Part 1: We took a temporary break from our summer rerun season to bring our dear listeners breaking news, of a sort, from the real world: we reached friend of the show Gitu Cycowics hours after her meeting with President Biden at Yad Vashem to get her first impressions. Gitu -- a/k/a Giselle (Gita) Cycowicz (née Friedman) -- who was born in 1927 in the town of Chust in the Carpathian Mountains, then part of Czechoslovakia, survived Auschwitz and other camps, later starting a new life in the USA, and eventually getting her PhD in psychology. In her later years, she moved to Israel and then worked for decades for AMCHA (https://amcha.org), helping with the psychological needs of her fellow survivors. Today (Weds., Jul. 13, 2022) she was one of two Holocaust survivors invited to meet President Joseph Biden at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. We are thankful for sharing with us her first impressions of that experience hours after it took place. Here is a YouTube from the live stream of Gitu meeting Biden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q96DZT4qMXs&t=731s Here is Gitu's page at Yad Vashem: https://www.yadvashem.org/blog/i-have-to-tell-my-story-giselle-cycowicz.html

Part 2: We continue our summer rerun season with an interview of Diego Rotman, interviewed by Sholem Beinfeld, discussing the famed Yiddish actors and comics Shimon Dzigan and Yisroel Schumacher. The interview was originally aired in March, 2022.

Air date: July 13, 2022

PS: you can still find the original podcast containing the Diego Rotman interview aired on Mar. 2, 2022, in our archive:

https://the-yiddish-voice-podcast.zencast.website/episodes/diego-rotman-dzigan-schumacher

This week we listen back to our February 2018 interview with Zvi Gitelman, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, author and editor of numerous books, including A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1881 to the Present (2001) and The New Jewish Diaspora: Russian-speaking Immigrants in the United States, Israel and Germany (2016), speaking with Sholem Beinfeld.

Air date: July 6, 2022

PS: you can still find the original podcast containing this interview aired on Feb. 7, 2018, in our archive:

https://the-yiddish-voice-podcast.zencast.website/episodes/zvi-gitelman

This week we listen back to our March 2020 interview with Elissa Bemporad, author of the book Legacy of Blood: Jews, Pogroms, and Ritual Murder in the Lands of the Soviets (Oxford University Press, 2019), interviewed by Sholem Beinfeld. Today we're re-airing the entire interview. It was originally aired in two parts in amid the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, and may have gotten a bit lost in the shuffle. But in case you missed it or just want to relisten, it's still as interesting and relevant today, if not more so, considering today's war between Russia and Ukraine in the news.

Air date: June 29, 2022

PS: you can still find the original podcasts containing this interview aired on Mar. 18 and Mar. 25, 2020, in our archive:

Part 1: https://the-yiddish-voice-podcast.zencast.website/episodes/covid-19-with-berger-schaechter-plus-author-elissa-bemporad

Part 2: https://the-yiddish-voice-podcast.zencast.website/episodes/covid-19-avremi-zak-author-elissa-bemporad-cont-eli-rosen-unorthodox-s-yiddish-consultant

This week, we're listening back to a favorite Yiddish Voice interview from the past: our interview with famed American-Israeli actor and singer Mike Burstyn, discussing the streamed production Megillah Cycle as well as many aspects of Yiddish theater and his history with it, originally aired in February 2021.

Air date: June 22, 2022

PS: you can still find the original podcast containing this interview, and the original podcast with part 2 of this interview, in our archive:

Part 1: https://the-yiddish-voice-podcast.zencast.website/episodes/the-megillah-and-mike-burstyn

Part 2: https://the-yiddish-voice-podcast.zencast.website/episodes/the-megillah-and-mike-burstyn-part-2

This week, we're listening back to a favorite Yiddish Voice interview from the past: our interview with Rachel Rojanski, author of Yiddish in Israel: A History. This is part 1 of the interview, originally aired in May, 2021. This podcast includes a current (June 2022) announcement:

Event announcement: Linda (Libe) Gritz announces the forthcomingBostoner Arbeter Ring Chorus concert, featuring Lorin Sklamberg and Paulina Shepherd. Info: https://circleboston.org/peace-freedom A Besere Velt Yiddish Chorus: Singing For Peace & Freedom Concert: June 18, 2022

It removes a dated interview and adds as a bonus several fantastic Yiddish-in-Israel-realated commercial recordings at the end that you won't want to miss. Enjoy!

Air date: June 15, 2022

PS: you can still find the original podcast containing this interview and some other dated stuff, and the original podcast with part 2 in our archive:

Part 1: https://the-yiddish-voice-podcast.zencast.website/episodes/rachel-rojanski-yiddish-in-israel-part-1-dovid-braun-yivo-summer-program-2021

Part 2: https://the-yiddish-voice-podcast.zencast.website/episodes/rachel-rojanski-yiddish-in-israel-part-2-and-comprehensive-english-yiddish-dictionary

Air Date: June 8, 2022

Dr. Sheva Zucker presents her new bilingual audio album The Golden Peacock: The Voice of the Yiddish Writer, which she edited and produced. It was originally published in 2001 in an all-Yiddish CD format. In 2021, it was released as a revised bilingual edition, making it available either as MP3 files or as two audio CDs. The set now includes the voices of twelve Yiddish writers and a 138-page book that contains the work of each writer in Yiddish with parallel text in English, a biography of each writer in English and Yiddish as well as notes in English about each selection. Hear the voices of Celia Dropkin, Yankev Glatshteyn, Rokhl Korn, Aron Glanz-Leyeles, H. Leivick, Kadya Molodowsky, Itzik Manger, Avrom Sutzkever, Sholem-Aleichem, Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, Yekhiel Shraibman and Elie Wiesel. English is read by Sheva Zucker and Trudie Kessler, Professor Emeritus of Voice and Acting at The Theatre School/DePaul University, Chicago. Sheva Zucker served as the executive director of the League for Yiddish and editor-in-chief of its publication Afn Shvel from 2005-2020. She is the author of the textbooks Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature & Culture, Vols. I & II, and has taught Yiddish language and literature for over two decades in the Uriel Weinreich Summer Program in Yiddish Language, Literature and Culture. For more info: https://shevazucker.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: May 25, 2022

Joseph Alexander, a 99-year-old Holocaust survivor now living in Los Angeles, originally from Kowal, Poland, talks about his Holocaust experiences. We recorded this interview with him via Zoom on May 17, 2022.

Miriam Libenson ז״ל: Lag B'Omer (from our archive, originally recorded and aired in the 1990's)

Music:

Air Date: May 18, 2022

Tonight's show aired on the night after Yom HaZikaron and on the eve of Yom HaAtsmaut. We present a new interview with Yehuda Neufeld, an Israeli war veteran, now living in Los Angeles, who was wounded in Israel's war with Egypt arising out of the Suez Crisis of October 1956.

We also heard from our archives: Hasia Segal ז״ל on the Boston Zionist hero Dewey Stone.

We also heard music related to Israel and mothers, in honor of Mother's Day, which falls the following Sunday.

Air Date: May 4, 2022

Tonight's show aired on the eve of Yom HaShoah. We present a new interview with Naftali (Tuli) Deutsch, an Auschwitz survivor, as well as recordings of three others from past years. They are Al (Zoli) Langer, Rokhl Zicherman, and Matele Friedman ז״ל. All of these survivors were born in Carpathian Ruthenia, then in Czechoslovakia, now known as Zakarpatska Oblast, in the western part of Ukraine.

Naftali Deutsch is the author of A Holocaust Survivor: In The Footsteps Of His Past, his auto-biography. Info here: https://holocaustsurvivorbook.com

Announcement: The American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Greater Boston invites you to Boston's 2022 Virtual Community Holocaust Commemoration of Yom HaShoah, Sunday, May 1, 2022, at 2:00PM Eastern. Info and registration here: https://www.jcrcboston.org/yh2022/

Air Date: April 27, 2022