Yiddish karaoke
A thing about my family and the Yiddish karaoke at the Jewish museum in the Guardian. By Tanya Gold.
Everyone’s a critic
If you put “wanton self-indulgence” into Google it’ll probably come up with this post. So if you have anything better to do, please carry on…
That said… (more…)
Top 5 Yiddish kvetches
No idea what was happening here but it must have involved an insect. Or an antisemite.
I’ve always been fascinated by Yiddish. Though it wasn’t my mame-loshn (“mother tongue” — the name Yiddish speakers give to Yiddish), it was my Mama’s loshn. As a kid she used to do things like stand over me when I was eating and say: “Shlof gikher, ikh badarf dos kishn” (“Sleep quicker, I need the pillow”). (more…)
My Yiddishe Mother Tongue
Sholem-aleykhem! Which is Yiddish for hello…
Not really a video this, but a couple of extracts from a documentary I did for Radio 4 about my mother’s parents – a Yiddish playwright and actress – and my general obsession with the language and culture of Yiddish.
First extract is where I take my mother back to the site of the Grand Palais Yiddish theatre in the East End of London where my grandmother was an actress and my grandfather a playwright.
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The second is part of an interview about Yiddish with former head of ITV Michael Grade, sharing a couple of his favourite insults.
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Want a bit more Yiddish? Well, here’s a link to an article I wrote for the Jewish Chronicle…
And, whilst we’re at it, here’s a nice review from the Guardian that I’m posting here so my family can kvell, which means glow with pride. In a Jewish way…
Book Review: Aaron Lansky “Outwitting History”; Dovid Katz “Words on Fire”
Is Yiddish the new rock’n’roll – at least as far as Jewish culture is concerned? Is Yiddish the new black? If it is, then one of the people responsible is undoubtedly Aaron Lansky, the founder of the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachussetts. (more…)
