Jordan Kutzik is the deputy editor of the Yiddish Forward. Contact him at kutzik@forward.com.
Jordan Kutzik
By Jordan Kutzik
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Yiddish World Fyvush Finkel Tells His Grandfather’s Best Joke
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. The legendary actor Fyvush Finkel, who got his start in Yiddish theater and later made the transition to the English stage and television, died a little over a year ago. The last surviving star of the heyday of America’s Yiddish theater, he was still performing only weeks…
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Yiddish World Why More Yiddish Radio Broadcasts Would Help Israel
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. The decision by the Israel Broadcasting Authority, as part of its transformation into a new agency—the Israel Broadcasting Corporation— to drastically reduce its daily Yiddish radio programming to a weekly half-hour broadcast greatly disappointed Yiddish listeners around the world. None of us, however, were surprised. The writing…
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Yiddish World Video: Abraham Sutzkever on Poetry and Battling the Nazis
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. The great Yiddish poet Abraham Sutzkever was born on July 15th, 1913 in Smorgon, a city in what is now Belarus. Known today primarily for being one of the greatest poets of the 20th century and for his wartime service as a Jewish Partisan in the forests…
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The Schmooze Celebrate The Fourth Of July With These Stunning Yiddish Covers Of American Classics
This post originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Jews like many immigrant groups sought both to assimilate into broader American society and to hold onto their roots. One way to express pride in their Americanism and at the same time celebrate their own culture was to sing patriotic American songs in Yiddish. During the period…
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Culture FICTION: A Drop of Sunflower Oil
During our first days and weeks in Israel we readily absorbed a dozen or so Hebrew words, which spiced up our ordinary lives with exotic new sounds and smells. Among them was the term madrich, which means “guide” and was to play a substantial role in our lives. I would go so far as to…
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Yiddish World 120 Years Of The Forverts: How We Covered The Hindenburg Disaster
This article originally [appeared](http://yiddish.forward.com/articles/203879/-years-of-the-forverts-the-hindenburg-disaster/ “appeared”) in the Forverts. Saturday, May 6, marked 80 years since the Hindenburg exploded while attempting to land in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 35 passengers, crew members and one man on the ground. Widely seen newsreels, along with the now legendary radio broadcast featuring Herbert Morrison crying while reporting the tragedy…
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The Schmooze We Can’t Make This Up: Yiddish Song Performed On Mongolia’s American Idol
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Besides Mexico City, which hosts the annual Yiddish Idol competition, there really is nowhere on earth where you would expect to hear a Yiddish song performed as part of a singing competition, let alone on national television. Recently, however, the American-Jewish singer Amalia Rubin performed an excellent…
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Yiddish World 120 Years of the Forverts: How We Covered the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Unlike many American newspapers during World War II, which largely ignored the ongoing Nazi extermination of European Jewry – most notoriously, the New York Times – the Forverts continually printed reports on the Nazi genocide. Despite its prominent coverage in the Forverts, the articles were not always…
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