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
The Latest
-
News A Poet’s Life Spanning Shtetl and Subway
Few of us will lead a life as full as my “shviger” (mother-in-law), Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman: a life that spanned an ocean with an unremitting creative urge and a sense of personal purpose that encompassed a universe. While it may appear that her tragedies outweighed her joys, she dazzled the world with her accomplishments and was…
-
Culture Will the Real Sholem Aleichem Please Stand Up?
The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem: The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of the Man Who Created Tevye By Jeremy Dauber Schocken, 464 pages, $28.95 Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ By Alisa Solomon Metropolitan Books, 448 pages, $32.00 Like most Jews of my generation, I saw “Fiddler on the Roof” before…
-
The Schmooze Klezmatics Given Lifetime Achievement Award at YIVO
In the mid 1980s several key figures in the klezmer revival movement had day jobs at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. So, perhaps it was only fitting that The Klezmatics were given a lifetime achievement award at YIVO’s Manhattan headquarters November 19. After cocktails and dinner at the Center for Jewish History’s atrium on…
-
Life Throwback Thursday: Moscow’s Yiddish Stage Star
Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly photo feature in which we sift 116 years of Forward history to find snapshots of women’s lives. Born in 1897 to an artistic Jewish family in Warsaw, Yokheved-Yudes Minkova, garnered fame as part of the beloved Moscow State Jewish Theater troupe, known by the acronym GOSET and headed by…
-
Recipes The Cook Behind America’s First Yiddish Cookbook
Several years ago, while on a walk with his dog, John Lankenau came across a tombstone leaning against a fire hydrant on Manhattan’s East Fourth Street. Most of the writing on the tombstone was in Hebrew, but not the name: Hinda Amchanitzky. Lankenau rescued the tombstone from the sidewalk and went looking for answers: Who…
-
Forward 50 2013 Solon Beinfeld
When Solon Beinfeld, co-editor-in-chief of the new Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary, was on a Fulbright scholarship in Paris in the 1950s, Yiddish wasn’t part of his graduate work. But having been raised in a Yiddish-speaking home, Beinfeld couldn’t help but gravitate toward the city’s Yiddish-speaking community, and especially to its Medem Library, named after the Bund…
-
Culture Did Tennessee Titans Bernard Pollard Slip Up on ‘Hebrew Slaves’ Remark?
Fellow Forward contributor Menachem Wecker writes to ask: “I monitor certain search items related to Judaism on social media, and recently I came across the expression ‘worked like a Hebrew slave’ for the first time. It looks like it might be more frequently used in the African-American community. I wonder what are your thoughts on…
-
Culture Mendel Beilis Cleared in Ukraine Anti-Semitic Blood Libel Trial
1913 •100 years ago Mendel Beilis Not Guilty After two hours of deliberation, the jury in Mendel Beilis’s blood-libel trial has declared him not guilty of all crimes. Beilis stood quietly, and his demeanor was calm — just as it was for most of the five-week-long trial — as the verdict was read. The courtroom…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV Bonhoeffer biopic tells of a pastor turned would-be Hitler assassin — but is the story true?
- 2
News What Mike Huckabee’s ‘Kids Guide to Israel’ says about his views
- 3
Culture At 95, Shaindel Schreiber is still dispensing babka and advice on the Lower East Side
- 4
Fast Forward Trump attorney general pick Pam Bondi: 5 things Jews should know
In Case You Missed It
-
News Israel reached a ceasefire in Lebanon. Why does Gaza seem so hard?
-
Culture Barbra Streisand recorded here — and so did Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, John Lennon and, uh, The Village People
-
Fast Forward Lee Zeldin, Trump’s pick to helm EPA, says he received bomb threat with ‘pro-Palestinian themed message’
-
Opinion We can be thankful this year — and Jewish wisdom can help
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
