Vaybertaytsh

In this episode, our guest host Esther Singer talks to Rivke Margolis, a professor at Monash University in Melbourne. They talked about queer yiddishkayt, Yiddish pedagogy, and comparing Yiddish to other minority languages. Thanks to Esther for being our first guest host in a very long time! You can find out more about Rivke’s research and writing here.Want some merch to launch a new look in 2022? Check out our new Redbubble site here.

I'm so pumped about this conversation with Etl Niborski, recorded in Tel Aviv this past summer. Etl is a 19-year-old left-wing activist and a native Yiddish speaker who recently completed her national service working in a school in Jaffa for at-risk youth. We talked all about what it’s like to be an Israeli at the end of high school — all of the complicated decisions one has to make about joining the military or finding a way not to — how her Yiddishist background impacts her political thinking, what it was like to be a Yiddish-speaking, non-Hasidic kid on the streets of Jerusalem, and about her current Yiddish activities and projects.For more from The White Screen’s album Sex, Drugs, and Palestine, click here.To see our most recent merch, click here.

In this episode, Sosye and Meyer Dovid from the long-running Yiddish radio show Dos Yidishe Kol chat all things Yiddish, podcasting, and — you guessed it — Yiddish podcasting. It was a pleasure to get to know Meyer Dovid better, and to learn a bit about his radio show’s trajectory. You can see a concise version of our conversation in Yiddish and in English translation at In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies. Thank you to In geveb’s blog team for proposing this idea and collaborating with both of our shows on this episode!

It was wonderful to get a chance to speak to Miriam Udel, sof-kol-sof! Miriam is associate professor of Yiddish language, literature, and culture at Emory University. She recently published Honey on the Page (NYU Press, October 2020 — happy 1st birthday to the book!), a rich resource of nearly fifty Yiddish stories and poems in English translation. We chatted children’s literature, Miriam’s background story with Judaism, her rabbinical studies at Yeshivat Maharat, and much more.

What a pleasure to get to know Isabel Frey! Isabel is a Vienna-based Yiddish musician with a wonderful new-ish album called Millennial Bundist. We talked about being Jewish in Vienna, her left-wing activism and her departure from the Zionism of her youth, as well as her music and her future plans. I know you'll love her story as well as her music! Read more about her and check out her music at https://www.isabelfrey.com/

You might know Perl as your former or current Yiddish teacher. You might know her as a person with the lovely singing voice at the zingeray. You might know her as your ESL teacher (okay, probably her ESL students aren’t listening to Vaybertaytsh). How do I know Perl? She’s one of my best friend’s mames, and since I had kind of a weird family life, I spent a lot of my time - like, really a lot of it - in Perl’s house, spending time with her daughter Shifra. So maybe it is a little strange that it took so long for me to interview Perl, but nu, better late than never. I had a blast learning more about her youth and her immigration to America, her experiences teaching Yiddish and ESL, and so much more. Enjoy!Want to learn more Yiddish with Perl? Check out her website!http://learnyiddishlive.com/paula-teitelbaum/

This week we have someone who might be a familiar face to you if you lurk on social media of any and all kinds: Cameron Bernstein of Yiddish TikTok fame! I had a blast hearing about Cameron’s Yiddish journey thus far and learning about how TikTok works! You can follow Cameron on TikTok or Instagram to see her creative, informative, and funny videos. Keep it up, Cameron! Big fan over here.

We’re back earlier than expected with a special episode. Last week, YIVO streamed a lecture as part of the Uriel Weinreich Yiddish Summer Program on the topic “Yiddish Women Writers.” (See and hear the lecture here). The lecturer, Professor Avraham Noversthern, wanted to be controversial… and, well, he succeeded in that mission! In this episode, Jessica Kirzane, Faith Jones, and Ayelet Brinn delve into what made Novershtern’s arguments so controversial, and how his claims run counter to the scholarship of a number of female academics. We also talk about the intersections between power dynamics, gender, age, and language ability in the Yiddish World. Perhaps most importantly, we also used this opportunity to offer and promote a variety of resources for Vaybertaytshniks who want to learn more about Yiddish women writers. See below!Key Anthologies:Found Treasures: Stories by Yiddish Women WritersThe Exile Book of Yiddish Women WritersYidishe dikhterinsKey Scholarship:A Question of Tradition: Women Poets in Yiddish, 1586-1987A Marriage Made in Heaven: The Sexual Politics of Hebrew and YiddishGender and Text in Modern Hebrew and Yiddish LiteratureWomen Writers of Yiddish Literature: Critical Essays Queer Expectations: A Genealogy of Jewish Women's Poetry: Women, Men and Books: Issues of Gender in Yiddish Discourse How to Suppress Women's WritingPakn Treger "A Collection of Newly Translated Yiddish Works by Women Writers"Women Writers in TranslationIn Other Words: Yiddish Women in Translation MonthWomen in Translation Month: YiddishTranslating and Teaching Yiddish Prose by WomenSongs: “Blue Jeans” by Ladytron, “Girls Like Us” by The Julie Ruin, and “Speech Bubbles” by WHY?

…and we’re back! Sorry for the very long delay, everyone. I don’t know I’ve said this in any recent episodes, but I’m writing a book right now, and oof, has it taken a lot of time/energy out of me. But the clouds are clearing, both from the writing and from the Corona year we all just got through, and it finally feels like the right time to bring back Vaybertaytsh. I’m so excited, I could just scream!And a talk with Reyze Turner is quite a way to get back into things! Reyze is a passionate Yiddishist, a researcher, and a language teacher, and she is also about to go start a PhD in Wisconsin! We talked a lot about her life path, career, her time in Paris working at Medem Yiddish Center, and about the state of Yiddish itself. It was a blast to chat with Reyze, and I hope you all enjoy the episode as much as I enjoyed recording it!

In collaboration with Jewish Currents, Vaybertaytsh is pleased to present a special English episode with artist and podcast producer Sharon Mashihi.An Iranian Jew from Great Neck, NY, Mashihi places her new audio series, Appearances, at “6 out of 10 on the truth spectrum.” The protagonist of the series is a lightly fictionalized version of Mashihi named Melanie, who wrestles with questions drawn from her creator’s life: whether to have a baby as a single mother or with her non-Jewish, non-Iranian, much older boyfriend; and how to build a family that both reflects and departs from the struggles she witnessed growing up in an immigrant household. Mashihi and I spoke about immigrant families, Jewish and Iranian identity, Great Neck, and the ethical quandary of making art from your life without hurting the ones you love. Mashihi’s work on The Heart was a major inspiration for me when I began making Vaybertaytsh. I was thrilled to get a chance to meet and talk with her.Appearances produced by Mermaid Palace and Radiotopia,You can check out a shortened text version of this interview at Jewish Currents here.Click for more information on Sharon’s work.———A note for our Yiddish listeners:אין דער עפּיזאָד רעד איך מיט מאַשיהי װעגן איר באַציִונג צו ייִדישקײַט, משפּחה, און שפּראַך. אין דער אמתן, האָט אונדזער שמועס כּמעט גאָרנישט צו טאָן מיט ייִדיש. אָבער עס האָט יאָ אַ שײַכות מיט דער געשיכטע פֿון װײַבערטײַטש: אָן איר פֿריִערדיקע אַרבעט אין פּאָדקאַסטערײַ, װײס איך נישט צי װײַבערטײַטש װאָלט עקסעסטירט, אַזאַ גרױסע ראַדיאָ־העלד איז מאַשיהי פֿאַר מיר. זאָרג זיך נישט, אָבער: נײע ייִדיש־שפּראַכיקע עפּיזאָדן װעלן באַלד אַרױסקומען!