Blog

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

Blog

Loyt di Leyeners: Responses to “New Yiddish Poetry from the Israel-Gaza War”

We are pleased to share these respons­es in order to broad­en con­ver­sa­tion about poet­ry in the midst of disaster.

Blog

Yiddish Studies - Present and Future: A Conference Marking the 15th Yortsayt of Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter (z’’l)

Yid­dish Stud­ies — Present and Future: A con­fer­ence mark­ing the 15th yort­sayt of Dr. Mord­khe Schaechter (z’’l) includ­ed dis­cus­sion and debate.

Interview

"I salvage the shards": an interview with Polish poet Grzegorz Kwiatkowski

An inter­view with Pol­ish poet and musi­cian Grze­gorz Kwiatkowski.

Blog

Kosmopolitn: a Time Capsule to a World that Maybe Was

Kos­mopolitn, the lat­est Tsvey Brid­er release from Borscht Beat Records, is a trib­ute to the social and cul­tur­al dynamism of turn-of-the-twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry Yid­dish poet­ic life.

Blog

Montage-Murals: Ella Ponizovsky Bergelson’s “Present Figures” (Berlin 2021)

This spring, Deb­o­ra Vogel’s poet­ry bloomed riotous­ly across the faces of three build­ings in Berlin. Pas­sages from the col­lec­tion Day Fig­ures (Tog-Fig­urn, 1930) appeared in Vogel’s Yid­dish and in trans­la­tions into Ger­man, Ara­bic, and Eng­lish, the let­ters of those four alpha­bets paint­ed along­side hobo hiero­glyphs, squat­ter runes, and pale­o­type. This series of cal­li­graph­ic murals is the work of Ella Poni­zovsky Bergel­son (b. 1984). 

Blog

Herring Barrels

Dur­ing the dog days of sum­mer, lines of Vogel’s poet­ry hummed in my head, and I felt com­pelled to write back. When I start­ed writ­ing the poems below, Vogel became real to me as a char­ac­ter. The poems are writ­ten to her. They address her and beg a response.

Blog

The 2087th Question or When Silence Is the Only Answer

What kind of life will there be after the Res­ur­rec­tion of the Dead? 

I may not believe in an after­life or in res­ur­rec­tions, but I do believe that cul­tures can be reawak­ened and revived in new generations. 

Blog

Northern Voices: New Yiddish Song in Sweden

Eisen­berg reviews Shtoltse Lid­er, a mul­ti­me­dia stage show, with songs in Yid­dish and Eng­lish, and expla­na­tions and evo­ca­tions in Swedish, from Swedish duo Ida and Louise. 

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