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Essays, interviews, listicles, podcasts, and much more, covering all aspects of Yiddish culture.

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Briv funem Arkhiv: A Masquerade Ball in Warsaw, 1925

For our first briv funem arkhiv, Alyssa Quint shares a Hal­loween-themed find: a pam­phlet for a 1925 mas­quer­ade ball in Warsaw.

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Briv funem Arkhiv: A Book Receipt Issued to Martin Buber, 1915

Sam Shon­koff shares a receipt issued to Mar­tin Buber for his pur­chase of thir­ty-three Hasidic vol­umes to be shipped from Prze­myśl, Gali­cia, to his cur­rent home in Berlin, in Octo­ber 1915 — in the midst of World War I and a tur­bu­lent year for Prze­myśl’s Jews.

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Briv funem Arkhiv: Vella Grade, Fruit and Vegetable Seller

Saulė Val­iū­naitė finds Chaim Grade’s moth­er Vel­la list­ed as a fruit and veg­etable sell­er in inter­war Vil­na, just as Grade mov­ing­ly depicts her in his memoir.

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Briv funem Arkhiv: Letter from Sylvia Schneiderman to Itche Goldberg

Josie Naron gives us a glimpse into the pres­sures felt by the chil­dren of Jew­ish left­ists tar­get­ed by McCarthy­ism and the role of Yid­dish sum­mer camps at the height of the Red Scare.

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Briv funem Arkhiv: Letter from Itzik Manger to Sholem Asch

Is there a more extra­or­di­nary and self-lac­er­at­ing let­ter in all of Yid­dish lit­er­a­ture than this air­mail from its most beloved poet to its most cel­e­brat­ed novelist?

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Briv funem Arkhiv: Di Korbones fun "Vaysn Sam"

This 1939 arti­cle and pho­to­graph in a War­saw Yid­dish week­ly — depict­ing a typ­i­cal female cocaine addict [kokain­istke] with a crazed expres­sion in the eyes,” accord­ing to the cap­tion — point to the spread of recre­ation­al drug use with­in the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty and its emer­gence as a sub­ject of inter­est in the Yid­dish press.

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Briv funem Arkhiv: 1987 Poster Announcing Pilgrimages to Lezajsk (Lizhensk)

Posters like this one for spe­cial events, grad­u­a­tions, sales of Hasidic gar­ments, com­put­ers, new books, videos and more are still pop­u­lar in the Hasidic neigh­bor­hoods of Brook­lyn. How­ev­er, in recent years the inter­net has changed the business.

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Briv funem Arkhiv: An Appeal From Buczacz, 1935

In 1935, New York’s Bucza­cz-Amer­i­can Benev­o­lent Sick and Aid Soci­ety received this appeal — in Yid­dish and Pol­ish— from the Jew­ish Relief Com­mit­tee in Bucza­cz, Poland. One of the sig­na­to­ries was my grand­fa­ther, Moses Wolfthal.

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Briv funem Arkhiv: The Eiffel Tower Heads to the Suburbs

On this 1933 fly­er for a Kul­tur-lige pariz event, a walk­ing, talk­ing Eif­fel Tow­er exclaims, All of Paris is going to the Kultur-lige’s excur­sion to Garch­es, and you want me to stay here?

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Briv funem Arkhiv: A Grave in the Baker Street Jewish Cemeteries

Michael Shapiro takes us to the Work­er’s Cir­cle sec­tion of Boston’s Bak­er Street Jew­ish Ceme­ter­ies, where he encoun­tered a mov­ing Yid­dish poem.

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