Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the Yiddish language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews in Europe and still spoken by many Hasidic Jews today.
For more stories on Yiddishkeit, see Forverts in English, and for stories written in…
Yiddish
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Yiddish World Learn Yiddish with the Forverts’ Word of the Day videos
Read this article in Yiddish. The Forverts has launched a daily series of short informal video clips called Yiddish Word of the Day. The series, written and narrated by Forverts editor Rukhl Schaechter, aims to give non-Yiddish speakers an introduction to familiar Yiddish words and phrases and how they might be used in everyday situations….
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Fast Forward Board member resigns from YIVO amid fallout over library layoffs
A member of the board of directors of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research has resigned, and another has been removed from the organization’s website, amid controversy over the organization’s decision to lay off its library staff. YIVO, the world’s preeminent center for the study of Yiddish and its history and culture, laid off all…
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Yiddish World Watch Kirk Douglas sing in Yiddish
Read in Yiddish When news spread that legendary American actor Kirk Douglas, né Issur Danielovitch, had passed away at the age of 103, the Folksbiene dug into its archives and posted this touching moment from their 2002 gala, when the star was presented with a lifetime achievement award. Douglas was raised in poverty alongside his…
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Culture The monumental effort of translating ‘Harry Potter’ into Yiddish
Read in Yiddish. When Arun Viswanath, the Yiddish translator of J. K. Rowling’s worldwide bestseller “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” was 12 years old, he suddenly had a revelation that made him feel dejected. Although he’s a grandson of the venerable Yiddish linguist Mordkhe Schaechter, the son of the Yiddish poet Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, and…
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News Of Herzl, Einstein, Chagall and George Kennan: Memories of working with YIVO’s librarians
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is the world’s preeminent center for the study of Yiddish language and culture. Founded in Vilna in 1925, YIVO is now based in New York and includes an academic center, an archive with 23 million item, and a library with 400,000 books. On Monday, that YIVO’s board, facing a…
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Fast Forward Nearly 700 scholars and students condemn YIVO librarian layoffs
Read this article in Yiddish here Nearly 700 scholars, students and former employees and volunteers of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research have signed an open letter condemning the organization’s decision to lay off all of its librarians. The letter, which is written in English and Yiddish, called for the immediate reinstatement of the four…
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Yiddish World YIVO, world’s biggest Yiddish research center, lays off all its librarians
Updated 4:30 p.m. Read this article in Yiddish here. The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the world’s preeminent center for the study of the Yiddish language, culture and history, has laid off all of its librarians. Four people were let go in the move, which was announced internally last week and confirmed by executive director…
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Opinion ‘Blood Flows Like Water And People Fall Like Flies,’ The Forverts Remembers The Great War
In April, 1915, as The Great War was raging in Europe, your favorite Yiddish newspaper had 176,125 daily readers, according to the masthead’s circulation figures. The United States had yet to enter the fight, but The Forverts covered it aggressively. And on April 9th, New York-based editors and publishers of foreign language newspapers who differed…
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News Texas schools want to add Queen Esther to the curriculum. Here’s why Jews (and many Christians) are opposed.
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