yiddish

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Is “Schmuck” a Dirty Word?

One of the points I make in my book is that what’s dirty in Yiddish isn’t always dirty in English, and vice ...

Lithuania’s Past and Present

In my last blog post, I recounted the background of Yiddish linguist Dovid Katz, who has been reporting on troubling manifestations of ...

The Jews of Poland: Recollections and Recipes by Edouard de Pomiane

When I was researching my last novel, my friend Michael Rohatyn found a book at the Strand he thought I might ...

Yoda’s Yiddishkeit: Jewish He Seems, Hmmm?

The month of May, known as “Liberation Month,” contains Cinco de Mayo (celebrating Mexico’s liberating victory over the French in ...

On Writing a Novel in Two Cultures

Yesterday I wrote that my novel,  The Golem and the Jinni , is “pretty darn Jewish.” In truth, that’s only ...

Dreaming in Mother Tongues

Zi kholmt – she dreams.In Irena Klepfisz’s remarkable poem, “Etlekhe verter oyf mame-loshn / A few words in the mother tongue,” the speaker ...

Yiddish and Us

The three of us waited expectantly and somewhat nervously in the seminar room, wondering why we had been summoned by ...

Yiddish and Me

When I first began studying Yiddish, I felt like I was remembering something I already knew.It was a lovely sensation, this ...

The Workmen’s Circle in Birmingham

The Workmen’s Circle—Arbeter Ring in Yiddish—is a Jewish fraternal organization devoted to progressive politics, the labor movement, and Yiddish language and culture.  In its ...

Speaking Backwards

I’ve been told that students in my college courses sometimes have trouble following what I’m saying because I speak backwards. ...

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