forshpil:tsvey: forshpil’s Alternate Universe of Yiddish Rock

Idishe bilder writer Moyshele Vulfart describes the visit of two Arab men from Palestine to a kibbutz hakhshara, a preparation kibbutz, in Liepaja, Latvia, in 1938. While it was not uncommon for such reports to be conveyed by Jewish comrades on return visits from Palestine, in this instance the message-bearers were Palestinian men presumably on the other side of the conflict.

Nov 22, 2021

The multilingual and international scope of this list of documentaries produced since 2015 is a testament to the contemporary vibrancy of Yiddish culture across the globe.

Nov 08, 2021

Yiddish literature abounds with #MeToo moments — representations of sexual exploitation and misconduct. If our list here, which is by no means complete or exhaustive, uncovered so many troubling scenes, how many more of these scenes unsettle Yiddish literature as a whole? And what does the proliferation of such scenes tell us about the role these dynamics played in the lives of Yiddish speakers –– what they expected from, feared, or experienced in the workplace?

Nov 02, 2021

This teaching guide for Leon Kobrin’s short story “Blessed is the True Judge” offers brainstorming ideas, discussion questions, and essay prompts for high school and college class rooms.

Oct 28, 2021

This special issue invites you to walk with Debora Vogel as she maps the spaces of Jewish life through avant-garde forms. We bring together new perspectives on Vogel through poetry, visual art, translation, and scholarship, all in an attempt to follow the many lines of creative and critical inquiry that emerge from Vogel’s work.

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Oct 26, 2021

Zackary Sholem Berger renders two poems by Vogel anew via the poetic method of translation-erasure, revealing through distortion the contours that lead from language to language across the decades.

Oct 26, 2021