June 27, 2019

Yitskhok Niborski: Yiddish at Medem, Paris; Leana Jelen: Yidish-Vokh

59 minutes

Yitskhok Niborski was born in Buenos Aires in 1947 and raised in

a Yiddishist, secular family. He attended the Yiddish schools that

then thrived in Buenos Aires and the Yiddish teachers' training

academy (Lerer-Seminar), specializing in Yiddish literature. He

moved to Paris in 1979 to take up a position as Director of the

Medem Library while also teaching at the prestigious Ecole Nationale

des Etudes Orientales. He remained at the head of the Medem Library

for over thirty years, helping to turn the Medem Library-Paris

Yiddish Center into one of the most active Yiddish institutions in

the world. He has devoted his entire adult life to Yiddish

education: in elementary schools, in classes for adults, and in

universities. He participated in publishing several Yiddish

dictionaries and textbooks, nobably the Verterbukh fun

Loshn-koydesh Shtamike Verter in Yidish (first edition 1997) and

the Dictionnaire Yiddish-Français (Yiddish-French Dictionary)

(2002), both published by the Medem Library-Paris Yiddish Center. He

has also written and published over twenty poems in Yiddish. See also:

Medem Library-Paris Yiddish Center home page:

http://www.yiddishweb.com/

The interviews are conducted by Sholem Beinfeld, who is

Professor Emeritus of History at Washington University in St. Louis,

and is perhaps best known as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the

Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary (Arumnemik

Yidish-English Verterbukh), as well as a translator of Yiddish

texts and creator of new subtitles for classic Yiddish movies. The

Dictionary is based on the Yiddish-French Dictionary edited by

Yitskhok Niborski and published by the Medem Library/Paris Yiddish

Center. Sholem's connection with the Medem Library goes back many

decades, beginning with his Fulbright Fellowship in Paris as a

graduate student.

Today's show continues our series of interviews with activists on

the Yiddish scene around the Paris Yiddish Center-Medem Library,

which began Wednesday June 12 2019 with an interview with Ri

J. (Reyze) Turner. Tonight's guest: Yitskhok Niborski

Other interviewees in this series are Ri J. (Reyze) Turner, whose

interview was aired on June 12 2019, and Gilles Rozier, whose

interview will be aired on an upcoming program, to be announced.

Note: watch for bonus podcast soon: we ran low on time, so not all

of Niborski's interview could be aired at this time, so we'll put

out the remainder in a bonus podcast.

Also: a talk with Leana Jelen, the Activities Coordinator for

Yidish-Vokh, the annual summer Yiddish immersion summer camp

organized by Yugntruf - Youth for Yiddish. See also:

Yidish-Vokh: https://yugntruf.org/yvokh/

Music

Leyke Post: Yiddish Redt Zikh Azoy Sheyn (Yiddish Sounds So Beautiful), accompanied by Rubin Ossofsky

Jan Pierce: Mai-Ko-Mashma-Lon

Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental

track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz

Air date: June 26, 2019

...more

View all episodes

By Yiddish Voice ייִדיש קול

4.8

5353 ratings

June 27, 2019

Yitskhok Niborski: Yiddish at Medem, Paris; Leana Jelen: Yidish-Vokh

59 minutes

Yitskhok Niborski was born in Buenos Aires in 1947 and raised in