Interview with Zalmen Mlotek discussing the forthcoming production Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish ( Fidler afn Dakh ) by the National Yiddish Theater - Folksbiene . Previews begin July 4, 2018. Info: http://nytf.org Twitter: @folksbiene Interview with Avrom Nowerstern discussing the film Sholem Aleichem: Laughter Through Tears and the author Sholem Aleichem generally (abbreviated and repeated from a 2011 broadcast) Music: excerpts from Fidler afn Dakh album on Columbia Records, with the original...
Jun 14, 2018•1 hr 2 min
Interview with writer Miriam Hoffman discussing her recently published memoir A Breed Apart: Reflections of a Young Refugee which describes her fascinating life, from childhood in Sibera and Germany through adulthood in New York, raising a family in Yiddishist society in New York and finding success as a columnist and feature writer for the Yiddish “Forward” Newspaper (“Forverts”), as a Yiddish educator at Columbia University, and as a playwright, including cofounding the Joseph Papp Yiddish The...
May 17, 2018•1 hr
Dr. David E. Fishman , author of The Book Smugglers: Partisans, Poets, and the Race to Save Jewish Treasures from the Nazis (ForeEdge, 2017). Fishman’s book tells the incredible story of the “Paper Brigade” of the Vilna Ghetto, who rescued thousands of books, manuscripts, documents, and objects of art from the murderous Germans seeking to both loot and destroy the Jews’ cultural heritage. After the war, an effort was needed to save the collection from neglect or possible destruction at the hands...
May 03, 2018•1 hr 1 min
Historian Sam Kassow discusses Emanuel Ringelblum and the “Oyneg Shabbos Archive”, the subject of his book “Who Will Write Our History” and the new film based on his book. The film, by director/producer Roberta Grossman and executive producer Nancy Spielberg, has recently been shown in preview form in Los Angeles and Warsaw and is expected to be released sometime in 2018. For information about the film see: whowillwriteourhistory.com Report from Warsaw by Kobi Weitzner, brought to you by the Yid...
Apr 26, 2018•1 hr
Interview with Gitu Cycowics (nee Friedman) , an Israeli, a resident of Jerusalem, also an Auschwitz survivor Israel Report by Adam Gruzman, brought to you by the Yiddish Forward , on the web at yiddish.forward.com From Israel’s Kan national broadcast authority’s “Kan Yiddish” department: Shaye Perelzon’s Yiddish radio presentation for Yom Haatsmaut Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS , an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Israel/Yom Haatsmaut songs throu...
Apr 24, 2018•1 hr 2 min
Interview with Marek Edelman , who was the last commander of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to have lived, from 1996 is re-aired. Sholem Beinfeld , a regular contributor to the Yiddish Voice, co-Editor in Chief of the Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary, and Professor of History, Emeritus, Washington University, St. Louis, discusses the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising generally as well as certain historical controversies. Mark (Motl) Murstein of Brookline, MA, originally from Poland, presents his own Yi...
Apr 12, 2018•1 hr
Rav Izchak Kin: LeKoved Pesach Izchak Kin , our esteemed guest rabbi for Pesach this year, teaches the class “Ein Yaakov”, in Yiddish , a half hour before Mincha nearly every week day of the year at the venerable Shaarei Tefila Synagogue in Los Angeles. We are thankful to have him on our show. He not only answers our Shayles (questions) about Pesach, but sang us one of over 400 songs he knows as a Modzhitzer Khosid. Enjoy! Greetings and ads from many friends, sponsors, and organizations. Most ar...
Mar 29, 2018•59 min
Happy Passover! אַ כּשרן און פֿרײלעכן פּסח! Air Date: Mar 21 2018
Mar 29, 2018•49 min
Happy Passover! אַ כּשרן און פֿרײלעכן פּסח! Air Date: Mar 14 2018
Mar 29, 2018•1 hr
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 is available here: http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/history/twentieth-century-european-...
Mar 08, 2018•1 hr
אַ פֿריילעכן פּורים ****HAPPY PURIM! Air Date: Feb 28, 2018
Mar 01, 2018•55 min
אַ פֿריילעכן פּורים ****HAPPY PURIM! Air Date: Feb 21, 2018
Feb 27, 2018•1 hr
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, Israel and Germany (Rutgers University Press, 2016). The interview was conducted by Sholem Beinfeld , a r...
Feb 08, 2018•1 hr
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 in 2015. Esti Shnek (maiden name Jahr) is a survivor of Auschwitz from Jasina, Czechoslovakia (which ...
Jan 28, 2018•59 min
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 Mikhoels, readings from works about him, and presentations of musical and theatrical materials related ...
Jan 18, 2018•1 hr 2 min
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 Dovid on the occasion of Hasia’s first yahrtzeit. The rest of the show is comprised of material presented in our special ...
Jan 15, 2018•1 hr
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 for younger writers and for Soviet-Yiddish writers who might otherwise be forgotten. From our archi...
Dec 28, 2017•1 hr
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 .
Dec 22, 2017•1 hr
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 Yiddish Voice, co-Editor in Chief of the Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary and Professor of History...
Dec 14, 2017•59 min
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, which chronicles his and two others’ break from Chassidic life. Currently, he is performing on the Yiddi...
Dec 08, 2017•1 hr
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.org ). Barrera was able to attend the Yidish-Vokh thanks to his successful “gofundme” campaign (see: ...
Nov 30, 2017•1 hr 1 min
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 is Chairman of Leyvik House ( http://www.leyvik.org.il/ ), the Association of Yiddish Writers and Journalists in ...
Nov 29, 2017•1 hr 1 min
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. We interviewed Eitan at Sholem’s home in Cambridge, MA, in Oct 2017. Additional info: ( https://ing...
Nov 16, 2017•59 min
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 CD is called From Holocaust to Life , and is a companion to the book of the same name published by ...
Nov 09, 2017•59 min
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 published with ROSSPEN, in the History of Stalinism Series. She is currently finishing a book entit...
Nov 03, 2017•6 min
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 and professors in Tsarist Russia. He is widely known for his 2007 book Who Will Write Our History? Ema...
Nov 03, 2017•17 min
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 Charles H. Northam Professor of History at Trinity College, and is recognized as one of the world’s leading...
Nov 03, 2017•1 hr 1 min
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 other academic experts will soon take part in the YIVO’s conference JEWS IN AND AFTER THE 1917 RUSSI...
Oct 26, 2017•59 min
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. Professor Finkel’s Yiddish resources web page is online here: https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/yiddish.htm...
Oct 19, 2017•1 hr 2 min
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 year. (Repeated from last week.) Rav Itzchak Kin : a few questions about Succos. (Excerpt repeated ...
Oct 15, 2017•59 min
