Preservation of Yiddish Culture

Preservation of Yiddish Culture and Heritage

Сохранение культуры идиша

אָפּהיטן אונדזער ייִדישע קולטור־ירושה

לשמור על תרבות היידיש

Mikhoel Felsenbaum Awarded for Lifetime Achievement

Mikhoel Felsenbaum Awarded for Lifetime Achievement

Mikhoel Felsenbaum Awarded for Lifetime Achievement

Mikhoel Felsenbaum, a prominent Yiddish novelist, poet and playwright, has received a lifetime achievement award for 2024 in the field of literature from the Israeli National Authority for Yiddish Culture. Dr. Shoshana Dominski, who compiled a Yiddish-Hebrew online dictionary, was awarded a certificate of appreciation.

Born in 1951 in Soviet Ukraine, Felsenbaum studied stage directing, theater and art history in Leningrad and worked as a stage director. In the 1980s, he began to publish his Yiddish works in the magazine Sovetish Heymland. After immigrating to Israel in 1991, he published several volumes of poetry and prose in Yiddish.

2024 Yiddish Reading Classes in St. Petersburg

2024 Yiddish Reading Classes in St. Petersburg

2024 Yiddish Reading Classes in St. Petersburg

A new series of Yiddish reading classes for advanced students was launched on early November at the Jewish Community Center of St. Petersburg. The studies are led by the Yiddish writer Yoel Matveyev.

For the current academic year, the classes’ organizers have chosen Yitzkhok Yoel Linetzky’s semi-autobiographical novel “Dos Poylishe Yingl” (The Polish Lad), considered a masterpiece of Yiddish picturesque satire. While its vitriolic humor is aimed againt Hasidim, this book may help secular readers to understand better Hasidic Hebrew and Aramaic expressions used in Yiddish. Many of these expressions are still in common use. Linetzky (1839–1915) first published his novel in 1867.

Theater of Sholem Asch

Theater of Sholem Asch

Land of My Soul:

The Theater of Sholem Asch

On September 19, 2024, the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York hosted the one-person performance Land of My Soul: The Theater of Sholem Asch by the actress, translator. theater director, writer and Yiddish activist Caraid O’Brien who performed some excerpts from the most successful and controversial dramas by Sholem Asch, including the monologues from his plays God of Vengeance, Motke Thief and The Dead Man translated by O’Brien for the first time into English.

The performance was followed by a talkback with Asch’s great-grandson David Mazower and Lisa Newman, the heads of the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst. The event was also streamed live online. Caraid O’Brien, born in Ireland, is based in New York and is best known for her work with material originally written in Yiddish.

Yidishland: Issue 24

Yidishland: Issue 24

Yidishland: Issue 24

The 24th issue of the quarterly magazine Yidishland, notable for its exclusively Yiddish material, was published in parallel print runs in Israel and Sweden. It features new chapters of novels by Klara-Bel and Mikhoel Felsenbaum, a short story by Velvl Chernin, several philological and historical research articles. The issue is rich in poetic works and includes poems by Felix Khaimovich, David Omar Cohen, Hillel Kazovsky, Osher Gal, Katerina Kuznetsova, Boris Karloff and Jake Schneider.

אלמנך “ביראָבידזשאַן” 2024

אלמנך “ביראָבידזשאַן” 2024

אלמנך “ביראָבידזשאַן” 2024

חברת הטלוויזיה הרוסית “בירה” הגישה ב-13 בספטמבר 2024 מהדורה חדשה של תוכנית השבועית “יידישקייט” עם הצגת הגיליון ה-19 של האלמנך “בירוביג’אן”. המגזין העבה בן 260 עמודים מוקדש הפעם למלאת 90 שנה לאזור האוטונומי היהודי, שנוצר על ידי הממשלה הסובייטית ב-1934.

האלמנך מכיל חלק גדול ביידיש, הכולל שירים מאת מחברי בירוביג’אן וסיפור מדע בדיוני מאת יואל מאטוועיעוו, סופר בן זמננו הכותב ביידיש שגר בפטרבורג. החלק בשפה הרוסית מציג אנתולוגיה של שירים סובייטים על הטייגה, מתורגמים מיידיש. בנוסף לחומרים היסטוריים ייחודיים ומגוונים, יש במהדורה החדשה של האלמנך גם שני חלקים אמנותיים נפרדים.

קרא את האלמנך באינטרנט

אלמנך “ביראָבידזשאַן” 2024

Almanac Birobidzhan 2024

Almanac Birobidzhan 2024

On September 13, 2024, the official Russian TV channel Bira presented a new episode of its Yiddish-oriented weekly program Yiddishkeit dedicated to the recently published 19th issue of the annual almanac Birobidzhan — a book-sized 260-page journal largely devoted to the 90th anniversary of the Jewish Autonomous Region of Russia, established by the Soviet government in 1934.

The almanac includes a large Yiddish section, featuring historical poetry of Birobidzhan authors and a science fiction story by Yoel Matveyev, a St. Petersburg-based contemporary Yiddish writer. The Russian part contains an anthology of poems about tayga translated from Yiddish. Besides unique and diverse historical materials written in both languages, this year’s issue of the almanac also contains two separate art sections.

Read the almanac online