Currently Browsing: yiddish 5 articles
A Weekend of Yiddish
Myra Woolfson kvetches about the joys of planning a Jewish-themed event. This summer, some 50 to 60 Yiddishists will spend a happy weekend in a former stately home in the heart of Yorkshire. Everything will be in Yiddish – meals, coffee breaks, talks, walks, learned discussion and gossip. There will be opportunities to hear poetry […]
איך האָב זיך געידישט I have Yiddished
Rabbi Dr Barbara Borts reflects on the expansion of Yiddish. The Yiddish language and I have dated over the years. I was raised with the sonic background of Yiddish. My father’s parents, Bobie and Zeidie, spoke Yiddish to each other. My parents spoke some Yiddish to each other but more importantly, my father peppered his […]
Yiddisher Psychogeography of a Small Planet
David Balsmo explores Emanuel Litvinoff, Jewish Space and Place as revealed through the lockdown. It is now just over a year since the pandemic forced the U.K. into lockdown, during this time the promise of an expanding world with multifarious connections has shrunk. Yes, we have Zoom and other platforms, but non-virtual experience contracted with […]
Thinking in Yiddish
Michele Byers reflects on learning Yiddish during lockdown. Not knowing Yiddish is one of those things I’ve been lamenting most of my life. And, in a way, the lamentation is itself as much a part of my secular Jewish identity as knowing Yiddish might have been. I expect that it’s like this for a lot […]
The Enduring Relevance of Avrom Radutski’s Poetry
Phil Alexander finds contemporary echoes in the poetry of Avrom Radutski. At the beginning of 2020, recently embarked upon a British Academy fellowship exploring Scottish-Jewish musical encounters, I was looking forward to days spent leisurely mining the Garnethill Synagogue Archives, the National Library of Scotland, the British Library, and so many other physical treasure chests. […]