“If a Catholic, Could a Jew be far Behind?”: On John F. Kennedy’s Election
EX522_2628 Ruth Smith, docent at the Yiddish Book Center, describes her thoughts during John Fitzgerald Kennedy's Presidential Election, and her grandparents' passion for political engagement.More...
View Article'Oyf eygene drokhim' (On My Own Narrow Path): Solomon Simon's Spiritual...
EX487_2994 David Simon, son of Yiddish author and Jewish educator Solomon Simon, reads an unpublished, translated excerpt from his father's spiritual autobiography, "Oyf eygene drokhim". More from...
View ArticleA “Way of Continuing As Secular Jews”: Why Solomon Simon Wrote Yiddish...
EX487_2995 David Simon, son of Yiddish author and Jewish educator Solomon Simon, on the reason his father wrote stories for children in Yiddish. More from this narrator: David Simon
View ArticleNo Butter with Meat, But Bacon in a Sandwich: The Paradox of Solomon Simon's...
EX487_3000 David Simon, son of Yiddish author and Jewish educator Solomon Simon, grew up eating 'kosher-style' meals at home, but recalls a difference in his father's attitude when eating out in the...
View ArticleA Gliklekher Mentsh (A Lucky Man)
EX443_2539 Israel Milkow, a retired IT professional, recounts his observations of the differences in working culture between the Old World and the New, and talks about being "a gliklekher mentsh"- a...
View ArticleWorking With Dina Abramowicz
EX369_2407 Zachary Baker, Reinhard Family Curator of Judaica and Hebraica Collections at Stanford University, speaks about his time working with Dina Abramowicz, who served as head librarian at YIVO...
View ArticleA Shtetl in New York
EX137_582 Charles Corfield compares assimilation of Yiddish speaking Jews in New York City in America versus London and Manchester in England. More from this narrator: Charles Corfield
View ArticleOur Father Solomon Simon’s Search for a Secular Kehile (Jewish Community)...
EX620_3524 David Simon and Miriam Forman, son and daughter of Yiddish author and Jewish educator Solomon Simon, discuss their father's disappointment with secular Judaism and its failure to build...
View ArticleWhy My Father Was Wrong About the Future of Yiddish
EX496_3569 Joe Esselin, playwright and son of Yiddish writer Alter Esselin, reads a translation of one of his father's poems and explains why he disagrees with the poem's pessimistic view of the...
View Article“The Heymishness of It”: Yiddish as the Language of Emotional Home
EX486_2980 Miriam Forman, daughter of Yiddish author and Jewish educator Solomon Simon, describes the place Yiddish holds in her life. More from this narrator: Miriam Forman
View ArticleIn der gas? Nisht Yidish! (No Yiddish in the Street!)
EX497_2856 Barbara Kupfer Murray, a child of Holocaust survivors and a docent at a Holocaust memorial center, remembers the day she refused to speak Yiddish in public. More from this narrator: Barbara...
View ArticleWe Can't Keep This Name, We Have to be Americans
EX497_2851 Barbara Kupfer Murray, a child of Holocaust survivors and a docent at a Holocaust memorial center, talks about having to change her name in response to pressure to assimilate. More from...
View ArticleWhat Yiddish and Cherokee Have in Common: Reflecting on Endangered Languages
EX481_3474 Mark Wolraich, pediatrician, speaks to the importance of the written alphabet to preserving languages in general, and discusses the specific examples of Yiddish and the Cherokee language....
View ArticleThe Death and Resurrection of Yiddish
EX439_2559 Selma Gordon, a retired school aide, talks about the contemporary resurgence of interest in spoken Yiddish, and her regrets about not teaching her own children to speak it.More from this...
View ArticleLipschtick's Traveling Rabbi Shpiel
EX477_2871 Amanda Lundquist, artist and 2013-2014 Yiddish Book Center fellow, speaks about her Borscht Belt-influenced queer theater troupe, Lipschtick. She remembers how their performance in a...
View Article"The Worst Christmas Present"
EX440_2690 Howard Nenner, retired professor of legal and political history, remembers desperately wanting a Christmas present as a child, and the one year that his wish was granted.
View ArticleYiddish Today
EX394_2893 Shulamis Levin Friedman, z"l, Yiddish educator, reflects on the state of the Yiddish language today.
View ArticleDluzhnowsky’s Attitude toward America
EX426_2655 Henry Dunow, the son of Yiddish writer Moyshe Dluzhnowsky, talks about his father's experience of America and American culture and his issues of identity.
View ArticleBoth “Fiercely Proud” and “Distinctly Embarrassed”: To Have a Yiddish Writer...
EX426_2657 Henry Dunow, the son of Yiddish writer Moyshe Dluzhnowsky, talks about the tension his parents struggled with between retaining a connection to Yiddish culture and assimilation, and its...
View ArticleMenachem Mendel Lefin, a Yiddishist Maskil in Ukraine
EX360_2801 Ken Frieden, B.G. Rudolph Professor of Judaic Studies at Syracuse University, speaks about his current interest in Menachem Mendel Lefin, a man who felt no contradiction between his...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....