rukhl Schaechter ( שׂרה-רחל שעכטער ), editor of Forverts (a/k/a the Yiddish Forward , פֿאָרווערטס ), online at forward.com/yiddish , reflects on 25 years with this Yiddish institution, originally as a writer and now as its editor. She spoke with us on Zoom from her home in Yonkers on Nov. 24, 2024. The Forward is celebrating her anniversary with a Celebrate Our Rukhl event in New York,...

Highlights: Abraham Friedman ( אבֿרהם פֿרידמאַן ), publisher of Di Tzeitung ( די צייטונג ), a major weekly newspaper in the Chareidi world, especially among the Chassidic community in New York. In this interview he talks about what his newspaper offers, discusses current events recently covered by his newspaper, and a little about himself. We reached him by phone at his home in Brooklyn on Wednesd...

אַ גמר חתימה טובֿה! און אַ גוט געבענטשט יאָר! Highlights: Rabbi Itzik-Boruch Teitelbaum (Monroe, NY), known as Der Pshiskher Rov , with a vort for erev Yom Kippur . We reached him by phone at his home in Monroe on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024 Interviews with Israelis about Oct. 7, one year on. Avremi Zaks the host and producer of the weekly Israeli Yiddish radio program “ Kan Yidish .” He a...

אַ כּ‫תיבֿה וחתימה טובֿה! Highlights: Avrom Novershtern (Israel) Professor Emeritus of Yiddish Literature, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. We reached him by phone on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. Eli Sharfstein (Israel) writer and poet. We reached him by phone in Greece, where he was stranded due to cancelations of flights to Israel, on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. Rabbi Itzik-Boruch Teitelbaum (Monroe, NY), kn...

This week, greetings for Rosh Hashona from friends, participants, and sponsors of The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול, combined with a poetry reading by Richard Fein and Sholem Beinfeld . אַ גוט, געבענטשט יאָר אַלע אונדזערע צוהערער - לשנה טובֿה Highlights: Author and translator Richard J. Fein (Yiddish name: Ruvn-Yankev), along with his friend, collaborator, and regular Yiddish Voice cohost Shole...

This week, greetings for Rosh Hashona from friends, participants, and sponsors of The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול, combined with an exciting new interviews with Rabbi Moshe Waldoks and Holocaust survivor Henry Slucki . אַ גוט, געבענטשט יאָר אַלע אונדזערע צוהערער לשנה טובֿה Highlights: Interview with Rabbi Moshe Waldoks , whose biographical one-man show “You Can Live If They Let You&rdqu...

This week, interviews with Perl Teitelbaum and Hy Wolfe . We spoke with them in person at 2024 Yugntruf Yidish-Vokh in Copake, NY, on Aug. 21, 2024. Paula (Perl) Teitelbaum is a Yiddish language at Arbeter Ring , Yivo Institute , and elsewhere. She talked about a new technique she’s been using for teaching Yiddish by watching films. A Yiddish singer who has performed on several album, she al...

This week, an interview with Dovid Braun , talking about the Yivo Bard Zumer-Program and a few related matters. Dovid serves as Academic Director for the summer program, which recently concluded, and year-round as Yivo’s Academic Director for Yiddish. And we hear from our archive (1995) Miriam Libenson on Tisha B’Ov , which falls this year on the night of Monday, Aug. 12. Music: Intro...

This week, Arieh Hecht , a patient advocate in Los Angeles, talks about his life as a child of Holocaust survivors originally from Transylvania (Hungary during WWII) and his work as a patient advocate. We spoke with Arieh in person in Los Angeles on July 4, 2024. We begin with a report from the Yivo-Bard Zumer-Program by Nokhem Lerner , who’s been a Yiddish teacher there the past two years....

Highlights: Mark (“Marek”) Gaysinskiy reports from the Yivo-Bard Zumer-Program; Pnina Sharf , a resident of Los Angeles and a Holocaust survivor from Poland, talks about her life experiences; from Boston’s Yiddish past: a performance by the late Cantor Gregor Shelkan , performing a song about what will happen when Meshiekh (the Messiah) comes (recorded in 1999 at the Cantorial co...