

Interview with Elena Luchina (עלענאַ לוטשינאַ), who is the Yiddish instructor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, discussing her interesting background and current career at one of the leading Yiddish-language and Jewish-studies programs in the United States. Originally from Moscow, Yelena received her PhD in linguistics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She has taught Yiddish at U. Mich. since 2019. For more info, see Elena's U. Mich. faculty page or follow Elena's Instagram, @SimpleYiddish. The interview took place over Zoom on May 9, 2023, and was led by Sholem Beinfeld, regular contributor to The Yiddish Voice, co-Editor in Chief of the Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary, and Professor of History, Emeritus, Washington University in St. Louis.


From our archive: Miriam Libenson ז״ל discusses the upcoming holiday Shvues. Recorded and originally aired on The Yiddish Voice in the 1990's. 


Music:

Chava Alberstein: Afn Pripetshik
Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz



Air date: May 17, 2023

Elena Luchina, U. Mich. Yiddish Teacher (new); Miriam Libenson Z"L on Shvues (archive)

Podcast of The Yiddish Voice, a weekly hour-long Yiddish-language radio show heard in the Boston area Wednesdays, 7:30 - 8:30 PM, on WUNR 1600 AM/Brookline, MA (USA) and live-streamed via yiddishvoice.com
״דאָס ייִדישע קול״ איז אַ וועכנטלעכע ראַדיאָ פּראָגראַם אויף ייִדיש און אַ פּאָדקאַסט אויך. אגבֿ, ייִדיש שרײַבט מען אויך יידיש אָדער אידיש. הערט זיך צו און האָט הנאה!

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This week, Yiddish poetry lovers are in for a treat: an interview with Sarah Traister Moskowitz with her reading of poems in the collection „דאָס ליד איז געבליבן“ ("The Song Remains") along with her English translations. Sarah is the translator of the collection of poems Dos Lid is Geblibn, or The Song Remains, on the new website thesongremains.org, an anthology of Yiddish poems with English translations from the Nazi German occupation of Poland. The collection is taken from the book of the same name in Yiddish, edited by Binem Heller and originally published in Poland in 1951. In the interview Sarah talks about her life and her connections to Yiddish, the Holocaust, and this collection of poetry. She also reads three of the poems from the collection in Yiddish along with her English translation:

Kapital (Das Kapital) -Sh. Zhirman
Aktualie (Actually) -Misha Troyanov
Lodzh (Łódź) -M. Goldshteyn

Sarah worked for years with child-Holocaust-survivors in Los Angeles and helped produce the book How We Survived: 52 Personal Stories by Child Survivors of the Holocaust, including writing its forward, which she reads from in the Interview. Read more about Sarah Moskovitz at the new website: https://thesongremains.org/translator-sarah-traister-moskovitz/
Also on this week's show: Miriam Libenson ז״ל's presentation for Lag B'Oymer from our archive (originally recorded and aired in the 1990's). Miriam was a poet in her own right, whose poetry often graced our airwaves, as well as such publications as דער טאָג-מאָרגן-דשורנאָל and פּיאָנערן פֿרויען (Der Tog-Morgn-Dzhurnal and Pionern-Froyen).
Music/recordings:

Sarah Gorby: Zog Nit Keynmol
Raasche: Arum Dem Fayer
Tova Ben-Zvi: Lag-B'Oimer
Wolf Krakowski: Yeder Ruft Mikh Ziamele
Wolf Krakowski: Varshe
Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz

Air date: May 22, 2024

Sarah Moskovitz: The Song Remains

This week we have a new interview with Marvin Zuckerman, who grew up in the Yiddish-speaking milieu of Jewish Labor Bund in Bronx, New York. He became a professor of English at a Los Angeles college and created the well-regarded Yiddish primer Learning Yiddish in Easy Stages and several other books in the field of Yiddish. He translated from the Yiddish the memoir of the prominent Bundist Bernard Goldstein (Twenty Years with the Jewish Labor Bund: A Memoir of Interwar Poland, Perdue University Press, 2016). In the interview he talks about his childhood in his secular-socialist-Yiddishist milieu of the 1930's and 40's; about Bundism's history and place in Jewish history; the bundist perspective, past and present, and in contrast to Communism and Zionism; about his translation of Bernard Goldstein's Bundist memoir; about teaching Yiddish and his Yiddish-language primer; and about Yiddish language and culture generally. The interview was conducted at Zuckerman's home in Pacific Pallisades, CA, on February 22, 2024.
Music/recordings:

Klepfisch Folkskhor: Di Shvue (anthem of the Jewish Labor Bund)
Lazar Weiner and Workmen's Circle Chorus: Di Shvue
Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz

Air date: May 15, 2024

Marvin Zuckerman: Yiddish Language and Culture and Bundism

This week we observe Yom HaAtzmaut (Israel Independence Day) talking with Mike Burstyn, Miriam Trinh, Eli Sharfstein and Avremi Zaks.
Mike Burstyn is a distinguished actor and singer known for his roles in Yiddish, Hebrew, and English theater and film across Israeli, American, and international stages. Recently, he starred in the German comedy drama The Zweiflers, awarded Best Series at the 7th annual Canneseries festival in April 2024. Burstyn first gained prominence in Israel as a child actor with his family's troupe, The Four Bursteins, and later through significant roles in The Megillah of Itzik Manger (1965) and Two Kuni Lemel (1966).
Miriam Trinh is the editor-in-chief of Afn Shvel, teaching Yiddish language and literature at Hebrew University and online platforms like Workers Circle and YIVO. She has written for the Yiddish Forward (Forverts), including the interview with Tzili Venkert described on our show and a recent article published post-show, "לכּבֿוד יום-הזכּרון זאָל דער געדענק־פּלאַקאַט פֿון קיבוץ בארי נישט לאָזן פֿאַרגעסן." Trinh moved to Israel after high school and resides in Jerusalem with her family.
Eli Sharfstein is a contemporary poet and writer living in the Israeli kibbutz Ma’agan Michael. Born in Vilna and moved to Israel in 1972, he is a veteran of the Yom Kippur war. He has published two books of Yiddish poems, פּלוצעם ייִדיש and מײַן ווילנער זאַוווּליק.
Avremi Zaks the host and producer of the weekly Israeli Yiddish radio program "Kan Yidish." He was born in Israel and lives in Jerusalem with his wife and children.
Links mentioned in this episode:

Beit HaLochem (Los Angeles): https://www.israeliwoundedveterans.org
The Zweiflers TV series starring Mke Burstyn, home page
League for Yiddish: https://leagueforyiddish.org
Afn Shvel Issue #400-401 at League for Yiddish
Yiddish Forward (Forverts): https://forward.com/yiddish/
Forverts Article on Interview with Tzili Venkert, grandmother of hostage Omar Venkert 
Yiddish Branzhe: https://yiddishbranzhe.com
Kan Yiddish (כאן יידיש) archive (Avremi Zaks's Yiddish radio show)

Music/recordings:

Dovid Esheth: Yerusholayim Shtot fun Gold
M...

Yom HaAtzmaut with Burstyn, Trinh, Sharfstein, Zaks

This week, for Yom HaShoah, which falls this year on May 6, we present past interviews with survivors of the Holocaust in Hungary as we mark the deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz in the spring of 1944, 80 years ago. After a brief intro and announcement of Boston's 2024 community Hazkure, we hear:


Mel Mermelstein ז״ל

We had a short but memorable interview with Mel in 2008. Mel lived in Munkacs until May 1944, when he was deported to Aushwitz. He passed away in January 2022 at age 95. See also: Mel Mermelstein Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Mermelstein



Zoli Langer and Rokhl Zicherman: repeat of our 2020 Yom HaShoah broadcast: Zoli lived in Ungvar and Rokhl in Tybava until they were deported to Auschwitz in the spring of 1944. A long interview of Zoli is presented with a short interlude of Rokhl singing songs about the Holocaust. Both were interviewed in 2019 and currently (2024) reside in the Los Angeles area.



Yom HaShoah: Hungarian (Carpathian) Holocaust Survivors Mel Mermelstein (2008), Zoli Langer (2019), Rokhl Zicherman (2019)

This week, Pesach greetings and words of wisdom from Rabbi Yitzchok-Boruch Teitelbaum, Rabbi Moshe Kesselman, and Holocaust survivor Naftali (Tuli) Deutsch, as well as greetings from many of our cohosts, friends, and sponsors, as follows:

Israel Book Shop  (Eli Dovek ז״ל recorded Mar 28 2007)
American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Greater Boston (member and Holocaust survivor Tania Lefman, and member and Holocaust survivor Mary Erlich), co-sponsor of Boston's 2024 In-Person and Virtual Community Holocaust Commemoration of Yom HaShoah, Sunday, May 5, 2024, at 10:30 AM Eastern. (Registration required.)
League for Yiddish, New York, NY, (Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, Chair of the Board)
Leah Shporer-Leavitt, Newton, MA, co-host of The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול
Dovid Braun, Leonia, NJ, co-host of The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול
Yankele Bodo, Tel Aviv, Israel, actor and singer (from 2016)
Eli Grodko, New Millford, NJ, friend of the show 
Boston Workers Circle, Brookline, MA (Yiddish committee member Linda (Libe-Reyzl) Gritz)

We wish all our cohosts, sponsors, and friends a Happy and Kosher Pesach.
מיר ווינטשן אַלע אונדזערע אונטערשטיצער, פֿרײַנד און באַטייליקטע אַ פֿריילעכן און כּשרן פּסח
Links for this episode:

JCRC Boston's registration for Yom Hahoah 2024: jcrcboston.org/register-for-yom-hashoah-2024
Israel Book Shop: israelbookshop.com
Rabbie Moshe Kesselman's Neros Lehoir website: neroslehoir.org
League for Yiddish: leagueforyiddish.org
Boston Workers Circle: circleboston.org

Music:

Malavsky Family: Ho Lakhmo Anyo and Fir Kashes
Moyshe Oisher: Dayenu, Chad Gadyo, and Kiddush for Pesach
Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz

Air date: April 17, 2024

Elena Luchina, U. Mich. Yiddish Teacher (new); Miriam Libenson Z"L on Shvues (archive)

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