The Workers’ Circle (Der Arbeter Ring) has started enrolling participants in its online spring course of klezmer music and Yiddish songs. Starting from February 27, the Zoom classes will be held for 10 weeks. Participants will have the opportunity to choose between several workshops during the course. The main working language will be English.
The New York branch of the Workers’ Circle (Der Arbeter Ring) announced the registration for the spring courses of video lectures for Yiddish speakers and advanced students. The online classes will be held in Yiddish, starting from the end of February and will continue until June. The program will cover such diverse subjects as the grammar of literary Yiddish, the history of Yiddish literature and theater, and practical advice on writing literary texts in this language. Lecturers invited come from the USA, Israel, France and Argentina. Future participants are welcome to sign up on the organization’s website.
In Geveb, the bilingual English-Yiddish online journal specializing in Yiddish cultural studies, has been reviewing translations from Yiddish into other languages over the last few years. Recently, it published the new list of 2022 translations composed by Dalia Wolfson. This list contains bibliographic information about 53 books: 18 of these have been published in English, 8 in Polish, 5 in each Hebrew and Lithuanian, 4 in each French and Russian, 2 books in each German, Chinese and Spanish, one book has been translated into each Greek, Belarusian and Czech.
In addition to individual books, dozens of translations from Yiddish into various languages were also published during the year of 2022 in periodicals and anthologies. Such translations appeared last year, in addition to those listed above languages, also in Ukrainian and Dutch. The list includes as well translations published not on paper, but in electronic format.
Most of the authors whose works were translated from Yiddish belong to previous generations: Mendele Moykher-Sforim, Yitskhok-Leybush Peretz, Sholem Aleichem, Chaim Grade, Anna Margolin, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Jacob Glatshteyn, Avrom Sutzkever, Melekh Ravitch, Osher Shvartsman, Joseph Opatoshu, Yisroel Amiot, Celia Dropkin, Shira Gorshman, Avrom Karpinovitch, Binem Heller, Moyshe-Leyb Halpern, Itzik Manger, Kaczerginski, Kadia Molodowsky, Alter Kacyzne, Debora Vogel, Leyb Kvitko, Esther Kreitman, Yisroel Rabon, David Bergelson, Peretz Hirshbein, Peretz Markish, Mani Leib, Avrom Reyzen, Israel Joshua Singer, Moyshe Kulbak, Yitzkhok Katzenelson, and others.
At the same time, it is pleasant to note that the new In Geveb translation list also includes works by contemporary Yiddish writers: Rivka Basman Ben-Hayim, Boris Sandler, Velvl Chernin, Moishe Lemster, Ber Kotlerman, Hirshe-Dovid Katz, Katle-Kanye, Sholom Berger, Bruria Wiegand, Evgeny Kissin, Shiri Shapira, Emil Kalin, and Eli Sharfstein.
It should be added that a number of literary translators from Yiddish mentioned in the In Geveb list also write their own original works in Yiddish. These include Yermiyahu Ahron Taub who translates into English; Marek Tuszewicki into Polish, Yisroel Nekrasov and Yoel Matveyev into Russian, and David-Omar Cohen who translates from Yiddish into Dutch.
The Moscow publishing house Knizhniki published Thomas Mayer’s novel known in English as “The Awakening of Motti Wolkenbruch”, translated into Russian by Alexandra Eliseyeva. Thomas Mayer is a Swiss author who writes in German. The meaning of the original title, “Wolkenbruch’s Wondrous Journey Into the Arms of a Shiksa”, is preserved in the new translation.
The book is notable for its frequent use of words and expressions in colloquial modern Yiddish. There are quite a few Jews in today’s Switzerland, primarily Ultra-Orthodox, who use this language on daily basis.
Shiksa in Yiddish refers colloquially to a non-Jewish woman, often a lover of a Jewish man. Mayer’s novel is about a family conflict and contradictions between tradition and the protagonist’s independent lifestyle. Mayer’s novel was made into a film in 2018. Despite the emphatically “non-serious” title, the book once again shows us something very profound: that Yiddish remains a living language among Orthodox Jews and attracts the attention of contemporary authors.
The Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies at the Toronto University announces registration for a two-days program of online events focusing on the future development of Yiddish and scientific research of this language. The program will take place on February 19 and 20. According to the organizers, the main target audience are graduate students, advanced undergraduates and early career professionals who will get an opportunity to look toward the future of Yiddish and Yiddish Studies, to participate in interactive workshops and moderated paper panels.
The organization Farbindungen, which means “Connections” in Yiddish, was established in 2022. Its first winter conference focused on international team work of scholars and other creative personalities whose activities are related to the Yiddish language. The schedule of the upcoming program has been posted on the Farbindungen website.
On January 8, a new performance was premiered by the Tel Aviv theater Yiddishpil, entitled Zikhroynes fun Motl Peyse dem khazns (The Memories of Mottl, Peysi the Cantor’s Son), based on Sholem Aleichem’s classic novel. The new musical drama was written by the Israeli playwright Rami Rosen (1944-2019) and directed by Yonatan Esterkin, starring two actors, Yaacov (Yankele) Bodo and Yonatan Rosen. The performance is entirely in Yiddish, subtitled in Hebrew and Russian. It will run until February 19.