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…
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Community The Modern Men of Chelm: Demons From The Cookie Jar
Editor’s note: In Ashkenazi Jewish folklore, the (very real) city of Chelm functions as an imaginary town of fools. Many tales from this tradition are entitled “The Wise Men of Chelm.” The following piece continues in that tradition. Tossing and turning, Reb Yankel spent the night struggling with intense nightmares. He could not sleep peacefully….
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The Schmooze Quiz: Do You Really Know Yiddish Slang?
Unless you’re living under a rock that is somehow impervious to think pieces, you know that we are now living in the “Golden Age of Television”. If you watched the Tony awards Sunday night you heard one winner’s victorious announcement that this is a “Golden Age of American playwrighting”. And if you have been to…
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Culture Yankel and Leah (Chapter 1)
This originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Yankel walked up the stairs in the dormitory, to light the Chanukah menorah. He lit a match but it blew out. He lit another one. Outside, a mix of rain and snow was falling. Inside, the ancient cast-iron radiator hissed. Chanukah was late this year – the end…
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Yiddish World Acclaimed Yiddish Folksinger Arkady Gendler Dies at Age 95
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. The legendary Yiddish folksinger, folklorist and teacher, Arkady Gendler, died at the venerable age of 95 at his home in the Ukrainian city of Zaporozhe on May 22nd. Gendler, a constant ebullient presence at klezmer music festivals around the world, played an important role in the modern…
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Yiddish World Yiddish Fables As Part of a Kindergarten Curriculum
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Not long ago, I arrived in a small corner of Eden in rural western Pennsylvania: a bit of forest, a burbling brook, manicured lawns and camp-style wooden cabins and lodges. Displayed in and around the main lodge was all that a young child might desire—charmingly wrought sand…
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Fast Forward Covfefe? Al Franken Says Trump’s Cryptic Tweet Is Yiddish For ‘Bedtime’
President Trump’s early morning tweet about “covfefe” got many in the media guessing about what the indecipherable typo referred to. But it was no mystery to Al Franken – who humorously interpreted the nonsense word as Yiddish. “A covfefe is a Yiddish term for ‘I got to go to bed now,’” the comedian-turned-Minnesota senator joshed…
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Yiddish World Yiddish Teacher And Archivist Gella Schweid Fishman Has Died
This article originally appeared in the Forverts. The well-known Yiddish teacher, communal activist and unforgettable advocate for Yiddish and Yiddish culture Gella Schweid Fishman died at her home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx on Tuesday, May 16. She was 90 years old. Fishman was born in New York City to immigrant parents. She…
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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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