27 Dec
Arts & Culture, Culture, Latest

The Death of Yiddish?

By Merav Levkowitz For 25 years, the American klezmer band The Klezmatics has been unable to sustain itself solely from their Yiddish klezmer music. The reason is not for lack of talent: In 2006, they won a Grammy award for Best Contemporary World Music Album for their album Wonder Wheel: Lyrics by Woody Guthrie. In an age when music gains fame through social media and viral marketing, a Grammy award may not mean instant fame and success for anyone.  Yet the Klezmatics, the subject of a  documentary called On Holy Ground, have faced difficulties with deeper roots: the decline of Yiddish. For centuries, Yiddish was more than just an “Oy gevalt” and a “What chutzpah!” thrown into other languages for comic effect. Rather, Yiddish was the beacon of a rich East European Jewish culture of language, literature,...

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13 Nov
Latest, Misc

This Week's Links: Yiddishe Edition

By Benjamin Schuman-Stoler NPR reported on Yiddish and Klezmer in Russia today. Judging by the above video, I'd say it's doing just fine. Still corny as ever. Thanks to Heeb for pointing out Rahmfacts.com. Spend some time at the site and learn such brilliant nuggets of dubious knowledge as, "Even Rahm Emanuel's mother calls him 'Rahmbo.'" The New Yorker spoke with Emanuel's rabbi. A good jew, this guy is. Oh, and their cartoon caricature of him is positively creepy. Two new news items re. Iran. First, they tested a missile purportedly for defense uses which has capability to reach Israel. Second, now that there's an administration willing to talk to them (eventually), they're getting skittish. A mainstream Greek newspaper ran this headline after Obama's victory last week: "The anticipated victory of Obama in the US elections signals the...

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