“What Hitler couldn’t take away from us with his hatred, America won’t take away from us with her goodness.” Elliott Palevsky reflects on why his Holocaust-survivor parents insisted on raising their children in a Yiddish-speaking household in America.
We are mourning the loss of Theodore (Theo) Bikel, z”l – actor, musician, and activist who entertained and inspired a generation – who passed away last month. Here he reflects (in Yiddish) on what inspired him to start performing Yiddish music.
At Camp Boiberik, Yiddish was used everywhere – even in the names of the age groups, Chana Schachner recalls.
Paul Berg remembers his burgeoning career as a child actor on a Yiddish soap opera and doing stand-up comedy in the Catskills – and why his parents put an end to it.
Lekoved (in honor of) Father’s Day, Bella Bryks-Klein fondly remembers how her father, Yiddish writer Rachmil Bryks, tutored her in Yiddish.
This short documentary opens a window into the life and legacy of Yiddish poet Ida Maze, a poet and activist who cultivated a community of Yiddish writers in Montreal. The film interweaves an interview with her son, Irving Massey, a literary scholar who has written about and translated his mother’s poetry, with archival audio recordings from an event held in honor of Maze at the Jewish Public Library of Montreal in 1956. Together, Irving’s poignant memories of his mother and the warm words of praise from Ida Maze’s colleagues offer a compelling perspective on her life, poetry, and legacy.
Yiddish student Sarah Ramsay Leimenstoll reflects on the reasons non-Jewish students like herself are drawn to Jewish studies.
If you know Yiddish but cannot read it, you are not alone! Barbara Kupfer Murray describes how she struggled to write in Yiddish despite being a native speaker.
What’s in a name? Troim Katz Handler, daughter of Yiddish writer Menke Katz, explains her father’s mystical feelings about her unusual first name (Yiddish for “dream”).
Benjamin (Binyomen) Harshav, z”l, remembers the market in Vilna, where he grew up in the 1930s. He passed away last week. May his memory be a blessing.
