Blog

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

Blog

Amerike – The Golden Land is Yiddish in Form, Nationalist in Content

Tova Ben­jamin on seek­ing authen­tic­i­ty at the theater.

Interview

Communicating Jewish History in Poland Today

POLIN Muse­um of the His­to­ry of Pol­ish Jews was decades in the mak­ing and now tells the thou­sand year his­to­ry of Pol­ish Jews in the old heart of Jew­ish Warsaw. 

Interview

The Promise and Peril of Digital Research in Yiddish: An Interview with Gerben Zaagsma

Ele­na Hof­fern­berg inter­views Ger­ben Zaags­ma about his path to study­ing Yid­dish in the Span­ish Civ­il War; the poten­cy and the frus­tra­tions of dig­i­tal research; and the future of dig­i­tal stud­ies and Yiddish.

Interview

Listening to Sylvia’s Children: A response to Briv funem Arkhiv: Letter from Sylvia Schneiderman to Itche Goldberg

Amye Rubin­schnei­der inter­views her moth­er and aunt in response to Josie Naron’s blog post about a let­ter from their moth­er, Rubin­schnei­der’s grand­moth­er, a teacher fired dur­ing the Red Scare.

Blog

The Bund by the Numbers: The Ebbs and Flows of a Jewish Radical Party

The Jew­ish Labor Bund was a major force in Russ­ian Jew­ish life, expand­ing the polit­i­cal are­na to be more demo­c­ra­t­ic in nature and dri­ving the cre­ation of a new polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic dis­course in Yid­dish. So I was shocked to learn that in 1910, the Bund had a mere 609 mem­bers — down from approx­i­mate­ly 35,000 five years ear­li­er. The speed with which the Bund and oth­er Jew­ish polit­i­cal par­ties in the Russ­ian Empire could rise, fall, and rise again reflects the pres­sures the com­mu­ni­ty was under, result­ing in both sober cau­tion and dar­ing, des­per­ate dreams.

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