November 06, 2023

Eydish iz mayn mame-lshun (Yiddish is my native language) with Avi Hoffman

50 minutes

It was just a few months ago that Neo-Nazis and white supremacists paraded in front of Disney World in Orlando spreading antisemitic messages, more recently an outbreak of antisemitism on college campuses, war in Israel after a deadly Hamas attack on Jewish settlers and amidst all that Yiddish language is making a comeback due to our guest today on Specifically for Seniors.

Avi Hoffman was recently awarded Congressional recognition, was invited to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis and was inducted into the Bronx Jewish Hall of Fame for his lifetime work advancing Jewish culture, Yiddishkayt and Holocaust awareness through the charity he founded - Yiddishkayt Initiative, Inc. (YILoveJewish.org).

As an actor, he was nominated for a NY Drama Desk Award for his Yiddish language portrayal of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. He is best known for his Too Jewish Trilogy: Award winning one man shows.

On TV, he was featured as Sid Raskin in the Starz TV series Magic City, as well as on Netflix’ Bloodline, A&E’s The Glades and on the NBC series Law and Order. He recently starred in the Film Festival favorite: You Will Not Play Wagner and the International Award winning short Yiddish Films: Shehita, BOXED and the motion picture – The Imported Bridegroom.

He was seen in the PBS documentary They Came For Good: A History of the Jews in the US. Avi has performed all over the world, has numerous acting and directing credits and has received multiple awards and nominations.

Avi and I discuss his childhood, his acting background, antisemitism, but, most of all, the comeback of Yiddish

Website and Books:

https://yilovejewish.org/product-category/books/

Links to interviews, articles:

https://yilovejewish.org/yilove-jewish-live/

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