Yiddish

At YIVO, an unfinished Yiddish dictionary gets the last word - as opera

"The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language," an original chamber opera, premieres at YIVO, dramatizing the post-Holocaust effort to preserve Yiddish through language.

|ByANDREW SILOW-CARROLL/JTA
Ben Kaplan, left, and Alex Weiser, seen in Weiser's office at YIVO, are the co-creators of "The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language," a new chamber opera about the monumental effort after the Holocaust to preserve the language and culture of Eastern European Jewry.
'The Life of Chuck'

The secret joke for Israelis in Stephen King's 'Life of Chuck'

Based on Stephen King's 2020 short novella, the film didn’t become a box office hit, but it seems that everyone who watched it couldn't stop thinking about it days later.

|ByAMIT SLONIM
Aaron Lansky speaks at a Yiddish Book Center gala, May 4, 2025.

Aaron Lansky built a home for 1.5 million Yiddish books, now he’s handing over the keys

“The idea that you have miles of Jewish stories that have yet to be told, that’s just irresistible to someone like me," he said.

|ByANDREW SILOW-CARROLL/JTA
AT THE ceremony celebrating the new Dahan Gate (L-R): Bar-Ilan U. President Prof. Arie Zaban, Dr. Zipora Schorr, Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg, Shlomo Zohar, Bar-Ilan CEO and Senior Deputy President Zohar Yinon, and Rector Prof. Amnon Albeck.

Grapevine, May 23, 2025: They also see

Movers and shakers in Israeli society.

|ByGREER FAY CASHMAN

These New York Jewish arts organizations have been defunded by the Trump administration

Winitsky said he saw the cuts as a direct attack on groups that might undercut the administration.

MAY 6, 2025ByJACKIE HAJDENBERG/JTA
'The Reservoir,' written by Jake Brasch and directed by Shelley Butler, which had its world premiere at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, won the Jewish Plays Project's annual contest.

'Sons and Daughters': The last great Yiddish novel now available in English - review

An English translation by Rose Waldman of Chaim Grade’s final, unfinished work has been published.

APRIL 27, 2025ByGLENN C. ALTSCHULER
JEWISH WEDDING in a Russian shtetl, complete with klezmer band; painting by Isaak Asknaziy, 1893.

Battling cancer, famed Jewish conductor Michael Tilson Thomas prepares for his last concert

Facing a return of his brain cancer, Tilson Thomas says goodbye with one final concert in San Francisco.

APRIL 18, 2025ByPENNY SCHWARTZ/ JTA
Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, in Beethoven's 9th Symphony, the Ode to Joy, on August 28, 2022. It was Tilson Thomas's last concert with the BSO, where he began his career in 1969, as its assistant conductor and pianist.

Brad Lander just cursed Andrew Cuomo in Yiddish

NYC Comptroller Brad Lander clapped back at Andrew Cuomo with a Yiddish curse after being accused of anti-Israel actions during a synagogue speech.

APRIL 3, 2025ByGRACE GILSON/JTA
Andrew Cuomo (L) and Brad Lander (R).

Rescued from the archives and wrestled into print: Behind Chaim Grade's last Yiddish novel

Finished or not, “Sons and Daughters” is a vivid, Tolstoyan examination of what Kirsch calls “a family struggling with the meaning of Jewishness in the twentieth century.”

MARCH 28, 2025ByANDREW SILOW-CARROLL/JTA
Chaim Grade’s "Sons and Daughters" was originally serialized in the 1960s and '70s, in New York–based Yiddish newspapers.

Grapevine March 16, 2025: A yen for Yiddish

Movers and shakers in Israeli society.

MARCH 16, 2025ByGREER FAY CASHMAN
DR. EFRAT BRON-HARLEV holds her award.

Mayim Bialik teaches Noa Tishby the rules of dreidel on Hanukkah's third night

Bialik taught Tishby that there are different outcomes to spinning and landing on each of the four sides of the dreidel.

DECEMBER 28, 2024ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
Mayim Bialik (illustrative)

Eight incredible things to do during Hanukkah in NYC this year

Looking to stay entertained during this busy, chilly time of year? Here at the New York Jewish Week, we’ve got you covered.

DECEMBER 25, 2024ByLISA KEYS/JTA
The pop-up Maccabee Bar is back in a new location this year.

Grapevine December 1, 2024: Yiddish in Japan?

Movers and shakers in Israeli society.

DECEMBER 1, 2024ByGREER FAY CASHMAN
The streets of Tokyo

How the NY Public Library acquired a ‘treasure trove’ of Jewish and Yiddish music

Netsky said he thinks the Yiddish theater music in the archive files is particularly valuable because it was maligned by the classical composers as shund (trash) and neglected.

NOVEMBER 12, 2024ByJON KALISH/JTA
NYC Public Library Research Room Jan 2006.

Grapevine, October 13, 2024 : Of conferences and ceremonies

Movers and shakers in Israeli society.

OCTOBER 13, 2024ByGREER FAY CASHMAN
POLICE LEAD away a protester who tried to block Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Highway during a demonstration in September.