Best Yiddish Book Centers Podcasts (2024)

1
Episode 377: Ashkenazi Folk Magic at the Threshold 26:56

2d ago26:56

26:56

Rokhl Kafrissen—journalist, teacher, playwright, and 2022 winner of the prestigious Adrienne Cooper Dreaming in Yiddish prize—sits down with "The Shmooze" this week to talk about her upcoming Yiddish Book Center online course “Sacred Time and Liminal Space: Ashkenazi Folk Magic at the Threshold.” Rokhl talks about the unique Eastern European women’…

1
Episode 0376: Adapted for a Staged Reading: Sholem Asch’s Shabbtai Tsvi 21:00

6d ago21:00

21:00

Translator and adapter Weaver sits down with "The Shmooze" to talk about the drama group Theater Between Addresses and its upcoming immersive, staged reading of Sholem Asch’s "Shabbtai Tsvi," which Weaver translated and adapted. Never before performed in its entirety, the play shows the meteoric rise and tragic fall of Shabbtai Tsvi, the 17th-centu…

1
Episode 0375: The Yiddish Supernatural on Screen 28:51

14d ago28:51

28:51

This week on "The Shmooze" we visit with Rebecca (Rivke) Margolis, author of "The Yiddish Supernatural on Screen: Dybbuks, Demons and Haunted Jewish Pasts." In conversation we talk about how the book traces the transformation of the figure of the dybbuk—a soul of the dead possessing the living—from folklore to 1930s Polish Yiddish cinema to global …

1
Episode 0374: Klezkanada’s Summer Retreat 22:42

20d ago22:42

22:42

Avia Moore and Sebastian Schulman join "The Shmooze" for a lively conversation about all things Klezakanda. As Avia shares, KlezKanada “fosters a community where the vibrant living tradition of Yiddish culture and Jewish music continues to thrive.” This year’s lineup includes workshops on Yiddish song, dance, and language learning as well as a tran…

1
Episode 27: Teaching Israel: Studies of Pedagogy from the Field | Sivan Zakai and Matt Reingold 1:04:59

2M ago1:04:59

1:04:59

How do educators from differing pedagogical orientations learn, undertake, and ultimately improve the work of teaching Israel? In this conversation, Teaching Israel: Studies of Pedagogy from the Field editors Sivan Zakai and Matt Reingold discussed the complex issues facing those who teach about Israel, along with respondents Lisa Grant (Hebrew Uni…

1
Episode 0373: Nathan-ism: The Story of Artist Nathan Hilu 15:22

2M ago15:22

15:22

Filmaker Elan Golod visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about his documentary "Nathan-ism." The film tells the story of Nathan Hilu, the son of Syrian Jewish immigrants to New York who received a life-changing assignment from the U.S. Army: to guard the top Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials. This experience fueled a lifetime of artistic insp…

1
Episode 0372: The Yiddish Folksong Project 16:40

2M ago16:40

16:40

Kimberly Lazzeri joins "The Shmooze" to talk about the recently released "Yiddish Folksong Project Anthology." Kimberly shares the story behind this collection of Robert De Cormier’s folksong arrangements, which had been in a storage closet for over forty years. This is the first-ever publication of De Cormier’s arrangements of Yiddish folksongs an…

1
Episode 0371: After 80 Years Postcards Find Their Way Home to Lublin 27:18

3M ago27:18

27:18

Piotr Nazaruk and Karla McCabe joined "The Shmooze" to tell the story of the thirty-six postcards that Karla recently hand-delivered to Pitor Nazaruk at a ceremony in Lublin, Poland. Karla explains how this collection of postcards were looted from the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva in the war and now, eighty years later, have found their way back home.Epi…

1
Episode 26: Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration in Jewish Education 1:10:23

3M ago1:10:23

1:10:23

In this special event, authors from a recent themed issue of Journal of Jewish Education discussed their articles on race, ethnicity, and immigration in Jewish education. The issue spotlights the experiences of underrepresented individuals and serves as compelling testimony to the diverse array of Jewish experiences and identities, challenging prev…

1
Episode 0370: Sivan Slapak’s Here Is Still Here 20:51

3M ago20:51

20:51

Writer Sivan Slapak visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about her debut collection, "Here Is Still Here." The stories provide a layered exploration of human connection and the complexities of identity. In conversation, Sivan shares how these stories—which take readers from Montreal to Jerusalem and back again as the main character navigates checkpoin…

1
Episode 0369: Yiddish Culture in America 36:13

4M ago36:13

36:13

"The Shmooze" visits with Sebastian Schulman for a chat about Yiddish culture in America as we celebrate American Jewish Heritage Month. In conversation he shares some of what he’s found on the Yiddish Book Center’s website related to the Jewish American experience—Yiddish writers in America, Jewish food, Yiddish film, immigration, activism, and mo…

1
Episode 25: Visualizing Jewish Texts and Practices through the Graphic Novel | Dr. Talia Hurwich 28:08

4M ago28:08

28:08

What happens when students of classical Jewish texts encounter visual representations of those texts, not just words? In her recent study Reconsidering Religious Gender Normativity in Graphic Novel Adaptations, Talia Hurwich learned that students often respond in deeply personal ways to visual representations of topics that may otherwise be suppres…

1
Episode 24: Spotlight on the Gap Year 1:08:09

5M ago1:08:09

1:08:09

For over a generation, many American Jewish young adults have spent a year between high school and college in Israel—the “gap year.” How does the gap year contribute to North American Jewish education? How does it complicate that work? What does it mean for young adults to go from “here" to “there" to participate in this important educational exper…

1
Episode 0368: in a dark blue night: two song cycles on Yiddish/Jewish New York 20:36

5M ago20:36

20:36

Alex Weiser visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about his latest work, "in a dark blue night," consisting of two connected song cycles. The first, “in a dark blue night,” sets to music modernist Yiddish poetry about New York City at night, all written by Jewish immigrant poets at the turn of the 20th century. The second, “Coney Island Days,” transfor…

1
Episode 0367: The Yiddish Book Center’s Bossie Dubowick YiddishSchool 25:15

5M ago25:15

25:15

Sonia Bloom and Judith Liskin-Gasparro speak to "The Shmooze" about Yiddish-language learning, their work in the field, and their participation at the Yiddish Book Center’s upcoming Bossie Dubowick YiddishSchool. Episode 367March 11, 2024Amherst, MABy Yiddish Book Center

1
Episode 0366:The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York 24:09

5M ago24:09

24:09

Ross Perlin, the co-director of the Endangered Language Alliance, visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about his new book, "Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York." The book provides a portrait of contemporary New York City through six speakers of little-known and overlooked languages, diving into the incredible his…

1
Episode 23: Why Young Jews Love Yiddish | Dr. Sandra Fox 28:39

6M ago28:39

28:39

Over the last two decades, talk of Yiddish as an alternate path of engaging with Jewishness comes up in the Jewish press almost cyclically — a journalistic evergreen. In this session, historian and Yiddish podcaster Sandra Fox explains how Yiddish became culturally significant, why young people are flocking to learn Yiddish in larger numbers than e…

1
Episode 0365: Across So Many Seas 20:06

7M ago20:06

20:06

Author Ruth Behar speaks with "The Shmooze" about "Across So Many Seas." Her latest book was inspired by Behar’s paternal grandmother’s side of the family of Sephardic Jews living in Spain up until the Spanish Inquisition of 1492. Behar used her background as an anthropology professor to make a thoroughly researched and powerful novel about religio…

1
Episode 22: How Israeli-Americans Think About Their Kids’ Hebrew Learning | Hannah Kober 27:55

6M ago27:55

27:55

Like other immigrants, many Israeli expatriates find themselves asking how they can maintain their culture on American soil. But what happens when their children learn their heritage language in American educational settings? In this session, Hannah Kober will discusses the surprising finding from her recent research that the long-held narrative ab…

1
Episode 0364: A Worker’s Yiddish Library on View 23:48

7M ago23:48

23:48

Marvin Zuckerman and Ruby Elliot Zuckerman join "The Shmooze" to talk about their family’s story, which is featured in the Yiddish Book Center’s new core exhibition, "Yiddish: A Global Culture." As Marvin shares, “In our one-bedroom apartment in the Bronx we had world literature—Georg Brandes, Maupassant, Marx, Darwin, Jack London, Tolstoy—all in Y…

1
Episode 0363: Telling the Story of Yiddish Theater 33:41

7M ago33:41

33:41

David Mazower, chief curator of the Yiddish Book Center’s core exhibition, "Yiddish: A Global Culture," and Caraid O’Brien, co-curator of the exhibition’s theater section, chat with "The Shmooze" about all things Yiddish theater. You’ll hear how they gathered rare artifacts and stories about the actors, the audiences, and the contemporary Yiddish t…

1
Episode 0362: Staging Mikhl Yashinsky’s American Yiddish Drama 22:50

8M ago22:50

22:50

Mikhl Yashinsky is on "The Shmooze" to talk about his new drama "The Gospel According to Chaim," the strange tale of a Jewish writer’s quixotic attempt to publish a controversial book. The New Yiddish Rep, who is producing the play, says this is the first entirely original, full-length American Yiddish drama to be produced for a general audience in…

1
Episode 0361: New in Translation: Yiddish Writer Frume Halpern 25:53

8M ago25:53

25:53

Yermiyahu Ahron Taub joins "The Shmooze" to talk about his latest translation, a collection of short stories by Yiddish writer Frume Halpern. These psychologically insightful stories present the lives of protagonists who are working-class poor, social outcasts, and experiencing illness, disability, and racism. Halpern worked as a massage therapist …

1
Episode 21: Navigating Ideological Differences in Pluralistic Jewish Schools | Dr. Esther Friedman 32:37

8M ago32:37

32:37

How and why does the ability to navigate ideological differences within classrooms matter to Jewish education — and beyond? In this session, Esther Friedman will discuss her recent study on the lived experiences of Orthodox teachers who teach Bible in pluralistic community schools and the institutional-level challenges they face. Originally recorde…

1
Episode 20: Spotlight on Jewish Learning: Past, Present and Future 1:04:45

8M ago1:04:45

1:04:45

What have we learned about Jewish learning in the past, where are we today, and what do we still need to learn for the future? Join MCSJE for this special Spotlight Session in honor of Brandeis University’s 75th anniversary, at which Brandeis scholars of Jewish education shared some of the most important developments in the field of Jewish educatio…

1
Episode 0360: Shir Hashirim (The Song of Songs): A Yiddish Operetta 31:02

8M ago31:02

31:02

Ronald Robboy and Alex Weiser visit with "The Shmooze" to talk about their collaboration on the performance of the music of "Shir Hashirim (The Song of Songs)," a 1911 operetta by Joseph Rumshinsky and Anshel Shor. "Shir Hashirim" is a musical comedy that features several interlocking love triangles, including an aging composer along with his child…

1
Episode 0359: Jewish Anarchist Histories Reclaimed 30:57

9M ago30:57

30:57

"The Shmooze" visits with Anna Elena Torres, Kenyon Zimmer, and Ayelet Brinn, editors and contributors to an expansive new volume of essays exploring suppressed histories of Jewish anarchism. "With Freedom in Our Ears: Histories of Jewish Anarchism" is a rich collection of essays across radical politics, immigrant history, the Yiddish press, and is…

1
Episode 19: Getting Serious About Play in Jewish Education | Rabbi Judd Levingston, PhD 29:30

9M ago29:30

29:30

Beyond lifting the spirits of teachers and students, play in Jewish education spaces can also shape moral development and character. Drawing from his new research, Judd Kruger Levingston shares how teachers and administrators can cultivate "a moral ecology of play" in classrooms, hallways, gathering spaces, and playgrounds. In this session, Levings…

1
Episode 0358: Kristen Morgenstern’s Zine: Irena Klepfisz: The Life of the Fighter 22:45

9M ago22:45

22:45

On "The Shmooze," Kristen Morgenstern, a senior studying history and theater at Middlebury College, tells the story behind her zine "Irena Klepfisz: The Life of the Fighter." The zine was selected for inclusion in the Yiddish Book Center’s core exhibition, "Yiddish: A Global Culture."Episode 358November 21, 2023Amherst, MA…

1
Episode 0357: Amid Falling Walls: A Groundbreaking Musical 20:57

9M ago20:57

20:57

Avram Mlotek visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about the upcoming performance of Amid Falling Walls, for which Avram created the libretto. "Amid Falling Walls" (Tsvishn falnkike vent) is a groundbreaking musical that pays homage to the perseverance of the human spirit during one of the most devastating moments of history. The performance, presented…

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Yiddish Book Centers Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

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The Shmooze, The Yiddish Book Center's Podcast

Yiddish Book Center

1
Learning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish Education

Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University

1
Episode 377: Ashkenazi Folk Magic at the Threshold 26:56

1
Episode 0376: Adapted for a Staged Reading: Sholem Asch’s Shabbtai Tsvi 21:00

1
Episode 0375: The Yiddish Supernatural on Screen 28:51

1
Episode 0374: Klezkanada’s Summer Retreat 22:42

1
Episode 27: Teaching Israel: Studies of Pedagogy from the Field | Sivan Zakai and Matt Reingold 1:04:59

1
Episode 0373: Nathan-ism: The Story of Artist Nathan Hilu 15:22

1
Episode 0372: The Yiddish Folksong Project 16:40

1
Episode 0371: After 80 Years Postcards Find Their Way Home to Lublin 27:18

1
Episode 26: Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration in Jewish Education 1:10:23

1
Episode 0370: Sivan Slapak’s Here Is Still Here 20:51

1
Episode 0369: Yiddish Culture in America 36:13

1
Episode 25: Visualizing Jewish Texts and Practices through the Graphic Novel | Dr. Talia Hurwich 28:08

1
Episode 24: Spotlight on the Gap Year 1:08:09

1
Episode 0368: in a dark blue night: two song cycles on Yiddish/Jewish New York 20:36

1
Episode 0367: The Yiddish Book Center’s Bossie Dubowick YiddishSchool 25:15

1
Episode 0366:The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York 24:09

1
Episode 23: Why Young Jews Love Yiddish | Dr. Sandra Fox 28:39

1
Episode 0365: Across So Many Seas 20:06

1
Episode 22: How Israeli-Americans Think About Their Kids’ Hebrew Learning | Hannah Kober 27:55

1
Episode 0364: A Worker’s Yiddish Library on View 23:48

1
Episode 0363: Telling the Story of Yiddish Theater 33:41

1
Episode 0362: Staging Mikhl Yashinsky’s American Yiddish Drama 22:50

1
Episode 0361: New in Translation: Yiddish Writer Frume Halpern 25:53

1
Episode 21: Navigating Ideological Differences in Pluralistic Jewish Schools | Dr. Esther Friedman 32:37

1
Episode 20: Spotlight on Jewish Learning: Past, Present and Future 1:04:45

1
Episode 0360: Shir Hashirim (The Song of Songs): A Yiddish Operetta 31:02

1
Episode 0359: Jewish Anarchist Histories Reclaimed 30:57

1
Episode 19: Getting Serious About Play in Jewish Education | Rabbi Judd Levingston, PhD 29:30

1
Episode 0358: Kristen Morgenstern’s Zine: Irena Klepfisz: The Life of the Fighter 22:45

1
Episode 0357: Amid Falling Walls: A Groundbreaking Musical 20:57

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