The 'Yiddish Voice' Podcast

Professor Ellie (Elke) Kellman of Brandeis University discusses her research on the radical Yiddish press in the America of the late 19th and early 20th century. Ellie Kellman researches and writes about modern Yiddish literature and literary history, specializing in the history of the Yiddish periodical press and publishing industry. Her book-in-progress is entitled Reading the New Country: Abrah...

On this day of President Trump’s second impeachment (Jan 13 2021), following last week’s historic 2021 storming of the United States Capitol , we discussed DC Meshugas (Washington craziness), with Sholem Beinfeld , co-host of The Yiddish Voice , co-chief-editor of the Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary , and Professor Emeritus, Washington U. in St. Louis; Dr. Zackary (Sholem) Ber...

Roundtable discussion of current events, including the American and Israeli elections, COVID-19, and antisemetism in Eastern Europe. Participating in the discussion are Professor Dovid Katz , a Vilna-based Yiddish scholar and activist in the field of Holocaust history and human rights; Avremi Zaks , radio journalist and host of Israel’s weekly Yiddish radio show Kan Yiddish ; and Sholem Bein...

Roundtable discussion of current events, including the American and Israeli elections, COVID-19, and antisemetism in Eastern Europe. Participating in the discussion are Professor Dovid Katz , a Vilna-based Yiddish scholar and activist in the field of Holocaust history and human rights; Avremi Zaks , radio journalist and host of Israel’s weekly Yiddish radio show Kan Yiddish ; and Sholem Bein...

Interview with Miriam Udel , editor and translator of Honey on the Page: A Treasury of Yiddish Children’s Literature (NYU Press, October 2020). Additional info from publisher: https://nyupress.org/9781479874132/honey-on-the-page/ Miriam Udel is associate professor of Yiddish language, literature, and culture at Emory University, where she studies the Jewish encounter with modernity. She hold...

Khanedank / Thanksgivukkah 2013! Special rebroadcast! We rebroadcast/restreamed our 2013 special live broadcast from Weds Nov 27 2013, which that year occurred on the eve of both the USA Thanksgiving holiday and the first day of Hanukkah. Here’s part of our press press release for that show: “Erev Thanksgivukkah” Live! Wednesday Night on the Yiddish Voice WUNR 1600-AM/Boston 11/2...

This week’s Yiddish Voice presents an interview with Eleanor Reissa , narrator of Those Who Were There , a new podcast from Yale University’s Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust are the subjects of the podcast, which just released its second season featuring witness interviews conducted by New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage. Ele...

Luzer Twersky , actor in Yiddish and American Theatre and Film (on Twitter as @Twersky). Twersky grew up speaking Yiddish in a Chassidic home in Boro Park but left that life behind as a young adult, cutting most 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 s...

Jake Turx, senior Whitehouse correspondent for Ami Magazine (on Twitter as @JakeTurx) A shorter version of this interview was originally aired on the Yiddish Voice radio show aired October 28 2020 and in episode 218 of The ‘Yiddish Voice’ Podcast with title “2020 Election Discussed by Holocaust Survivors et al”. The first 11 min. 17 sec. are the same as in the originally ai...

Holocaust survivors and several others discuss the 2020 United States presidential election. Guests include: Bronia Brandman , a survivor originally from Jaworzno, Poland, not far from Auschwitz (Oświęcim); David Lenga , a survivor originally from Lodz, Poland; Carol Stulberg , a child of survivors and Senior Advisor for Leadership Giving at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; Jake Turx, seni...

In this time Chol Hamoed, between Succos and Shemini Atseres/Simchas Torah, we hear and remember three late great participants in the Yiddish Voice : Rav Myer Loketch z’l: on Succos, from our archive, originally recorded and aired in 2006 Hasia Segal z’l and Iosif Lakhman z’l: Rosh Hashonah greetings from our archives Lovely New Year’s greetings from friends, supporters, an...

Highlights: Israeli Yiddish radio host Avremi Zaks ’s interview with Sholem Beinfeld continues and concludes. From our archive, from the 1990’s, Miriam Libenson talks all about Succos and Simchas Torah, reads an article about Succos by Ben Gailing, sings the song A Sukele , and is briefly interviewed about Succos, sharing somewhat mixed feelings she’d had as a child. Lovely New Y...

Rosh Hashona, the Jewish new year, as well as COVID-19 are a constant theme throughout this show, which features two terrific interviews along with greetings and announcements by sponsors, friends, and participants in The Yiddish Voice . Highlights: Interview with Rabbi Simon Jacobson , founder of the Meaningful Life Center ( https://www.meaningfullife.com/ ) and publisher of Algemeiner Journal ,...

Rosh Hashona, the Jewish new year, as well as COVID-19 are a constant theme throughout this show, which features two terrific interviews along with greetings and announcements by sponsors, friends, and participants in The Yiddish Voice . Highlights: Interview with Rabbi Simon Jacobson , founder of the Meaningful Life Center ( https://www.meaningfullife.com/ ) and publisher of Algemeiner Journal ,...

Highlights: Interview with Leo (Leybl) Melamed , Chairman Emeritus of CME Group, better known by its former name The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, discussing the recent film Futures Past , made by his son, the film maker Jordan Melamed, partly documenting the end of an era in financial futures trading and partly documenting the relationship between a father and son. Further info: http://www.futures...

In the first part of our show, hear Dovid Braun talk about the amazing 2020 YIVO Yiddish Summer Program, interviewed by Sholem Beinfeld. And in the last part of the show, hear Sholem Beinfeld read and interpret selections from the book יידישע שפּריכווערטער און רעדענסארטען ( Yidishe Shprikhverter un Redensartn ), by Ignats Bernshteyn, originally published in Warsaw in 1908, likely the largest colle...

We wish you all the best for a healthy, happy New Year. לשנה טובֿה - אַ גוט געזונט יאָר Hear a roundtable discussion of three 2020 Yiddish summer programs and how they’ve managed with the COVID-19 circumstances. Our particpants: Hy Wolfe / חיים וואָלף - we’re delighted to welcome Hy on board as guest co-host of this week’s show! Hy Wolfe is an actor, head of the Hebrew Actors Uni...

This show recalls the tragic events in the USSR of August 12, 1952. Popularly known as “Night of the Murdered Poets”, the event itself, as well as associated themes – such as Yiddish language and culture in the Soviet Union, Soviet Bloc, and in leftist circles – is being remembered on this special broadcast by two distinguished guests, Gennady Estraikh and Jana Mazurkiewicz...

Meet Diana Cohen (a/k/a Dina Godiner). She is the first cousin of a famous journalist, the late Daniel Schorr. She’s also the first cousin of a not-so-famous violinist, the late Semyon Godiner. In 2008, Diana and Daniel had not met nor heard of their cousin, who grew up in the former Soviet Union and was now living in Israel. The Yiddish Voice got them together! How? Well, to find out, liste...

Rav Moshe Kesselman is the rabbi of Congregation Shaarei Tefila in Los Angeles. He talks about Tisha B’Ov, the Jewish day of fasting and communal mourning that begins the same evening (July 29) as this show goes out on the radio. He was interviewed via Zoom the day before the show from his home in Los Angeles. The late Anita Garlick was interviewed at her home in Brookline, MA, in September...

This is Miriam Libenson’s 1995 talk for Tisha B’Ov. This is a supplementary bonus podcast of the Yiddish Voice . This was originally recorded for and aired on the Yiddish Voice ( ייִדיש קול ) on Aug 2 1995. Miriam Libenson (מרים ליבנזון ז״ל) was born in Aniksht, Lithuania, in the early 1910’s. She moved to Palestine in the 1930’s, and moved to the US after the war, settling...

This week’s Yiddish Voice presents an interview, in Yiddish, with the creator of the recently published Yiddish translation of the first of the Harry Potter book series, Arun (“Arele”) Viswanath (אַרעלע ווישוואַנאַט). Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is the wildly popular first novel in the Harry Potter series, written by British author J. K. Rowling. The book was f...

Thanks to tonight’s wonderful guests! They were all recorded on Wed Apr 29 2020, during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, during the day of Yom Haatzmaut in USA and Motzei (night after) Yom Haatzmaut in Israel. יום העצמאות בשעת דער מגפֿה Yom Haatzmaut Amid COVID-19: Esti (Jahr) Shnek - a Holocaust survivor living in Haifa, originally from Jasina, Czechoslovakia. In the interview Esti recounts...

To mark this year’s Yom HaShoah and the 75th anniversary since liberation we hear from two survivors: Zoli Langer , who lives in Los Angeles, was born in 1927 in Minai, a village near the small town of Užhorod, Czechoslovakia, (now Ukraine). He, his parents, and 5 siblings were deported to Auschwitz in the spring of 1944. He was the only one to survive. He describes his life before and durin...

Happy Passover and thanks to friends, participants, and sponsors of this show: Israel Book Shop https://www.israelbookshop.com/ ( Eli Dovek recorded Mar 28 2007) The Butcherie https://www.butcherie.com/ ( Max Gelerman ז״ל recorded Mar 28 2007) Cheryl Ann’s Bakery http://cherylannsbakery.com/ Friends and Sponsors of the Show Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath wishes a happy Pesach and tells of the won...