The 'Yiddish Voice' Podcast

We're airing excerpts of interviews with four Holocaust survivors, past guests of The Yiddish Voice/דאָס ייִדישע קול who died during the past year. Aron Bell (Bielski) (died September 22, 2025, age 98) - born in the village Stankiewicze, near Navaredok (now in Belarus), he was the last of the famed Bielski brothers, who led the Bielski Partisans, which collectively saved more than 1,200 Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust. We reached him by phone at his home in Palm Beach, FL, on Jan. 12, 2009. Originally aired Jan. 14, 2009. Natan Gipsman (died the night of September 10th, 2025, age 100) - born in Hindenburg (Upper Silesia, Prussia), Germany (now Zabrze, Poland), he was confined in the Będzin (Yiddish: בענדין) Ghetto and survived six concentration camps, including Buchenwald. We interviewed him at his home in Los Angeles on Jan. 26, 2024. Originally aired Feb 15, 2024. Judy Altmann (died April 30, 2025, age 100) - born in Jasina, Czechoslovakia (Körösmezö, Hungary during WWII; now Yasinya, Ukraine), she survived Auschwitz and death marches. We reached her by phone at her home in Stamford, CT, on Aug. 18, 2018. Originally aired Apr. 25, 2019. Zoli Langer (died February 28, 2025, age 98) - born in the village Minai, near Uzhgorod, Czechoslovakia (Ungvar, Hungary during WWII, now Uzhhorod, Ukraine), he survived Auschwitz and death marches. We interviewed at his home in Los Angeles on Oct. 31, 2019. Originally aired Apr. 22, 2020. ‫אַ גמר חתימה טובֿה! Featured Announcements for Rosh Hashona/Yom Kippur: Greetings on behalf of the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants of Greater Boston, featuring members Tania Lefman (Treasurer), Mary Ehrlich and Rosalie Reszelbach. Recorded Sept. 9 and 10, 2025. Hy Wolfe, manager of CYCO Books, Hebrew Actors Foundation and the Yiddish National Theatre. Recorded Sept. 21, 2025. Greetings on behalf of the League for Yiddish / די ייִדיש-ליגע by Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, Board Chair. Recorded Sept. 9, 2025. Greetings from Eli Dovek ז״ל, late proprietor of our sponsor Israel Bookshop, Brookline, MA. Recorded in 2009. Greetings on behalf of the Boston Workers Circle / דער באָסטאָנער אַרבעטער-רינג by Libe Gritz. Recorded Sept. 17, 2025. Greetings by The Yiddish Voice co-hosts Leye Schporer-Leavitt, Sholem Beinfeld and Dovid Braun. Recorded Sept. 17, 2025. Music: Sholom Katz: Zochreinu L'Chayim Sholom Katz: Kol Nidre Jan Peerce: Ovinu Malkeinu Shalom Katz: El Moleh Rachamim Leibele Waldman: Der Nayer Yor Goldie Malavsky: Zochreinu L'Chayim Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air date: September 24, 2025

Shmuel Bak (Samuel Bak), the internationally renowned artist and Holocaust survivor, presented in a lengthy conversation with his friend, The Yiddish Voice co-host Sholem Beinfeld. Excerpts from Pucker Gallery's page about Bak: *Samuel Bak was born in Vilna, Poland in 1933, at a crucial moment in modern history. From 1940 to 1944, Vilna was under Soviet, then German occupation. Bak’s artistic talent was first recognized during an exhibition of his work in the Ghetto of Vilna when he was nine years old. While he and his mother survived, his father and four grandparents all perished at the hands of the Nazis. At the end of the war, he fled with his mother to the Landsberg Displaced Persons Camp, where he enrolled in painting lessons at the Blocherer School in Munich. In 1948, they immigrated to the newly established state of Israel. He studied at the Bezalel Art School in Jerusalem and completed his mandatory service in the Israeli army. In 1956, he went to Paris to continue his education at the École des Beaux Arts.... Bak has exhibited extensively in major museums, galleries, and universities throughout Europe, Israel, and the United States. He lived and worked in Tel Aviv, Paris, Rome, New York, and Lausanne before settling in Massachusetts in 1993 and becoming an American citizen. Bak has been the subject of articles, scholarly works, and over twenty books, most notably a 400-page monograph entitled Between Worlds. In 2001, he published his touching memoir, Painted in Words, which has been translated into four languages, and a biography entitled Art & Life: The Story of Samuel Bak was published in 2023. Related links: Wikipedia page for Samuel Bak: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Bak Pucker Gallery page for Samuel Bak: https://www.puckergallery.com/samuel-bak Samuel Bak Museum: The Learning Center (Omaha, NE): https://www.unomaha.edu/samuel-bak-museum-the-learning-center/ Sholem Beinfeld is co-editor-in-chief of the Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary and Professor of History, Emeritus, Washington University, St. Louis. He translated The Rudashevsky Diary, which was published as the November, 2024, issue of The Jewish Quarterly. אַ כּ‫תיבֿה וחתימה טובֿה! Featured Announcements for Rosh Hashona: Greetings on behalf of the League for Yiddish / די ייִדיש-ליגע by Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, Board Chair. Recorded Sept. 9, 2025. Greetings on behalf of the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants of Greater Boston, featuring members Mary Ehrlich, Rosalie Reszelbach and Tania Lefman (Treasurer). Recorded Sept. 9 and 10, 2025. Greetings from Eli Dovek ז״ל, late proprietor of our sponsor Israel Bookshop, Brookline, MA. Recorded in 2009. Greetings on behalf of the Boston Workers Circle / דער באָסטאָנער אַרבעטער-רינג by Libe Gritz. Recorded Sept. 17, 2025. Greetings by The Yiddish Voice co-hosts Leye Schporer-Leavitt, Sholem Beinfeld and Dovid Braun. Recorded Sept. 17, 2025.<...

Matty Mendlowitz runs the YouTube channel Multisingual, featuring Yiddish-language vlogs of her travels, deep dives into world languages (especially Yiddish and its history and grammar, with a focus on contemporary Chassidic Yiddish), Disney clips dubbed into Yiddish, and much more engaging content. In this interview Matty talks about her background, including growing up speaking Yiddish, and what caused her to embrace Yiddish and learn many other languages and about her travels and other content she presents on her YouTube channel. Several excerpts of her YouTube content are presented during the show. We reached Matty via Zoom in Helsinki, Finland, on September 5, 2025. Related links Matty Mendlowitz's Multisingual YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@multisingual1241 Featured Multisingual videos Disney Frozen’s Let it Go sung in Yiddish: https://youtu.be/QnIYfnHmyfc?si=BVakMguPCV5od7Mj Hannukah Story in Yiddish: The Festival of Lights Explained: https://youtu.be/brF2Xqmx4Ng?si=J_Y-4XRLtm4cWkZ- Synonyms in Yiddish: Expanding your Yiddish Vocabulary with Like Words: https://youtu.be/TKp5QRcrSC8?si=4WRPgGbtkp1K3ip8 Frieda Vizel's recent (Aug., 2025) interview with Matty (in English): https://youtu.be/OhEuezMqyaE?si=5jq1vfGjAjPL_COs אַ כּ‫תיבֿה וחתימה טובֿה! Featured Announcements for Rosh Hashona: Greetings on behalf of the League for Yiddish / די ייִדיש-ליגע by Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, Board Chair. Recorded Sept. 9, 2025. Greetings on behalf of the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants of Greater Boston, featuring members Mary Ehrlich, Rosalie Reszelbach and Tania Lefman (Treasurer). Recorded Sept. 9 and 10, 2025. Greetings from Eli Dovek ז״ל, late proprietor of our sponsor Israel Bookshop, Brookline, MA. Recorded in 2009. Music: (Partial List) Sholom Katz: Zochreinu L'Chayim Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air date: September 10, 2025

Charlie on the MTA in Yiddish is performed by Yiddishists from Boston’s Arbeter Ring and exclusively recorded for The Yiddish Voice on Labor Day, Sept. 1, 2025, in Medford, MA. All of the following sang, with additional contributions noted: ליליע װײַצמאַן — Lily Weitzman · איבערזעצונג און נײַע סטראָפֿע (translation, introduction and new verse) יונה סידמאַן — Jonah Sidman · גיטאַר (guitar) עמאַ ברעסלאָװ — Emma Breslow · טשאַרלי צאָלט זײַן דײַם (“Charlie pays his dime”) verse שׂרה־לו האַרטמאַן — Lou Hartman · הערט אויס בירגער פֿון באָסטאָן (“Citizens of Boston, hear me out”) verse ליבע גריץ — Linda Gritz Marc Caplan in conversation with Yiddish Voice host Mark David (Meyer) about the recent Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. The film traces Dylan’s formative years, culminating in his landmark performance of Like a Rolling Stone at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival in a mostly-Jewish band of blues-rock musicians — Bob Dylan (guitar and vocals), Michael Bloomfield (guitar), Al Kooper (bass), and Barry Goldberg (organ). (Drummer Sam Lay was the non-Jewish member.) Marc Caplan is a Yiddish literature and Bob Dylan expert, currently Visiting Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth. We reached Marc at his home in the Dartmouth College/Hanover, NH, area via Zoom on Sept. 3, 2025. CORRECTION: Murray Lerner, who filmed the Newport Folk Festivals (including Dylan’s 1965 performance), is incorrectly identified by Meyer as “Lerman” in the interview. Related links: Marc Caplan's article in Afn Shvel #351-350 Winter-Spring 2006: באָב דילאַן: פֿאַרנומען מיטן געבױרן װערן: https://docs.leagueforyiddish.org/mark-brukhes-artikl.pdf Marc Caplan's academic website: https://dartmouth.academia.edu/MarcCaplan Wiki page for the film: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Complete_Unknown Mike Bloomfield's Final Interview - Part Two (1981): https://youtu.be/K7cKLr6tOdE Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone (Live at Newport 1965): https://youtu.be/a6Kv0vF41Bc (from Murray Lerner's film The Other Side of the Mirror) Music: Kingston Trio: M.T.A. (A/K/A "Charlie on the MTA") (from YouTube: https://youtu.be/S7Jw_v3F_Q0) (Yiddishists in Boston - see credits above): Charlie on the M.T.A. (in Yiddish translation, with added verse) Bob Dylan: Like a Rolling Stone (recorded live at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965) Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS from Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air Date: September 3, 2025

Deborah A. Green (דבֿורה גרין)— author, historian, translator, Yiddishist and retired litigator — discusses her translation of the late Yiddish journalist S. L. Schneiderman's book קריג אין שפּאַניען about the Spanish Civil War, with an emphasis on the outsized role of Jews among the International Brigades who took part. Deborah's new translation into English is Journey Through the Spanish Civil War. We reached Deborah by Zoom on Aug. 7, 2025. The interviewer Sholem Beinfeld is co-editor-in-chief of the Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary and Professor of History, Emeritus, Washington University, St. Louis. He translated The Rudashevsky Diary, which was published as the November, 2024, issue of The Jewish Quarterly. In the second half of our show, we present two recordings from our archive in memory of 12 August 1952 and the execution of leading Jewish figures by the Soviet authorities: (1) Yosef Lakhman (in memory of the victims of 12 August 1952, originally aired in 2010) and (2) Interview with Gennady Estraikh about the 12 August 1952 events and their memorialization in the years since (originally aired in 2012). Related links: About page at Fighting Fascism: https://jewsfightingfascism.com/about/ Book: Journey Through the Spanish Civil War Music: Emil Gorovets: Ikh Bin a Yid Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS from Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air Date: August 13, 2025

Riki Rose (ריקי רױז) — who works as a singer, songwriter and comic in both Yiddish and English — discusses her life and career. She's built up a substantial following over the past several years through concerts and social media performances. Her latest recording, גלות Blues, has just been released on YouTube, Spotify and most other platforms. We reached her by phone at her home in the New York City area on Aug. 6, 2025. Related links: Home page: https://rikirose.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riki_rose X (Twitter): https://x.com/Riki_Rose Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@therikirose YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@riki_rose Upcoming performance Aug. 24 in NYC/UWS: https://www.instantseats.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.event&eventID=F6B95EE0-ABD8-F36E-F1507EED3192742C Music: Riki Rose: Galus Blues Riki Rose: Utem Arein Utem Arois Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS from Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air Date: August 6, 2025

This week, we present our second interview in the past year and a half with Marvin Zuckerman. Our first took place in his warm and welcoming home in LA’s Pacific Palisades, where the walls were adorned with beautiful paintings and lined with bookshelves holding thousands of volumes. Unfortunately, that house was destroyed in the LA fires of January 2025. Marvin and his wife, Kathy Kohner Zuckerman, have since relocated to a rental apartment in Santa Monica, where we conducted this follow-up interview on June 26, 2025. In this conversation, Zuckerman reflects on the devastating fire and shares further insights from his remarkable and multifaceted life. Zuckerman was raised in the Yiddish-speaking milieu of the Jewish Labor Bund in the Bronx, New York. He later became a professor of English at a Los Angeles college and co-authored the well-regarded Yiddish textbook Learning Yiddish in Easy Stages as well as several other works in the field of Yiddish. He also translated the memoir of prominent Bundist Bernard Goldstein, Twenty Years with the Jewish Labor Bund: A Memoir of Interwar Poland (Purdue University Press, 2016). His latest book is Dickinson in Yiddish & Other Essays & Translations (Brass Tacks Press, 2024). Music: Sveta Kundish & Patrick Farrell: Ikh un di Velt (words by Avrom Reyzen) Ida Gillner & Livet Nord:Mayn heym – Mitt hem (words by Anna Margolin; Swedish translation by Beila Engelhardt Titelman) Levyosn: Fisher-Lid (words by Aliza Greenblatt) Levyosn: Fun der Khupe / Moh Rabu / Kleyne Printsesin Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS from Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air Date: July 15, 2025

Adi Mehalel (עדי מהלאל) talks about teaching Yiddish language and literature at Univ. of Maryland and Yivo Summer Program and discusses the writers I. L. Peretz, the subject of his book The Radical Isaac: I. L. Peretz and the Rise of Jewish Socialism, and Hanan Ayalti, whose book Boom and Chains: A Yiddish Novel Set in Israel/Palestine is forthcoming with Mehalel's translation and introduction. Interviewed in New York City via Zoom on July 2, 2025. Book links: Boom and Chains: https://wsupress.wayne.edu/9780814351802/ The Radical Isaac: https://sunypress.edu/Books/T/The-Radical-Isaac Avremi Zaks (אבֿרהמי זאַקס), host of the Kan Yiddish (כאן יידיש) radio show in Israel, discusses Israel's recent war with Iran and its ongoing war with Hamas. Interviewed in Jerusalem via Zoom on July 2, 2025. Archive of Kan Yiddish: https://www.kan.org.il/content/kan/kan-reka/p-10820/ Music: Yiddish songs about America, in honor of the July 4th Independence Day holiday: Mandy Patinkin: American Tune Aaron Lebedeff & Alexander Olshanetsky Orchestra:Vot ken you makh? Es iz Amerike! Yiddish Philharmonic Chorus, directed by Binyumin Schaechter: Amerike di Prekhtike Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS from Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air Date: July 2, 2025

Sholem Beinfeld (in Cambridge, MA, recorded by phone, June 26, 2025) Leybl Botwinik (in central Israel, recorded via Zoom, June 26, 2025) Avremi Zaks (recorded June 20, 2025, courtesy of Kan Israel radio (https://www.kan.org.il/content/kan/kan-reka/p-10820/)) Music: (Yiddish music performed by various artists) Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS from Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air Date: June 25, 2025

Leybl Botwinik is a writer of science fiction, poetry and songs (in both Yiddish and English) who grew up in Montreal's vibrant Yiddish cultural scene. He is the son of the late Dovid Botwinik, a composer of Yiddish songs, music educator, and Yiddish activist, and the brother of Sender Botwinik, a Yiddish educator, choral director, and music producer. Now living in Israel, Leybl has passed on the Yiddish language and culture to his children. In this episode, he shares stories from his Yiddishist upbringing as well as personal experiences and reflections on the October 7 massacre. The interview was conducted via Zoom on May 30, 2025 (Erev Shabbos/Shvues). Rebbetzin Yetta Kane, a Holocaust survivor, grew up in Miadziol (Yiddish: Miadl – מיאַדל), a small town in Belarus. She recounts memories of her childhood and how her family survived the Holocaust by hiding in the forests of Belarus with the partisans. Yetta and her late husband, Rabbi and Cantor David Kane, co-authored the memoir How to Survive Anything: The Life Story of David and Yetta Kane. This is Part 2 of our interview, recorded at her home in the Los Angeles area on April 8, 2025. Part 1 aired on April 23, 2025. Music: Chava Alberstein: Friling Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS from Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air Date: June 11, 2025

Samuel Kassow is interviewed by Sholem Beinfeld about Rokhl Auerbach and her book Warsaw Testament („וואַרשעווער צוואָות“), which Kassow translated into English. The interview was by Zoom on May 30, 2025, with Kassow and Beinfeld at their homes in Connecticut and Cambridge, MA, respectively. Samuel Kassow is the Charles H. Northam Professor, Emeritus, of History at Trinity College, and is recognized as one of the world’s leading scholars on the Holocaust and the Jews of Poland. Kassow was born in 1946 in a DP-camp in Stuttgart, Germany and grew up speaking Yiddish. Kassow attended the London School of Economics and Princeton University where he earned a PhD in 1976 with a study about students and professors in Tsarist Russia. He is widely known for his 2007 book Who Will Write Our History? Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Oyneg Shabes Archive (Indiana University Press). He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research, has won numerous awards, and has lectured widely. Sholem Beinfeld is co-editor-in-chief of the Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary and Professor of History, Emeritus, Washington University, St. Louis. He translated The Rudashevsky Diary, which was published as the November, 2024, issue of The Jewish Quarterly. Additional info on Warsaw Testament: Publisher White Goat Press's page: https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/about/white-goat-press-0/rokhl-auerbach Distributor page: https://www.ipgbook.com/warsaw-testament-products-9798988677390.php Music: Hélène Engel: Yeder Ruft Mikh Zhamele from Voices Of The Ghetto (Voix Du Ghetto): Warszawa, 1943 Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS from Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air Date: June 4, 2025

Highlights: On Lag B'Omer by Miriam Libenson ז״ל from our archive from the 1990's. A report from Israel by Yiddish radio presenter Avremi Zaks, host of the Kan Yiddish כאן יידיש radio show in Israel. We reached Avremi in Jerusalem via Zoom on May 8, 2025. Music: Tova Ben-Zvi: Lag B'Oimer Tova Ben-Zvi: Arum dem Fayer Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air date: May 14, 2025

This week's show is in observance of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Highlights: Rabbi Arthur Schneier, Holocaust survivor, world-renowned human rights activist, and senior rabbi of Manhattan's Park East Synagogue for more than fifty years, shares his wartime memories of the Carpathian town Yasinia (Ukrainian: Ясіня; Hungarian: Kőrösmező; Czech: Jasiňa; Yiddish: Yasin (יאַסין)). He recalls his grandfather, the town's rabbi, Moyshe Bergmann, and describes his narrow escape from the 1941 Kamenets Podolsk Massacre. We reached Rabbi Schneier at his Manhattan office via Zoom on Feb. 20, 2025. See also Rabbi Arthur Schneier's page at Park East Synagogue: https://parkeastsynagogue.org/about-us/clergy/rabbi-arthur-schneier/ Rebbetzin Yetta Kane is a Holocaust survivor who grew up in Miadziol (Belarusian: Мядзел; Yiddish: Miadl (מיאַדל)), a small town in Belarus. She shares memories of her childhood and her family's survival during the Holocaust, including hiding from the Nazis in the forests of Belarus with the Partisans. Yetta and her late husband, Rabbi and Cantor David Kane, are authors of the´ memoir How to Survive Anything: The Life Story of David and Yetta Kane. We interviewed her at her home in the Los Angeles area on April 8, 2025. Music: Norbert and Rochelle Horowitz, Rita Karin: Farvos Iz Der Himl Geven Nekhtn Loyter Norbert and Rochelle Horowitz, Rita Karin: Yisrolik Nikitov: S'dremlen Feygl Af Di Tsvaygn Sarah Gorby: Zog Nit Keynmol Chava Alberstein: Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern Chava Alberstein: Friling Hélène Engel: Yeder Ruft Mikh Zhamele from Voices Of The Ghetto (Voix Du Ghetto): Warszawa, 1943 Shalom Katz: El Moleh Rachamim Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air date: April 23, 2025

This week's highlights: We welcome back Rabbi Yitzchok-Boruch Teitelbaum, known in his Monroe, NY, community as der Pshischer Rebbe, for Pesach greetings and words of wisdom. We meet Chazan Dr. Moshe Moskovitz, the High Holiday cantor at Los Angeles’s Congregation Shaarei Tefila, to discuss his background, his yiches (he’s the grandson of two post-war Carpathian cantors), and his journey into chazones (the musical art of leading Jewish prayer in the Ashkenazi tradition), as well as Pesach from a cantorial perspective — guiding us through several cantorial recordings along the way. Pesach greetings from many of our cohosts, friends and sponsors, as follows: Israel Book Shop (Eli Dovek ז״ל recorded Mar 28 2007) American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Greater Boston (member and Holocaust survivor Tania Lefman, and member and Holocaust survivor Mary Erlich), co-sponsor of Boston's 2025 In-Person and Virtual Community Holocaust Commemoration of Yom HaShoah, Sunday, April 27 at 10:30 AM Eastern. (Registration required.) We reached them at their homes in Greater Boston by phone on April 9, 2025. Yetta Kane, Holocaust survivor and rebbetzin in Los Angeles with whom we just completed an interview to be aired a little later this year. Recorded at her home in Long Beach on April 8, 2025. League for Yiddish, New York, NY, (Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, Chair of the Board). Recorded at her home in Teaneck, NJ, on April 9, 2025. Leah Shporer-Leavitt, Newton, MA, co-host of The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול (from 2024) Dovid Braun, Leonia, NJ, co-host of The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול (from 2024) Yankele Bodo, Tel Aviv, Israel, actor and singer (from 2016) Eli Grodko, New Millford, NJ, friend of the show. Recorded at his home in Teaneck, NJ, on April 8, 2025. Boston Workers Circle, Brookline, MA (Yiddish committee member Linda (Libe-Reyzl) Gritz) Sholem Beinfeld, Cambridge, MA, co-host of The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול, co-editor of the Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary and Professor of History, emeritus, Washington Univ., St. Louis, with extended remarks on Pesach 5785. We recorded Sholem by phone on April 9, 2025. Verterbukh.org, the online Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary, Greater Boston (Khayem Bochner, co-editor and director of the online dictionary) Hy Wolfe, Director of CYCO Yiddish Book Center, Long Island City, NY (from 2020) We wish all our cohosts, sponsors and friends a Happy and Kosher Pesach. מיר ווינטשן אַלע אונדזערע אונטערשטיצער, פֿרײַנד און באַטייליקטע אַ פֿריילעכן און כּשרן פּסח Music: Moishe Oysher: Chad Gadyo Moshe Stern: Uvchein Yehi Ratzon Leibele Glantz: Tfilas Tal Moshe Ganchoff: Btses Yisroel Leibele Glantz: Ma Nishtono Nusach Moshe Koussevitzky: Fir Kashes Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air date: April 9,...

Happy Purim ! אַ פֿריילעכן פּורים Highlights: Sholem Londner: 2 jokes for Purim Shane Baker: Yiddish story for Purim: Drunk All Year, Sober on Purim אַ גאַנץ יאָר שיכּור, פּורים ניכטער Used with the permission of Shane Baker and the Congress for Jewish Culture, originally released on YouTube in 2023. From our archive: Hasia Segal (2010): Purim greetings from FL Iosif Lakhman (2010): Purim greetings from Brighton (Boston), MA Miriam Libenson (1999): The Story of Purim Morris (Moyshe) Hollender (2011): Kiddush for Purim and short interview Matele Friedman (2016): Ikh Bin Geboyrn Simkhes-Purim (Born on the Joyful Purim Holiday) Music: Emmanuel Fisher: Shoshanas Yakov Leahke Post: Purim Tova Ben-Zvi: Haynt Iz Purim Brider Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air date: March 12, 2025

Highlights: Sholem Beinfeld, regular co-host of The Yiddish Voice and professor emeritus at Washington University, St. Louis, shares thoughts on the new Trump administration as of March 5, 2025, one day after President Trump's first speech to Congress of his second administration. Rukhl Schaechter (שׂרה-רחל שעכטער), editor of Forverts (a/k/a the Yiddish Forward, פֿאָרווערטס), online at forward.com/yiddish, reflects on 25 years with this Yiddish institution, originally as a writer and now as its editor. She spoke with us on Zoom from her home in Yonkers on Nov. 24, 2024. (Previously aired Nov. 27, 2024) Music: Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air date: March 5, 2025

This week on The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול, we featured an in-depth conversation with historian Benyomen Moss (Kenneth B. Moss), the Harriet and Ulrich E. Meyer Professor of Jewish History at the University of Chicago. He spoke with Sholem Beinfeld, professor emeritus at Washington University, St. Louis, about his book An Unchosen People: Jewish Political Reckoning in Interwar Poland (Harvard University Press, 2021). We reached Moss in Chicago via Zoom on Jan. 19, 2025. What future did Poland's Jews imagine for themselves in the years between the world wars? As antisemitism intensified and liberalism faltered, some Polish Jews sought new ways to understand their community’s place in an increasingly hostile world. Moss explores how these Jewish thinkers grappled with diasporic vulnerability, the forces of nationalism, Zionism’s promises, and the difficult political choices ahead. Moss, an acclaimed historian of modern Jewish thought, is also the author of Jewish Renaissance in the Russian Revolution (Harvard University Press, 2009) and co-editor of From Europe’s East to the Middle East (2023). His work has been recognized with prestigious fellowships and awards, including the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. Related links: Publisher page for Unchosen People: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674245105 Review of Unchosen People in Forverts (March, 2022), in Yiddish, by Mikhail Krutikov: https://forward.com/yiddish/483574/did-prewar-jewish-socialists-believe-that-jews-had-a-future-in-poland/ Kenneth Moss page at U. of Chicago: https://history.uchicago.edu/directory/Kenneth-Moss Music for Tu Bishvat Victor Berezinsky: Tu Bishvat Henry Carrey: Tu Beshvat (Music and Lyrics by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman) Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air date: February 12, 2025

In honor of International Holocaust Memorial Day, which this January 27, 2025, marks 80 years since the Soviet Red Army liberated the Auschwitz death camp, we present interviews in Yiddish from your archive with four survivors of Auschwitz. As of the broadcast date all were alive and well to the best of our knowledge. The interviewees are: Joseph Alexander, originally from Kowal, Poland, who survived Auschwitz. In his interview he recounts his Holocaustr experience and other aspects of his long life. (Recorded May 17, 2022; originally aired May 18, 2022) Itel Landau, originally from Vișeu de Sus (Felsővisó in Hungarian, אויבערווישעווע in Yiddish), a shtetl in Transylvania (prewar Romania, Hungary during WWII, now Romania), who survived Auschwitz, discussing her life — before, during, and after the Holocaust. (Recorded June 6, 2024; originally aired June 19, 2024) Zoli Langer, originally from Minai, a village near the small town of Užhorod, Czechoslovakia (now Ukraine). He, his parents, and 5 siblings were deported to Auschwitz in the spring of 1944. He was the only one to survive. He describes his life before and during the war and ultimately his liberation in April 1945. (Recorded in November, 2019; originally aired April 22, 2020) Rochel Zicherman, originally from the small village Tybava in Carpathian Ruthenia part of Czechoslovakia (now Ukraine), who survived Auschwitz. In her interview she both talks about her life and sings songs related to the Holocaust. (Recorded in 2019; originally aired May 1, 2019) Please note: This is a special extended-length episode, over 2 hours and 40 minutes. Music: Rokhl Zicherman: In Auschwitzer Lager, Holocaust 'Dem Milners Trern' (Singer is a Carpathian Auschwitz survivor. This is a Yiddish Voice exclusive recording.) Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air Date: January 22, 2025

Episode Highlights Air date: January 15, 2025 Rabbi Sholom Ber Diskin A shaliach at Chabad of Pacific Palisades, Rabbi Diskin shares his first-hand experience of surviving the Los Angeles wildfires that destroyed his home. He discusses the ongoing relief efforts he and his team are leading. We reached him at his temporary residence in the Pico Robinson neighborhood on Jan. 15, 2025. ➡️ Learn more about fire relief efforts: Chabad of Pacific Palisades Fire Relief ➡️ Support individuals directly: Help My Elderly Parents Rebuild After Fire—Ruby Elliot Zuckerman's fundraiser for her grandparents, the Yiddish scholar Marvin Zuckerman and his wife Kathy Kohner Zuckerman a/k/a Gidget Help the Diskin Family Rebuild from the Palisades Fire—to support Rabbi Sholom Ber and Nechama Diskin and their family, who lost their home last week in the wildfire. Shulem Londner A community member from the Fairfax neighborhood of Los Angeles, Shulem shares insights from the Yiddish literary world and reflects on the wildfire crisis. We reached him by phone at his home on Jan. 15, 2025. Kolya Borodulin Join Kolya for a discussion on the Workers Circle’s upcoming online event, Winter in Yiddishland. We reached him by phone at his Arbeter Ring office in New York on Jan. 15, 2025. New Yiddish Music This episode features songs by rising stars on the Yiddish music scene: Jordan Wax: Makht and Keler fun Ash ➡️ Listen on Bandcamp Hershy Bleich: Yene Second ➡️ Listen on Mostly Music Mendy Shapiro: Kivinu ➡️ Listen on Mostly Music Moshe Milstein: Lichtele ➡️ Listen on Mostly Music 🎵 Intro Music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz

Arele Schaechter Viswanath, the translator of the Harry Potter book series into Yiddish, was interviewed about, and read excerpts from, his translation of the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which was recently published by Olniansky Press (Sweden, 2024) under the Yiddish title הערי פּאָטער און די קאַמער פֿון סודות. Arele works in the field of strategy and analytics at tech companies in New York City, while "moonlighting" as a Yiddish translator. His previous translations include the first Harry Potter book (הערי פּאָטער און דער פֿילאָסאָפֿישער שטיין); Do you know Pippi Longstocking? (צי קענסטו פּיפּי לאַנגשטרימפּ); and Uh-oh! (געוואַלד). To purchase the latest Harry Potter book in Yiddish in the US we suggest you either email CYCO Yiddish Book Center at cycobooks@aol.com or visit the League for Yiddish Store's Harry Potter book 2 page. For non-USA orders, we recommend purchasing directly from the publisher Olniansky Press's Harry Potter page. Lillian Shporer-Leavitt (לאה), co-host of The Yiddish Voice, led the interview with Arele, as she previously did for the first book in 2020. Lillian grew up in Boston in a Yiddish-speaking home and has been teaching and translating Yiddish in the Boston area for several decades. Our show ended with a selection of Hanukkah recordings. Happy Hanukkah! אַ פֿריילעכן חנוכּה Music: Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz John Williams: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Complete Motion Picture Score (excerpts) A series of Hanukkah in performed by various singers and musicians, including Moishe Oysher and the Pripetshik Singers. Air date: Dec 11, 2024