The 'Yiddish Voice' Podcast

Happy Purim !! אַ פֿריילעכן פּורים Part 1: Jokes and humor for Purim told by Libby Pollak , Sholem Beinfeld , Sheila (Sheyndl) Lieberman-Reich , Sheldon (Shulem) Londner , and Hy Wolfe . Part 2: Arele Schaechter Viswanath discusses his Google Doc "אַ בלעטל פּורים־מאַטעריאַלן", which the פֿאָרווערטס/Forverts/Yiddish Forward described as "Lively Yiddish Purim materials for teachers, students and par...

This week, interview with Holocaust survivor Nathan Gipsman , originally from Będzin ( Bendin ), who recently celebrated his 99th birthday; Alona Bach and Sarah Biskowitz cover Farbindungen 2024 , the third annual Farbindungen Yiddish Studies Conference, taking place online from February 18 – 19th, 2024; Kolya Borodulin announces the Yiddish classes offered by Workers Circle/ Arbeter Ring , starti...

Last week, we learned the sad news that David (Dovid) Lenga has died at the age of 96. He was buried in Los Angeles on Jan. 28, 2024. Los Angeles survivor and community leader Harry Davids said of him, "David was a survivor of Dachau and Auschwitz. He frequently spoke at the museums, synagogues and schools, and his presentations were known for their oratory and inspirational style."In his memory,...

In observance of International Holocaust Rememberance Day (Jan. 27) we're listening to and discussing Silent Tears: The Last Yiddish Tango , the acclaimed 2023 CD with new music and songs based on poetry and other writing by several women who are, or were, Holocaust survivors in Toronto. These songs recall their terrible and traumatic experiences during the Holocaust, including sexual abuse and to...

Last week, we received via Facebook the sad news that Avrohom Fuchs has died at the age of 99. He was buried in Jerusalem on Jan. 15, 2024. In his memory, we're airing part of an interview recorded in Jerusalem on Jan. 2, 2015, and originally aired Jan. 21, 2015. Fuchs, who survived the Holocaust, including Auschwitz and Ebensee, was a scholar of the Jewish history of the Carpathian Mountains, as...

Highlights: Mikhl Yashinsky discusses his new Yiddish-language plan די בשׂורה לויט חיים ( The Gospel According to Chaim / Di Psure Loyt Khaim ), which is based on the true-life figure Chaim Einspruch, who translated the New Testament into Yiddish. When Einspruch tried to publish his book during the early 1940's, he was refused by every Yiddish printer, so learned how to do his own printing and pub...

Highlights: Sholem Beinfeld , cohost of The Yiddish Voice and Professor of History, Emeritus, of Washington University, St. Louis, gives an analysis of Israel's war with Hamas in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 massacre. Hershl Hartman passed away last week, Monday, December 11, 2023, a few days after his 94th birthday. In his memory we are reairing our interview with him, discussing his work as a Yid...

Interview with Berele Messinger , an Israeli member of ZAKA who was on the scene in Kibbutz Be'eri the day after the October 7 massacre. We reached him by WhatsApp on Nov. 29, 2023. Music: Moshe Stern: A Gezang Tzu Yisroel Rina Gordon: Far Nakht In Yerusholayim (words: Zalman Shazar) Moshe Stern: Undzer Eygn Land Moshe Stern: Ver Bistu Mentsh Moyshe Oisher: Broches far Khanike Pripetshik Singers:...

Highlights of this week's show: Interview with freygl gertsovski , who founded Queer Yiddish Camp , on the upcoming cabaret fundraiser to benefit Queer Yiddish Camp taking place Sun., Dec. 3, 2023, 2 PM Eastern, on Zoom. Info and tickets online here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/radyiddish/1025964 We spoke via Whatsapp on Nov. 6, 2023. Interviews with four Holocaust survivors about Israel a...

‫מיר טרויערן נאָך די מער ווי 1,400 מענטשן שוידערלעך אומגעבראַכט פֿון דער טעראָר-גרופּע כאַמאַס אין ישׂראל דעם 7טן אַקטאָבער 2023. מיר זאָרגן זיך זייער וועגן די פֿאַרוווּנדעטע, זאָלן זיי אַלע האָבן אַ רפֿואה־שלמה, ווי אויך וועגן די פֿאַרכאַפּטע, זאָלן זיי אַלע צוריקקומען אַהיים בשלום.‬‬ ‫ ‫הערט אינטערוויוען מיט ישׂראלים וועגן דער טעראַר-אַטאַקע און דער איצטיקער מלחמה אין ישׂראל:‬ אלי שאַרפֿשטיין El...

‫מיר טרויערן נאָך די מער ווי 1,400 מענטשן שוידערלעך אומגעבראַכט פֿון דער טעראָר-גרופּע כאַמאַס אין ישׂראל דעם 7טן אַקטאָבער 2023. מיר זאָרגן זיך זייער וועגן די פֿאַרוווּנדעטע, זאָלן זיי אַלע האָבן אַ רפֿואה־שלמה, ווי אויך וועגן די פֿאַרכאַפּטע, זאָלן זיי אַלע צוריקקומען אַהיים בשלום.‬‬ ‫ ‫הערט אַן אינטערוויו מיט דניאל גלאי וועגן דער טעראַר-אַטאַקע און דער איצטיקער מלחמה אין ישׂראל. גלאי איז אַ קאָ...

‫מיר טרויערן נאָך די מער ווי 1,200 מענטשן שוידערלעך אומגעבראַכט פֿון דער טעראָר-גרופּע כאַמאַס אין ישׂראל דעם 7טן אַקטאָבער 2023. מיר זאָרגן זיך זייער וועגן די פֿאַרוווּנדעטע, זאָלן זיי אַלע האָבן אַ רפֿואה־שלמה, ווי אויך וועגן די פֿאַרכאַפּטע, זאָלן זיי אַלע צוריקקומען אַהיים בשלום.‬ ‫ הערט אַ קאַמענטאַר פֿונעם היסטאָריקער פּראָפֿ׳ שלום ביינפֿעלד , אַ באַריכט פֿון ישׂראל פֿונעם ייִדיש-ראַדיאָ פּר...

This week, greetings for חול המועד סוכּות ( Chol Hamoed Succos ) from friends, participants, and sponsors of The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול, combined with Succos Vort and two interviews, and then a great deal of music appropriate for Yom Tov days of Succos/Shemini Atseres/Simchas Torah ! אַ גוט, געבענטשט יאָר אַלע אונדזערע צוהערער אַ גוט קוויטל און אַ גמר חתימה טובֿה Highlights: Greetings fr...

This week, greetings for גמר חתימה טובֿה ( Gmar Chassima Toyve , a good final sealing) from friends, participants, and sponsors of The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול, combined with an excellent "Best of Succos" program from our archive (2019) with various presenters and lots of Succos music. אַ גוט, געבענטשט יאָר אַלע אונדזערע צוהערער אַ גוט קוויטל און אַ גמר חתימה טובֿה Highlights: Greetings fr...

This week, greetings for Rosh Hashona from friends, participants, and sponsors of The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול, combined with an excellent interview from our archive with Rabbi Moshe Kesselman (2022). אַ גוט, געבענטשט יאָר אַלע אונדזערע צוהערער אַ גוט קוויטל און אַ לײַכטן תּענית - גמר חתימה טובֿה Highlights: Greetings from Judy Altmann , Holocaust survivor originally from Jasina, Czechoslo...

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 Avrohom Marmorstein as well as an encore presentation on the High Holidays by Miriam Libenson ז״ל from the archive of our predecessor show די ייִדישע שעה from 1992. אַ גוט, געבענטשט יאָר אַלע אונדזערע צוהערער לשנה טובֿה Highligh...

This week, greetings for Rosh Hashona from friends, participants, and sponsors of The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול, combined with exciting new interviews with Rabbi Mordechai-Tzvi Solomon and Eli Grodko ! אַ גוט, געבענטשט יאָר אַלע אונדזערע צוהערער לשנה טובֿה Highlights: Greetings on behalf of the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants of Greater Boston , featuring...

Interview with Lily (ליליע) Weitzman and Jonah (יונה) Sidman , who recently led a workshop to teach songs created by them and others active in Yiddish language and culture activities around the Boston Workers Circle. The Yiddish Voice was on hand to record four songs sung by participants in the workshop they led, titled נײַע לידער פֿון באָסטאָן (New Songs from Boston), presented at the 2023 Yidish...

This week, interviews with Nick Underwood and Dovid Braun ! Interview with Nick Underwood on Yiddish Paris and Nick's book Yiddish Paris: Staging Nation and Community in Interwar France (Indiana University Press, 2022), which describes the rich Yiddish-speaking culture of emigrants from Eastern Europe in Paris during the interwar years. The interviewer is Sholem Beinfeld , cohost of The Yiddish Vo...

This week, interviews with Yelena Shmulenson and Boris Sandler in memory of the August 12, 1952 tragedy known as Night of the Murdered Poets , when thirteen Soviet Jews, all leading intellectuals, five of whom were top Yiddish writers, were executed in the Lubianka Prison in Moscow on false charges of spying and treason. The charges were reexamined and admitted to have "no substance" by the Soviet...

from our archive: Nathan Kasdan (נחום קאָזשדאַן), who died one year ago (JULY 14, 2022), gave us an extraordinary interview in 2013, which we've previously aired in 2013 and 2014 as well as in 2015. We recently learned that Nathan passed away, about a year ago. Considering Nathan's yahrtzeit, as well as the fact that it's erev Tisha B'Ov, we're re-airing our interview with Nathan again. from our a...

This week, Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath and Rabbi Izchak Kin . Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath is chairperson of the League for Yiddish . She discusses the League for Yiddish's Words of the Week, specifically the recent week devoted to the armed uprising in Russia. We reached her by Zoom on June 9, 2023. Rabbi Izchak Kin talks about various memories of his personal life, starting with memories of Pesach in...

This week, Sholem Beinfeld discusses the recent uprising in Russia, and Avremi Zak and Meyer Hirshman discuss Israeli society and politics. Sholem Beinfeld was recorded on the day of broadcast (July 5, 2023). The first interview with Avremi Zak was by The Yiddish Voice on April 26, 2023. The second interview of Meyer Hirshman by Avremi Zak was by Kan Yiddish and originally aired on Israeli radio o...

The Yiddish Voice was in Israel earlier in June 2023 and had the opportunity to interview Avrom Novershtern , who is professor emeritus from the Yiddish Program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and currently serves as the director of Beit Sholem Aleichem in Tel Aviv, a cultural center devoted to Yiddish and the Eastern European Jewish Heritage Topics discussed: About Beys Sholem Aleykhem - hi...

Highlights: interview with Kolya Borodulin , Director of Yiddish Programming at Arbeter Ring ( circle.org ), talking about the Summer 2023 Yiddish course offerings currently starting or about to start online now. interview, part 2, with Mary Ehrlich , a Boston-area Holocaust survivor originally from Gedrevitsh (Giedraiciai in Lithuanian), a shtetl near Vilna (and closer to the Vilkomir). In Mary E...