Happy Hanukkah ! אַ פֿרײלעכן חנוכּה

Highlights:

Music from CD Zumer iz Shoyn Vider Do – זומער איז שוין ווידער דאָ:

Other Music for Hanukkah:

Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS from Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz

Air date: December 10, 2025

Highlights:

Mikhl Yashinsky (מיכל יאַשינסקי), a multifaceted actor, playwright, director, lyricist, translator and Yiddishist, discusses his new English translation of Adventures of Max Spitzkopf: The Yiddish Sherlock Holmes by Jonas Kreppel, published by White Goat Press in October 2025. Publisher’s page: https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/about/white-goat-press-0/jonas-kreppel More on Mikhl: https://yashinsky.com

The interviewer, Lillian ("Leah") Shporer-Leavitt, is a frequent cohost of The Yiddish Voice and an experienced Yiddish translator and teacher. She has taught Yiddish for many years at various institutions in the Boston area, including Workers Circle and Gann Academy.

Music:

Air date: November 19, 2025

Highlights:

Rabbi Zach Golden (זכריה גאָלדן) was ordained at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles in 2020. He is the co-founder of Der Nister Downtown Jewish Center and previously served as Deputy Editor at the Forverts Yiddish newspaper. He is the co-founder of Los Angeles Yiddish Day 2025, which takes place Sunday, November 23, 2025, on the campus of Hebrew Union College near Downtown Los Angeles. For information and registration, visit: LAYiddish.org We interviewed Zach in person at a meeting of the West Hollywood Yiddish Shmues-Krayz in Los Angeles on Sunday, November 9, 2025.

From our archive: Rukhl Schaechter (שׂרה-רחל שעכטער), editor of Forverts (a/k/a the Yiddish Forward, פֿאָרווערטס), online at forward.com/yiddish, reflects on 25 years with this Yiddish institution, originally as a writer and now as its editor. She spoke with us on Zoom from her home in Yonkers on Nov. 24, 2024. The Forward celebrated her anniversary with a Celebrate Our Rukhl event in New York, NY, on Weds., Dec. 4, 2024. Info: https://www.pages.forward.com/rukhl-celebration (A longer version of this interview originally aired Nov. 27, 2024.)

Music:

Air date: November 12, 2025

As our show aired Erev Yom Kippur, we again presented excerpts of our past interviews on The Yiddish Voice/דאָס ייִדישע קול with Holocaust survivors who died during the past year. Since our previous episode, we've lost Ben Lesser, who died the first day of Rosh Hashona, so we were unable to include this in our previous week's show. The remainder of the show is a repeat of the previous week's show.

Air date: October 1, 2025

We are again airing excerpts of interviews with Holocaust survivors, past guests of The Yiddish Voice/דאָס ייִדישע קול who died during the past year. Since our previous episode, we've lost Ben Lesser, who died the first day of Rosh Hashona, so we were unable to include this in our previous week's show. The remainder of the show is a repeat of the previous week's show.

‫אַ גמר חתימה טובֿה!

Featured Announcements for Rosh Hashona/Yom Kippur:

Music:

Air date: September 24, 2025

אַ כּ‫תיבֿה וחתימה טובֿה!

Featured Announcements for Rosh Hashona:

אַ כּ‫תיבֿה וחתימה טובֿה!

Featured Announcements for Rosh Hashona:

Music: (Partial List)

Air date: September 10, 2025

Charlie on the MTA in Yiddish is performed by Yiddishists from Boston’s Arbeter Ring and exclusively recorded for The Yiddish Voice on Labor Day, Sept. 1, 2025, in Medford, MA. All of the following sang, with additional contributions noted:

Marc Caplan in conversation with Yiddish Voice host Mark David (Meyer) about the recent Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. The film traces Dylan’s formative years, culminating in his landmark performance of Like a Rolling Stone at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival in a mostly-Jewish band of blues-rock musicians — Bob Dylan (guitar and vocals), Michael Bloomfield (guitar), Al Kooper (bass), and Barry Goldberg (organ). (Drummer Sam Lay was the non-Jewish member.) Marc Caplan is a Yiddish literature and Bob Dylan expert, currently Visiting Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth. We reached Marc at his home in the Dartmouth College/Hanover, NH, area via Zoom on Sept. 3, 2025.

Music:

Air Date: September 3, 2025

Deborah A. Green (דבֿורה גרין)— author, historian, translator, Yiddishist and retired litigator — discusses her translation of the late Yiddish journalist S. L. Schneiderman's book קריג אין שפּאַניען about the Spanish Civil War, with an emphasis on the outsized role of Jews among the International Brigades who took part. Deborah's new translation into English is Journey Through the Spanish Civil War. We reached Deborah by Zoom on Aug. 7, 2025.

The interviewer Sholem Beinfeld is co-editor-in-chief of the Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary and Professor of History, Emeritus, Washington University, St. Louis. He translated The Rudashevsky Diary, which was published as the November, 2024, issue of The Jewish Quarterly.

In the second half of our show, we present two recordings from our archive in memory of 12 August 1952 and the execution of leading Jewish figures by the Soviet authorities: (1) Yosef Lakhman (in memory of the victims of 12 August 1952, originally aired in 2010) and (2) Interview with Gennady Estraikh about the 12 August 1952 events and their memorialization in the years since (originally aired in 2012).

Related links:

Music:

Air Date: August 13, 2025

Riki Rose (ריקי רױז) — who works as a singer, songwriter and comic in both Yiddish and English — discusses her life and career. She's built up a substantial following over the past several years through concerts and social media performances. Her latest recording, גלות Blues, has just been released on YouTube, Spotify and most other platforms. We reached her by phone at her home in the New York City area on Aug. 6, 2025. Related links:

Music:

Air Date: August 6, 2025