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by SARAH PONICHTERA

Welcome to Di Nyu-yorkerin!*

This monthly blog will announce Yiddish happenings taking place in and around New York City, and sometimes beyond.

In the cultural sphere, the New Yiddish Rep and Castillo Theater’s production of “Waiting for Godot” has been getting rave reviews both from people well-versed in Yiddish culture (such as Leyzer Burko’s review) and mainstream news outlets (such as Anita Gates’ review in the New York Times). The Folksbiene is holding a concert series featuring previously unheard songs gathered from Jewish families who lived in Soviet Russia, titled “Notes from the Underground.” The songs will be performed by members of the klezmer band Golem, and the performance is directed by the eminent Zalman Mlotek. Details can be found here.

http://michaelwex.com/ Witty and erudite observations on Yiddish and yidishkeyt by Michael Wex, author of Born to Kvetch, the bestselling book about Yiddish. http://rokhl.blogspot.com/ “Dynamic Yiddishkayt for the New Millennium.” Rokhl Kafrissen’s sharp and thoughtful reflections on Yiddish, Jewish identity, and more. http://inmolaraan.blogspot.com/ Eve Jochnowitz’s blog about food and Yiddish. http://yiddishsong.wordpress.com/ “The Yiddish Song of the Week,” edited by ...

From 1963-1976, YIVO had its own program on WEVD, the radio station established by the Socialist Party of America in 1927 (its call letters stand for the initials of American socialist leader Eugene V. Debs), which was purchased by the Jewish Daily Forward in 1932 and became a major venue ...

Steven Zipperstein YIVO is pleased to announce the appointment of the first Jacob Kronhill Visiting Scholar, Dr. Steven Zipperstein, Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History at Stanford University. The Jacob Kronhill Visiting Scholar will conduct a graduate-level seminar in East European Jewish history, lead a professional development workshop for ...

YIVO Executive Director Jonathan Brent and Max Weinreich Center Academic Advisor Eddy Portnoy were featured on the September 13 "Please Explain" segment of The Leonard Lopate Show (WNYC/NPR), discussing the history, roots and culture of Yiddish. Berlin's Svetlana Kundish Wows at Yiddish Songfest The Forward’s Shmooze reviewed the September 9th program, “Festival ...

Sixty-three years ago, YIVO honored historian Simon Dubnowwith this special postal mark. The caption explains that a year earlier, YIVO had created a mark to commemorate classic Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem.

Author Daniel Soyer talks about his book.

Lana Adler, a recent graduate of Hampshire College, is assisting Acquisitions Archivist Leo Greenbaum in the YIVO Archives. Editor Roberta Newman interviewed her recently about her experiences as an intern.

RN: Can you tell us what you’re working on right now, Lana?

LA: Right now, I’m going through items that have been recently donated to the YIVO Archives. These include unpublished memoirs, family histories, letters, various types of documents, photographs, and pamphlets. They’re extremely varied and super interesting. I’m making a definitive list for publication in Yedies and also picking out things that might be of particular interest for special features.

I’m a huge historical voyeur! I really enjoy these basic pieces of people’s lives, such as letters talking about pretty mundane things. It might not seem important because it’s just one person, but to me it’s really cool. It gives me a chance to commune with that person a little bit. I also really like looking at historical documents, which are pieces of time that has passed.

by ROBERTA NEWMAN As the end of World War II drew near, attention began to shift to what might immediately follow in the postwar era. While the full magnitude of the destruction of Jewish life in Europe was still beyond the grasp of most observers, it was clear to those who ...

by ROBERTA NEWMAN The July 1935 edition of Yedies reports on a controversy involving Hebrew University and graduates of Yiddish secondary schools in Vilna. The university in Jerusalem was refusing to accept graduates from two of these schools, the Sofia M. Gurevitch Gymnasium and the Vilna Real-Gymnasium (Mathematics-Natural Sciences Gymnasium), for ...