I badly wanted The Last Yiddish Speaker to be an American Jewish meditation on American Jewish safety that used Yiddish to pull our political imaginations toward new horizons.
Her Birth and Later Years and Pomiędzy światami/ Between Worlds are more than poems and essays; these books are a testament to Irena Klepfisz’s life as a survivor, a Jewish lesbian, a Yiddishist, and a political activist.
The continuing relevance of Yiddish in Berlin highlights Yiddish not only as a means of communication but as a symbol of cultural and political resistance.
Klezcadia’s inaugural 2024 festival was fully hybrid, COVID-cautious, and included daytime workshops and evening concerts with a variety of West Coast klezmer luminaries and Yiddish teachers.
In The Great Dictionary of Yiddish Language: A Chamber Opera, composer Alex Weiser and librettist Ben Kaplan endow enchantment and glamor on their decidedly unglamorous protagonists and, most importantly, heighten our attention to their doubts and torments the way only an opera can.