The 'Yiddish Voice' Podcast

The Yiddish Voice דאָס ייִדישע קול

Podcast of The Yiddish Voice, a weekly hour-long Yiddish-language radio show heard in the Boston area Wednesdays, 7:30 - 8:30 PM, on WUNR 1600 AM/Brookline, MA (USA) and live-streamed via YIDDISHVOICE.COM ״דאָס ייִדישע קול״ איז אַ וועכנטלעכע ראַדיאָ פּראָגראַם אויף ייִדיש און אַ פּאָדקאַסט אויך. אגבֿ, ייִדיש שרײַבט מען אויך יידיש אָדער אידיש. הערט זיך צו און האָט הנאה!

  1. 13 Aug

    Ruth Wisse: Free as a Jew

    Highlights: Prof. Ruth Wisse discusses her life and work, the subject of her memoir Free as a Jew: A Personal Memoir of National Self-Liberation (Wicked Son, 2021). She recalls encounters with Leonard Cohen, Itzik Manger and Isaac Bashevis Singer, and she reads excerpts from her book (in English) touching on early encounters with Avrom Sutzkever and Max Weinreich. Wisse was Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard from 1993 to 2014. Her books include The Schlemiel as Modern Hero and The Modern Jewish Canon, and she co-edited The Penguin Book of Modern Yiddish Verse. She received the National Humanities Medal in 2007 and delivered the NEH Jefferson Lecture in 2026. She is currently Distinguished Senior Fellow at Tikvah, where she holds lectures and gives courses frequently, which you can find at Tikvah.org’s course website here: https://ideas.tikvah.org/courses From our archive: presentation by our late cohost Iosif Lakhman regarding the infamous date 12 August 1952, known in Yiddish cultural circles as the Night of the Murdered Poets, originally aired in 2008. Music Emil Gorovets, with musical arrangements and piano accompaniment by Zalmen Mlotek: Ikh Bin a Y*d (Itzik Feffer) In Vinter Farnakhtn (Dovid Hofshteyn) Di Muze (Peretz Markish) An Alter Nign (Leib Kvitko) Instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air date: August 12, 2026

  2. 3 Jul

    Anna Halberstam Rubin; Sholem Beinfeld: America Celebrates 250 Years

    Highlights: Our co-host Sholem Beinfeld, who is Professor of History, Emeritus, Washington University, St. Louis, gives a historic, and Jewish, perspective on the United States of America in observance of the upcoming 4th of July, 2026, holiday. Later in the program, we play a series of songs in honor of America written and performed by a variety of performers and songwriters. Our featured guest is Anna Halberstam Rubin, talking about her life, including her youth before and during the Holocaust, which she wrote about in her memoir Just a Little Girl: Despair and Deliverance (1993, 1994, 2018 AHR Books, Palo Alto). Anna was born in Poland but grew up in Slovakia, the daughter of Rav Yechezkel Shraga Halberstam, and the granddaughter of two rabbis, Rav Naftali Rubin of of Nowy Wiśnicz, Poland, and Rabbi Menachem Mendele Halberstam of Stropkov, Slovakia, The Stropkover Rebbe. During the war, Anna comes of age and narrowly escapes death on multiple occasions. Eventually, she makes it out of danger by joining one of the remarkable rescue convoys organized by Rudolf Kastner, escaping from Hungary to Switzerland. Her convoy was separate from the better-known Kastner train, which also brought Jewish refugees to safety, including the Satmarer Rebbe, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum. After the war, she eventually moved to the United States and married Israel Rubin, a sociologist, a foremost expert on Hungarian Jewry and author of the book Satmar: An Island in the City. We spoke to Anna at the home of her daughter Haya Rubin in the Lakewood, NJ area in August, 2024. Music Ben Gailing: Star Spangled Banner Mandy Patinkin: Nem Mikh Mit Tsu Dem Balgeym / Got, Bentsh Amerike Steven Skybell, Joel Gray and the cast of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish: Got, Bentsh Amerike Daniel Kahn, Sarah Gordon, Lorin Sklamberg, Patrick Farrell, Sveta Kundish, Michael Alpert, Linda Gritz: Dos Land Iz Dayn Land Cantor Leibele Waldman: Ikh Dank Dir Got Far Amerike Mandy Patinkin: American Tune in Yiddish (Words and Music by Paul Simon) The Yiddish Philharmonic Chorus: Neil Diamond’s “America” in Yiddish, in 4-part harmony instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air date: July 1, 2026

  3. 27 May

    Lea Koenig and Yaniv Goldberg on Yiddish Theater

    Interview with Lea Koenig (ליאַ קעניג), one of Israel’s most beloved stage actresses, together with Yaniv Goldberg, author of The Stage of Her Life: Conversations with Actress Lea Koenig on Theater and Her Life. The program focuses on Koenig’s long career in Yiddish theater as well as Israeli Hebrew-language theater, TV and film. Born into a Yiddish theatrical family, Koenig became known internationally for her work in both Yiddish and Hebrew. Goldberg’s book, published in late 2025 by Academic Studies Press of Newton, Massachusetts, grew out of years of conversations with Koenig about her life, her artistry, her Yiddish background and her central place in Israeli cultural life. Dr. Yaniv Shimon Goldberg is a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University and an expert on the Yiddish language and Jewish theater. He is also a rabbi, attorney, theater director and scholar of law and theater whose work includes research on legal issues in Yiddish drama. Goldberg’s reading of brief excerpts from his introduction to the book (in English) are interspersed at a couple of points during the interview. The interview included actors and Yiddish activists Mikhl Yashinsky and Hy Wolfe as special guest co-hosts. We did the interview on Zoom on May 6, 2026. Yaniv and Lea participated from Lea’s home in Tel Aviv; Mikhl was on tour in Australia; and Hy was at his home in New York City. This Sunday, May 31, 2026, Mikhl is leading a community read IN YIDDISH of selections from Max Spitzkopf: The Yiddish Sherlock Holmes, the book by Jonas Kreppel that he translated. Sign up here: https://yivo.org/Sherlock-Holmes This Thursday, May 28, 2026, Hy Wolfe will perform an evening of Yiddish songs and stories at Forest Hills Library. Click here for info on Facebook. Music Lea Koenig: Hulyet Hulyet Kinderlekh (from YouTube - recorded live in 1989) Lea Koenig: Dray Tekhterlekh (from YouTube - recorded live in 1989) Lea Koenig: Afn Pripetshik (from YouTube - recorded in 2023) Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air date: May 27, 2026

  4. 27 Mar

    Joe Szwarcberg; Pesach 2026; Rabbi Teitelbaum

    We wish all our cohosts, sponsors and friends a Happy and Kosher Pesach. מיר ווינטשן אַלע אונדזערע אונטערשטיצער, פֿרײַנד און באַטייליקטע אַ פֿריילעכן און כּשרן פּסח HIGHLIGHTS: We welcome back Rabbi Yitzchok-Boruch Teitelbaum, known in his Monroe, NY, community as der Pshischer Rebbe, for Pesach greetings and words of wisdom. We reached Rabbi Teitelbaum by phone at his home in Monsey, NY, on Mar. 25, 2026. We hear Holocaust survivor Joe Szwarcberg (יוסף שװאַרצבערג) tell his story of survival in his own words. Joseph Szwarcberg was born in 1930 in Kozienice, Poland. He survived the Holocaust, including Buchenwald, where he was liberated by the US Army on April 11, 1945. At age 17, he emigrated to Australia, where he built a life and was active in the “Buchenwald Boys,” a group originally comprised of 45 young survivors liberated on that same day. Today, he is the only surviving member. We reached Joe via WhatsApp at his home in Melbourne, Australia, on Mar. 18, 2026. Special thanks to Jiri Kluc, Holocaust historian in the Czech Republic, for help producing this interview. Pesach greetings from many of our cohosts, friends and sponsors, as follows: Israel Book Shop (Eli Dovek ז״ל recorded Mar 28 2007). American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Greater Boston (member and Holocaust survivor Tania Lefman, and member and Holocaust survivor Mary Erlich), co-sponsor of Boston’s 2026 Commemoration of Yom HaShoah, Sunday, April 12 at 10:00 AM Eastern. We reached them at their homes in Greater Boston by phone on March 25, 2026. League for Yiddish, New York, NY, (Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, Chair of the Board). Recorded at her home in Teaneck, NJ, on March 25, 2026. Leah Shporer-Leavitt, Newton, MA, co-host of The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול (recorded at her home in Greater Boston on March 24, 2026). Dovid Braun, Leonia, NJ, co-host of The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול (recorded by phone at his office at YIVO on March 25, 2026). Yankele Bodo, Tel Aviv, Israel, actor and singer (from 2016). Eli Grodko, New Millford, NJ, friend of the show. Recorded at his home in Teaneck, NJ, on March 25, 2026. Boston Workers Circle, Brookline, MA (Yiddish committee member Linda (Libe-Reyzl) Gritz), recorded at her home in Greater Boston on March 24, 2026. Sholem Beinfeld, Cambridge, MA, co-host of The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול, co-editor of the Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary and Professor of History, emeritus, Washington Univ., St. Louis, with extended remarks on Pesach 5786. We recorded Sholem at his home in Cambridge, MA, by phone on March 25, 2026. Hy Wolfe, Director of CYCO Yiddish Book Center, Long Island City, NY. We recorded Hy by phone at his home in Manhattan on March 25, 2026. Music: Mark (מאָטל) Murstein: Mi Yodea (Recorded at his Brookline, MA, home for the Yiddish Voice, Pesach, 2019) Moishe Oysher: Kiddush for Pesach Lori Cahan and Meyshke Alpert: Zog, Maran Lori Cahan and Meyshke Alpert: In Dem Land Fun Piramidn Malavsky Family: Ho Lakhmo Anyo Malavsky Family: Fir Kashes Meshugga Beach Party: Dayenu Bruce Adler: A malke af peysekh (A Queen for Passover Michael Silverman: Passover Dayenu (instrumental) Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air date: March 25, 2026

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Podcast of The Yiddish Voice, a weekly hour-long Yiddish-language radio show heard in the Boston area Wednesdays, 7:30 - 8:30 PM, on WUNR 1600 AM/Brookline, MA (USA) and live-streamed via YIDDISHVOICE.COM ״דאָס ייִדישע קול״ איז אַ וועכנטלעכע ראַדיאָ פּראָגראַם אויף ייִדיש און אַ פּאָדקאַסט אויך. אגבֿ, ייִדיש שרײַבט מען אויך יידיש אָדער אידיש. הערט זיך צו און האָט הנאה!

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