Preservation of Yiddish Culture

Preservation of Yiddish Culture and Heritage

Сохранение культуры идиша

אָפּהיטן אונדזער ייִדישע קולטור־ירושה

לשמור על תרבות היידיש

Website Dedicated to Yiddish Songs

Website Dedicated to Yiddish Songs

Website Dedicated to Yiddish Songs

The Workers’ Circle has launched a new website that features lyrics and freely downloadable audio recordings of more than 400 Yiddish songs from Yosl and Chana Mlotek’s anthology. It’s called Yiddishsongs.org. All songs are also accompanied by Roman letters transcription and English translation.

Chana Mlotek was a renowned researcher and collector of Yiddish songs, while her husband Yosl was a prominent Yiddishist activist. For decades the couple ran the popular Forverts column “Pearls of Jewish Poetry”. The new project was carried out by the son and grandson of these authors, Moish and Elisha Mlotek.

18th Issue of Yidishland

18th Issue of Yidishland

18th Issue of Yidishland

On March 31, 2023, the 18th issue of the literary quarterly magazine Yidishland was released in Israel and in parallel circulation in Sweden.

The magazine opens with the memoirs of the Jewish Soviet writer Noyakh Lurye (1885 – 1960) who describes the terrible months he spent in Stalin’s prison. This unique material was published for the first time. Modern poetry is represented in the new issue by Velvl Chernin’s, Felix Khaimovich’s and Boris Karloff’s poems.

One author, Yaad Biran, made his first appearance as a Yiddish prose writer. Biran is mainly known as a film director and translator of Yiddish literature into Hebrew. Academic materials related to Yiddish culture, presented in the fall of 2022 at the 25th Symposium for Yiddish Studies in Germany, comprise a large section of the magazine. Elena Sarashevskaya’s essay on the Yiddish Festival in Birobidzhan, which took place last autumn, is illustrated with color photographs of this important major event.

New Issue of Iberzets

New Issue of Iberzets

New Issue of Iberzets

In March 2023, the Iberzets Magazine, entirely devoted to literary translations from Yiddish into Hebrew, has published its 3rd issue. The periodical is edited and produced by the Tel Aviv University’s students specializing in Jewish literature. The new issue includes translated works of Sholem Aleichem, Aaron Zeitlin, Jacob Glatstein, H. Leivick, Anna Margolin, Ber Horowitz, Benjamin Harshav and Yossel Birstein.

Rivka Basman Ben-Hayim Dies

Rivka Basman Ben-Hayim Dies

Rivka Basman Ben-Hayim Dies

On March 22, the Yiddish poetess Rivka Basman Ben-Hayim passed away.

She was the last surviving member of the literary group Yung Yisroel (Young Israel). Born in 1925 in the Lithuanian town of Ukmergė, called Vilkomir in Yiddish, she graduated from high school before the Holocaust, then survived the Vilna ghetto and the Kaiserwald concentration camp, where she started writing poetry.

In 1947, Rivka Basman immigrated to the Land of Israel and took part in the War of Independence. In the 1950s, she began publishing her poems, which first appeared in periodical. Her first poetry collection, “Toybn baym brunem” (“Doves at the Well”) was published in 1959. Rivka Basman Ben-Chaim remained an active author until the last years of her life. May her memory be blessed!

Dmitri Shostakovich in Yiddish

Dmitri Shostakovich in Yiddish

Dmitri Shostakovich in Yiddish

Our Internet portal is glad to announce the publication of unique materials dedicated to Dmitri Shostakovich’s vocal cycle “From Jewish Folk Poetry”. Not being himself a Jew, this great composer considered Jewish folk music unique, had deep feelings towards it and believed that it echoed in the works of many great world composers. In 1948, during the darkest moments of Stalin’s terror against the Soviet Jewish intelligentsia, Shostakovich created a series of 11 music pieces based on folk lyrics originally published in Yiddish.

The visitors of our website have now the opportunity to become acquainted with the original collection of Yiddish folk songs by Yekhezkl Dobrushin and Avrom Yuditsky, which formed the basis of Shostakovich’s genious songs; with the book of the Israeli musicologist Joachim Braun, where the Yiddish original texts are reworked according to the melodies (the composer himself used Russian translations, which sound somewhat different from the originals); as well as with full music scores. Most importantly, our site offers a recording of these songs in their original language: Yiddish. It was made in 2000 in Moscow, performed by Eva Ben-Zvi, Elena Goubina and Nikolay Kurpe. Our newly created video of this performance is illustrated by art works of famous Jewish painters.

Presentation of Contemporary Yiddish Science Fiction

Presentation of Contemporary Yiddish Science Fiction

Presentation of Contemporary Yiddish Science Fiction

On March 23, 2023, the Babel bookstore in Jerusalem hosted a presentation of Velvl Chernin’s collection of short fantasy and science fiction stories, which the author himself had translated from Yiddish into Russian. The book was recently published by the St. Petersburg publishing house Jaromír Hladík Press.

The Babel bookstore specializes in Russian books, including translations from Yiddish. It also features a subtantial section of contemporary Yiddish literature. Among other things, it offers the literary quarterly almanac Yidishland.