The 'Yiddish Voice' Podcast

Highlights: Our co-host Sholem Beinfeld , who is Professor of History, Emeritus, Washington University, St. Louis, gives a historic, and Jewish, perspective on the United States of America in observance of the upcoming 4th of July, 2026, holiday. Later in the program, we play a series of songs in honor of America written and performed by a variety of performers and songwriters. Our featured guest...

Interview with Lea Koenig ( ליאַ קעניג ), one of Israel’s most beloved stage actresses, together with Yaniv Goldberg , author of The Stage of Her Life: Conversations with Actress Lea Koenig on Theater and Her Life . The program focuses on Koenig’s long career in Yiddish theater as well as Israeli Hebrew-language theater, TV and film. Born into a Yiddish theatrical family, Koenig became known inter...

Preview excerpt of our upcoming full episode featuring special guest Lea Koenig (ליִאַ קעניג) interviewed by special guest co-host Mikhl Yashinsky (מיכל יאַשינסקי), which was recorded on Zoom on May 6, 2026, with Lea in Israel and Mikhl in Australia. The full episode, also featuring special guest Professor Yaniv Goldberg and special guest co-host Hy Wolfe , will debut on the Yiddish Voice radio sh...

HIGHLIGHTS On the day of Israel Independence Day (Yom Haatsmaut) and one day after Israel’s Memorial Day (Yom Hazikaron), we welcome back Leybl Botwinik to talk about life in Israel while at war against Iran. 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 D...

We wish all our cohosts, sponsors and friends a Happy and Kosher Pesach. מיר ווינטשן אַלע אונדזערע אונטערשטיצער, פֿרײַנד און באַטייליקטע אַ פֿריילעכן און כּשרן פּסח 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 reached Rabbi Teitelbaum by phone at his home in Monsey, NY, on Mar...

Highlights: Yiddish Voice co-host Sholem Beinfeld shares his commentary on the latest world events, including the Iran-Israel-USA war and the Russia-Ukraine war, from a Jewish perspective. Sholem spoke to us by phone from his home in Cambridge, MA, on Mar. 11, 2026. Emory University professor Miriam Udel (מרים אודעל) discussed her book Modern Jewish Worldmaking Through Yiddish Children’s Lit...

This week, Avremi Zaks , presenter for Israel’s Kan Yiddish (כאן יידיש) radio show, covers Israel’s current military operation “Lion’s Roar” and related matters. We reached Avremi in Jerusalem via WhatsApp on Purim, March 3, 2026, Boston time, and Erev Shushan Purim, after sundown in Israel, the same date. To hear Kan Yiddish, featuring Avremi and others, visit: https...

Dr. David E. Fishman (דוד-אליהו פֿישמאַן), historian and writer, talks about his substack “ The War in Ukraine: Jewish News ” ( davidfishman.substack.com ). Coming out about every two weeks since November 2024, this substack has covered the brutal Russia-Ukraine war, which began four years ago, from a Jewish perspective. Fishman is Professor of Jewish History at the Jewish Theological...

In observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day we’re airing an interview with Holocaust survivor Adela Dagerman . Adela (born Adela Kraus) grew up in Nyírbátor, Hungary. In 1944, as a 16-year-old, she and her family were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. She and her sister Rose survived. After her liberation, Adela returned to Hungary where she met and married her husband Jack. The c...

Happy Hanukkah ! אַ פֿרײלעכן חנוכּה Our normally happy Hanukkah programming was overshaddowed by the horrific massacre of Jews at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia’s Bondi Beach. We spoke with Alex Dafner , Australia’s main Yiddish radio presenter the past 40 years and a leading Yiddish and Jewish cultural activist and teacher based in Melbourne, about the horrible massacre a...

Happy Hanukkah ! אַ פֿרײלעכן חנוכּה Highlights: Sender Botwinik (סענדער באָטװיניק), music and Yiddish teacher, chorus director and Yiddishist, discusses the new CD he produced and published Zumer iz Shoyn Vider Do – זומער איז שוין ווידער דאָ featuring the music of his late father Dovid Botwinik , the Vilna-born music composer, music teacher, songwriter, chorus director and Holocaust survivor. Info...

Highlights: Mikhl Yashinsky (מיכל יאַשינסקי), a multifaceted actor, playwright, director, lyricist, translator and Yiddishist, discusses his new English translation of Adventures of Max Spitzkopf: The Yiddish Sherlock Holmes by Jonas Kreppel, published by White Goat Press in October 2025. Publisher’s page: https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/about/white-goat-press-0/jonas-kreppel More on Mikhl: http...

Highlights: Rabbi Zach Golden (זכריה גאָלדן) was ordained at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles in 2020. He is the co-founder of Der Nister Downtown Jewish Center and previously served as Deputy Editor at the Forverts Yiddish newspaper. He is the co-founder of Los Angeles Yiddish Day 2025 , which takes place Sunday, November 23, 2025, on the campus of Hebrew Union College near D...

As our show aired Erev Yom Kippur , we again presented excerpts of our past interviews on The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול with Holocaust survivors who died during the past year. Since our previous episode, we’ve lost Ben Lesser, who died the first day of Rosh Hashona, so we were unable to include this in our previous week’s show. The remainder of the show is a repeat of the previo...

We are again airing excerpts of interviews with Holocaust survivors, past guests of The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול who died during the past year. Since our previous episode, we’ve lost Ben Lesser, who died the first day of Rosh Hashona, so we were unable to include this in our previous week’s show. The remainder of the show is a repeat of the previous week’s show. Aron Bell...

Shmuel Bak ( Samuel Bak ), the internationally renowned artist and Holocaust survivor, presented in a lengthy conversation with his friend, The Yiddish Voice co-host Sholem Beinfeld . Excerpts from Pucker Gallery’s page about Bak : *Samuel Bak was born in Vilna, Poland in 1933, at a crucial moment in modern history. From 1940 to 1944, Vilna was under Soviet, then German occupation. Bak’s art...

Matty Mendlowitz runs the YouTube channel Multisingual , featuring Yiddish-language vlogs of her travels, deep dives into world languages (especially Yiddish and its history and grammar, with a focus on contemporary Chassidic Yiddish), Disney clips dubbed into Yiddish, and much more engaging content. In this interview Matty talks about her background, including growing up speaking Yiddish, and wha...

Charlie on the MTA in Yiddish is performed by Yiddishists from Boston’s Arbeter Ring and exclusively recorded for The Yiddish Voice on Labor Day, Sept. 1, 2025, in Medford, MA. All of the following sang, with additional contributions noted: ליליע װײַצמאַן — Lily Weitzman · איבערזעצונג און נײַע סטראָפֿע (translation, introduction and new verse) יונה סידמאַן — Jonah Sidman · גיטאַר (guitar) עמאַ ברע...

Deborah A. Green (דבֿורה גרין)— author, historian, translator, Yiddishist and retired litigator — discusses her translation of the late Yiddish journalist S. L. Schneiderman’s book קריג אין שפּאַניען about the Spanish Civil War, with an emphasis on the outsized role of Jews among the International Brigades who took part. Deborah’s new translation into English is Journey Through the Spa...

Riki Rose (ריקי רױז) — who works as a singer, songwriter and comic in both Yiddish and English — discusses her life and career. She’s built up a substantial following over the past several years through concerts and social media performances. Her latest recording, גלות Blues , has just been released on YouTube , Spotify and most other platforms. We reached her by phone at her home in the New...

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...