The 'Yiddish Voice' Podcast

Cecille (Tsirl) Kuznitz , Assistant Professor of Jewish History and Director of Jewish Studies at Bard College, discusses her book YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture: Scholarship for the Yiddish Nation (Cambridge University Press), the first history of the YIVO Insitute. Originally published in 2014, the book recently came out in a new softcover edition in 2017. Further publication info...

אַ פֿריילעכן פּורים ****HAPPY PURIM! Air Date: Feb 28, 2018

אַ פֿריילעכן פּורים ****HAPPY PURIM! Air Date: Feb 21, 2018

Zvi Gitelman is Professor of Political Science and Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, where he studies ethnicity and politics, especially in former Communist countries, as well as Israeli politics, East European politics, and Jewish political thought and behavior. His most recent edited book is The New Jewish Diaspora: Russian-speaking Immigrants in the United States, Israe...

On 27 January 1945, Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration and death camp, was liberated by the Soviet Army. This Jan 27, 2018, is Holocaust Remembrance Day. We are observing the day by re-airing portions of interviews with two survivors of the death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Amram Deutsch is a survivor of Auschwitz from Sighet, now living in Los Angeles. Originally recorded and aired i...

Shane Baker on Shloyme Mikhoels : we discuss the upcoming program by Kultur Kongres ( http://congressforjewishculture.org ) to honor the memory of the great Soviet Yiddish actor and director Shloyme Mikhoels on the 70th anniversary of his murder. On Thursday, January 18th, 2018 at 7 PM there will be a short lecture about the life of his theater, the GOSET, video presentations of materials with Mik...

This is a special Yahrtzeit (“Yortsayt”, or first-year memorial) program for Hasia Segal z"l, co-founder and co-host of the Yiddish Voice, whose who died one year ago, the night of January 16, 2017, which is 19 Teyves on the Jewish calendar. Therefore, her first yahrtzeit falls this week Saturday, January 6, 2018. Our program features new remarks by cohosts Meyer, Sholem, and Dovi...

Bella Bryks-Klein spoke about Vos-Ven-Vu, her monthly guide to Yiddish happenings in Israel, as well as several of her many other activities related to Yiddish language and culture, in Israel, New York, and even Poland. Boris Sandler talks about his new Yiddish web journal Yiddish Branzhe ( https://yiddishbranzhe.com ), which recently launched. Sandler says particularly wants to provide a showcase...

Basically a repeat of our Dec 8, 2017 show featuring an interview with Luzer Twersky , but with a new Israel Report by Adam Gruzman , courtesy of the Forverts Sho on the web at yiddish.forward.com .

Saul Noam Zaritt is an assistant professor of Yiddish literature at Harvard University. He received his doctorate in Jewish literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and he is the founding editor of In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies (ingeveb.org). We reached him by phone at his office in Cambridge, MA. The interview was conducted by Sholem Beinfeld , a regular contributor to the Yiddis...

Luzer Twersky grew up speaking Yiddish in a Chassidic home in Boro Park but left that life behind as a young adult, cutting practically all ties with his family and community. He now works as an actor in film, television, and theater, performing both in Yiddish- and English-speaking roles. Twersky appears as one of the three subjects of the documentary One of Us, recently released on Netflix, whic...

Noah Barrera has become a serious activist on the Yiddish scene in New York City, where he has been a writer for Yiddish publications, worked in three Yiddish theaters, taught Yiddish language classes, and given talks in Yiddish. Our interview took place last August at the Yidish-Vokh, the week-long Yiddish retreat held each summer and sponsored by Yugntruf - Youth for Yiddish ( https://yugntruf.o...

Daniel Galai wrote about the sorry recent demise of the daily Yiddish-language broadcast in Israel in his recent article in the Yiddish Forward (Forverts), titled (in translation) “Troubling Fate For Israeli Yiddish Radio”. The article is here: http://yiddish.forward.com/articles/204522/troubling-fate-for-israeli-yiddish-radio/ We reached Daniel Galay by phone in Israel. Daniel Galay i...

Eitan Kensky is Director of Collections at the Yiddish Book Center (( yiddishbookcenter.org )) as well as chairman of the board of In Geveb, the online journal of Yiddish studies (( ingeveb.org )), which he cofounded. Previously, he was the preceptor in Yiddish at Harvard University, where he received his PhD in Jewish studies. The interview was jointly conducted by Mark David and Sholem Beinfeld....

Alexander (Sender) Botwinik discussed the recently released CD of Yiddish art songs composed by his father, the Vilna-born Montreal composer David Botwinik, with lyrics by various Yiddish poets, and featuring vocal performances by internationally acclaimed opera singers Lisa Willson, John Packard, and Ian DeNolfo, as well as 2 bonus songs performed by the late world-renowned tenor Louis Danto. The...

Elissa Bemporad is the Jerry and William Ungar Associate Professor of East European Jewish History and the Holocaust at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center. She is the author of Becoming Soviet Jews: The Bolshevik Experiment in Minsk (Indiana University Press, 2013), winner of the National Jewish Book Award and of the Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History. The Russian edition was recently...

Samuel Kassow is the Charles H. Northam Professor of History at Trinity College, and is recognized as one of the world’s leading scholars on the Holocaust and the Jews of Poland. Kassow was born in 1946 in a DP-camp in Stuttgart, Germany and grew up speaking Yiddish. Kassow attended the London School of Economics and Princeton University where he earned a PhD in 1976 with a study about students an...

Professors Samuel Kassow and Elissa Bemporad , along with numerous other academic experts, will soon take part in the YIVO’s conference JEWS IN AND AFTER THE 1917 RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, Sun/Mon Nov 5-6. See: https://yivo.org/1917 We reached them by phone today for interviews that take up practically the whole hour. (And then some: there are bonus podcasts with even more!) Samuel Kassow is the C...

Ari Hershkowitz , one of the three subjects of the film One of Us , now showing on Netflix and in select theatres, which shows the struggles of young people leaving their insular New York Chassidic-Jewish community. See also: One of Us website: https://lokifilms.com/one-of-us/ Zvi Gitelman , professor of political science at University of Michigan, in an interview from 2009. Gitelman and numerous...

Raphael Finkel , Professor of computer science at University of Kentucky, College of Engineering, in Lexington, KY, interviewed at the Yidish-Vokh in August 2017, discussed the vast collection of Yiddish resources he maintains online, largely with software he created, such as a searchable Yiddish-English dictionary and a searchable archive of the complete works of the writer Sholem Aleichem. Profe...

NOTE: repeat of last week (Oct. 4, 2017) except for music at end: last three numbers were replaced by the last two numbers shown below for music. Gut Yontef, Gut Yor! We thank those who have pledged or made financial contributions to the Yiddish Voice during the past year. (Repeated from last week.) We recall the names of Yiddish Voice friends, supporters, and participants who died during the past...

We thank those who have pledged or made financial contributions to the Yiddish Voice during the past year. (Repeated from last week.) We recall the names of Yiddish Voice friends, supporters, and participants who died during the past year. (Repeated from last week.) Rav Itzchak Kin : a few questions about Succos. (Excerpt repeated from last week.) Rav Myer Loketch : Succos: Di 4 Minim (The 4 Speci...

We wish you all the best for a healthy, happy New Year. לשנה טובה תיכתבו ותיחתמו! ‏ מיר ווינטשן אײַך ״אַ גוט קוויטל״! We thank those who have pledged or made financial contributions to the Yiddish Voice during the past year. We recall the names of Yiddish Voice friends, supporters, and participants who died during the past year. Rabbi Itzchak Kin : questions and answers for the ten days of repenta...

We wish you all the best for a healthy, happy New Year. Le Shona Toyve! ‏לשנה טובה תיכתבו ותיחתמו‏ Tania Lefman (repeat from last week), Holocaust survivor, recalls both her happy childhood in prewar Koretz, Poland, as well as her struggle to stay alive after the German takeover in 1941. Mrs. Lefman is a founding and active member of the Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants of...

We wish you all the best for a healthy, happy New Year. Le Shona Toyve! לשנה טובה תיכתבו ותיחתמו Rav Avrohom Marmorstein (repeat): a discussion of the High Holidays, and also a little about the Rabbi, his background, and about Yiddish. Rav Marmorstein is the director of Mehadrin Kashrus on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. For info: http://www.vaad.org/new-york-manhattan/mehadrin-kashrus/ . (Note:...