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Jul 5, 2018, 11:10 PM

How do you inherit your heritage? Ritual!

Illustrative: Russian-speaking Jewish Americans at Limmud FSU in Princeton, NJ (Courtesy Ross Den)

Jokes and borscht from my parents' Russia pale in comparison to the customs and practices of Judaism

Jun 30, 2018, 2:36 PM

In a World Where China Matters, Taiwan Matters Even More! – (Part 1)

Professor S. H. Chang is a Yiddish specialist at Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages in Taiwan, and she's one of a kind. After all, you don't find many Taiwanese academics in the nation of Taiwan studying and writing about Yiddish. Chang, a soft-spoken Taiwanese...

Jun 24, 2018, 2:28 PM

The storybook with its own survival story

The aftermath of the 'Kristallnacht' pogrom in Germany, November 1938 (public domain)

How one Agnon tale about making aliyah survived Kristallnacht and made aliyah

Jun 11, 2018, 5:36 PM

SummerStage in Central Park and the Folksbiene

Most of us first heard of Daniel Kahn right after the great poet and singer Leonard Cohen died in November 2016. We saw a YouTube video of Kahn, sitting quietly, almost unmoving, wearing a white T-shirt, a vest, a cap,...

Apr 27, 2018, 1:30 AM

Why my mother wouldn't let Yiddish die

Nazi liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto. (Courtesy of USHMM)

She needed poetry to pay tribute to her childhood memories of the Warsaw Ghetto, and the pain of their loss

Apr 26, 2018, 11:27 PM

Mr. Schwartz Walks into a Bar; A British Israeli Navigates Jewish New York

Soon after N and I moved from Tel Aviv to New York, a friend invited us to a comedy club. So we shlepped uptown to Washington Heights and settled ourselves near the back of the room, in the hopes...

Apr 17, 2018, 4:12 PM

Festival of Freedman

A plate of gefilte fish (CC-BY-SA Ovedc/Wikimedia Commons)

Those who bear the most popular European last name in Israel are the proud butt of gefilte fish jokes

Mar 28, 2018, 8:06 AM

The Tale of Two Tuvias

Tuvia is not a name one often hears. Recently I heard my name twice on the same day in the most unusual circumstances. On that particular day, I was guiding my “Write On for Israel” group in Jerusalem at...

Mar 25, 2018, 10:16 AM

Ah and Uh; Abi Gezunt!

What's your name? Chana And what's your husband's name? Chone I asked what is your husband's name? I heard you, it's Chone You mean Chanan? No, Chone; unusual, I agree Um, exactly what kind of name is Chone? (solemnly) He was named for his Aunt Chana...

Sharona Margolin Halickman

Mar 23, 2018, 5:10 PM

Is coffee permissible on Pesach?

In the 17th century when coffee was introduced in Western Europe, Rabbi Yaakov Reischer was asked if coffee can be used on Pesach or if it is considered kitniot (a category of legumes that are not permissible on Pesach for...

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