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Yiddish

People look over a record book from 1836 that is displayed at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York, on October 24, 2017. (AP/Seth Wenig)
How YIVO pivoted from studying a living Yiddish world to preserving a vanishing culture
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
In a new book, 'Yiddish Scholarship Comes to America: The YIVO Institute at 100,' Kalman Weiser explores how the institute's surviving caretakers adapted to a post-Holocaust world
Sergii Gurbych sits at his computer in the Center for East European Jewish History at Vilnius University. (Shira Li Bartov/ JTA)
September 12, 2026, 8:02 pm
A new tool in Lithuania helps people read letters from their Jewish ancestors
VILNISH, an AI model trained on Yiddish and Hebrew archives, converts handwritten documents into searchable text, giving descendants and scholars access to long-buried family histories
By Shira Li Bartov
The Great Synagogue of Brody, Ukraine, pictured on a 1908 postcard. (Public domain)
September 5, 2026, 8:23 am
War-weary Ukrainian students learn Yiddish to reclaim a Jewish past nearly erased at home
Non-Jews learn about region’s history through language study with New York’s YIVO Institute, while connecting with US Jews over national heritage decimated with help of some local collaborators
By Luke Tress
1979 'The Frisco Kid,' starring Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford, is this week's featured film on The Reel Schmooze podcast. (courteys)
August 8, 2026, 12:07 pm
‘The Frisco Kid’: A (gefilte) fish out of water in the Wild West
ToI’s movie maven and deputy editor discuss the extremely Jewish 1979 cowboy flick starring Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford
By Amanda Borschel-Dan and Jordan Hoffman
Psoy Korolenko, left, and Anna Shternshis, right, collaborated on "Yiddish Glory: The Silenced Songs of World War II." (Photo and design by Dan Rosenberg via JTA)
July 18, 2026, 10:45 am
Lost Holocaust music, nearly erased by Stalin, goes on tour in Asia
Tour through Seoul, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing plays Yiddish music rescued by Moisei Beregovsky, a Soviet Jewish ethnomusicologist, and rediscovered in the 1990s
By Shira Li Bartov
San Francisco Symphony conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, who composed 'From the Diary of Anne Frank.' (Spencer Lowell/ courtesy SFS)
April 24, 2026, 6:23 pm
Famed Jewish conductor Michael Tilson Thomas dies at 81
LA-born Tilson Thomas, the scion of Yiddish theater royalty, conducted a wide range of symphonies around the world, including in Israel; died of brain cancer
By Penny Schwartz
Pinchas Cohen speaks at the USC Asian Health and Longevity Symposium on February 27, 2026. (Courtesy via JTA)
April 17, 2026, 2:50 am
Many peptides are named to sound like Yiddish words. Here’s why
Pinchas Cohen is the Jewish USC researcher behind discoveries like SHLP (‘schlep’), SHMOOSE and MENTSH, biological molecules that may help cure ailments and reverse aging
By Asaf Elia-Shalev
Vladka Meed’s false identification card, issued in the name of Stanisława Wąchalska, 1943. (Courtesy, Benjamin Meed/ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)
April 14, 2026, 8:48 am
Avenging angel risked her life to try to save Warsaw’s Jews — and lived to write about it
Updated English translation of Vladka Meed’s 1948 Yiddish memoir, ‘On Both Sides of the Wall,’ breathes new life into her experiences with the Jewish resistance against the Nazis
By Renee Ghert-Zand
Illustrative: Issa Kassissieh, 47, who has dressed up as Santa Claus for 18 years, waves to the people during his annual tour of the Old City of Jerusalem, December 18, 2025. (AP/Leo Correa)
December 23, 2025, 8:30 pm
How the Yiddish-speaking Jews of Europe had themselves a merry little Nittel Nacht
A new book explores how, contrary to popular belief, Christmas was a festive time for Jewish men, who took time off from Torah study to play cards and games
By Renee Ghert-Zand
Henry H. Sapoznik, author of 'The Tourist’s Guide to Lost Yiddish New York City.' (Audrey Martinovitch)
December 14, 2025, 3:50 am
From Black cantors to kosher health nuts, new book reveals lost histories of Yiddish NYC
Great for Hanukkah, ‘The Tourist’s Guide to Lost Yiddish New York City’ by Henry H. Sapoznik is not your usual guidebook. In fact, many of the sites listed in it haven’t existed for decades
By Zack Rothbart
A sign advertises the Yiddish Summer Weimar festival on Weimar's market square, eastern Germany, on August 17, 2025. (Jastinder KHERA / AFP)
October 26, 2025, 11:21 am
‘Food for the soul’: Germany pushes to revive an endangered language – Yiddish
Thousands from across the globe flocked to recent festival in city of Weimar, heartland of far-right activity; revival leaders wary of becoming wrapped in pre-WW II nostalgia
By Jastinder KHERA
Michael Bennett Lewis's scenic design for 'The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language' features images of the chamber opera's two real-life protagonists: legendary YIVO head Max Weinreich, left, and the linguist Yudel Mark. (Courtesy YIVO via JTA)
September 21, 2025, 6:01 am
At NY’s YIVO, a legendary unfinished Yiddish dictionary gets the last word — as opera
Premiering this week, ‘The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language’ tells the true story of Holocaust survivors and émigré scholars in NYC racing to salvage a civilization
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
Streamers in Utah held a #FreeSchlep protest in front of the state capitol on behalf of a banned Roblox user by that name, August 15, 2025. (Screenshot from YouTube)
August 16, 2025, 9:45 pm
‘Schlep,’ self-appointed watchdog with Yiddish name, is banned from gaming platform
Roblox bars ‘To Catch a Predator’-style sleuth, then blasts ‘vigilantes’ — sparking real-world lawsuit and giving the classic Jewish loanword a moment in the sun
By Grace Gilson
Isabel Frey, a singer and ethnomusicologist, contributed a parody of Israel's national anthem to a collection of Yiddish songs in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. (Michele Pauty via JTA)
July 31, 2025, 12:42 pm
New album of Yiddish songs casts Israel as ‘evildoer’ in Gaza, with no mention of Oct. 7
With no condemnation of Hamas, ‘Lider mit Palestine’ draws on a long Jewish history of subversive music to express solidarity with the Palestinians and oppose the war
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
Singer Connie Francis during a press conference in Los Angeles on Nov. 27, 1978. (AP Photo/Wally Fong)
July 19, 2025, 9:26 am
Connie Francis, 20th-century star, recorded 60s album of Jewish songs
Francis, who dies this week, was not Jewish, but released ‘Connie Francis Sings Jewish Favorites’ in 1960, which included Yiddish, Hebrew songs
By PHILISSA CRAMER
Aaron Lansky speaks at a Yiddish Book Center gala, May 4, 2025. (Susan Magnano/Magnanimous Pictures via JTA)
June 11, 2025, 3:36 am
Aaron Lansky built a home for 1.5 million Yiddish books. Now he’s handing over the keys
While under no illusions that the 1,000-year-old language will be revived outside the Haredi community, the outgoing Yiddish Book Center founder sees it offering new windows into Jewish culture
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
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