This week on The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול, we featured an in-depth conversation with historian Benyomen Moss (Kenneth B. Moss), the Harriet and Ulrich E. Meyer Professor of Jewish History at the University of Chicago. He spoke with Sholem Beinfeld, professor emeritus at Washington University, St. Louis, about his book An Unchosen People: Jewish Political Reckoning in Interwar Poland (Harvard University Press, 2021). We reached Moss in Chicago via Zoom on Jan. 19, 2025.

What future did Poland's Jews imagine for themselves in the years between the world wars? As antisemitism intensified and liberalism faltered, some Polish Jews sought new ways to understand their community’s place in an increasingly hostile world. Moss explores how these Jewish thinkers grappled with diasporic vulnerability, the forces of nationalism, Zionism’s promises, and the difficult political choices ahead.

Moss, an acclaimed historian of modern Jewish thought, is also the author of Jewish Renaissance in the Russian Revolution (Harvard University Press, 2009) and co-editor of From Europe’s East to the Middle East (2023). His work has been recognized with prestigious fellowships and awards, including the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature.

Related links:

Publisher page for Unchosen People: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674245105

Review of Unchosen People in Forverts (March, 2022), in Yiddish, by Mikhail Krutikov: https://forward.com/yiddish/483574/did-prewar-jewish-socialists-believe-that-jews-had-a-future-in-poland/

Kenneth Moss page at U. of Chicago: https://history.uchicago.edu/directory/Kenneth-Moss

Music for Tu Bishvat

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

Air date: February 12, 2025

In honor of International Holocaust Memorial Day, which this January 27, 2025, marks 80 years since the Soviet Red Army liberated the Auschwitz death camp, we present interviews in Yiddish from your archive with four survivors of Auschwitz. As of the broadcast date all were alive and well to the best of our knowledge. The interviewees are:

Please note: This is a special extended-length episode, over 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Music:

Air Date: January 22, 2025

Air date: January 15, 2025

A shaliach at Chabad of Pacific Palisades, Rabbi Diskin shares his first-hand experience of surviving the Los Angeles wildfires that destroyed his home. He discusses the ongoing relief efforts he and his team are leading. We reached him at his temporary residence in the Pico Robinson neighborhood on Jan. 15, 2025.

➡️ Learn more about fire relief efforts: Chabad of Pacific Palisades Fire Relief

A community member from the Fairfax neighborhood of Los Angeles, Shulem shares insights from the Yiddish literary world and reflects on the wildfire crisis. We reached him by phone at his home on Jan. 15, 2025.

Join Kolya for a discussion on the Workers Circle’s upcoming online event, Winter in Yiddishland. We reached him by phone at his Arbeter Ring office in New York on Jan. 15, 2025.

This episode features songs by rising stars on the Yiddish music scene:

🎵 Intro Music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz

Arele Schaechter Viswanath, the translator of the Harry Potter book series into Yiddish, was interviewed about, and read excerpts from, his translation of the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which was recently published by Olniansky Press (Sweden, 2024) under the Yiddish title הערי פּאָטער און די קאַמער פֿון סודות. Arele works in the field of strategy and analytics at tech companies in New York City, while "moonlighting" as a Yiddish translator. His previous translations include the first Harry Potter book (הערי פּאָטער און דער פֿילאָסאָפֿישער שטיין); Do you know Pippi Longstocking? (צי קענסטו פּיפּי לאַנגשטרימפּ); and Uh-oh! (געוואַלד). To purchase the latest Harry Potter book in Yiddish in the US we suggest you either email CYCO Yiddish Book Center at [email protected] or visit the League for Yiddish Store's Harry Potter book 2 page. For non-USA orders, we recommend purchasing directly from the publisher Olniansky Press's Harry Potter page.

Lillian Shporer-Leavitt (לאה), co-host of The Yiddish Voice, led the interview with Arele, as she previously did for the first book in 2020. Lillian grew up in Boston in a Yiddish-speaking home and has been teaching and translating Yiddish in the Boston area for several decades.

Our show ended with a selection of Hanukkah recordings. Happy Hanukkah! אַ פֿריילעכן חנוכּה

Music:

Air date: Dec 11, 2024

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Air date: Dec 4, 2024

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Air date: November 27, 2024

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Air date: November 20, 2024

אַ גמר חתימה טובֿה! און אַ גוט געבענטשט יאָר!

Highlights:

Rabbi Itzik-Boruch Teitelbaum (Monroe, NY), known as Der Pshiskher Rov, with a vort for erev Yom Kippur. We reached him by phone at his home in Monroe on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024

Interviews with Israelis about Oct. 7, one year on.

Greetings on behalf of the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants of Greater Boston, featuring members Tania Lefman (Treasurer), Mary Ehrlich, Rosalie Reszelbach and Miriam Modricamin.

Greeting from Dovid Braun, co-host. Recorded Oct. 2, 2024, by phone.

Greetings from Eli Dovek ז״ל, late proprietor of our sponsor Israel Bookshop, Brookline, MA.

Greeting from Lillian (Leye) Leavitt, co-host. Recorded Sept. 25, 2024, by phone.

Music:

Air date: October 9, 2024

אַ כּ‫תיבֿה וחתימה טובֿה!

Highlights:

Music: (Partial List)

Air date: October 2, 2024

This week, greetings for Rosh Hashona from friends, participants, and sponsors of The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול, combined with a poetry reading by Richard Fein and Sholem Beinfeld.

אַ גוט, געבענטשט יאָר אַלע אונדזערע צוהערער - לשנה טובֿה

Highlights:

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Air date: September 25, 2024