31 Dec
2013 January-February, Arts & Culture, Jewish Word

Jewish Word | Tsuris

Nobody Knows the Tsuris I’ve Seen… “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen,” laments an African-American spiritual. In Yiddish, this feeling is encapsulated by the word tsuris—variously defined as troubles, worries, aggravation, woes, suffering, grief or heartache. In other words, “tsuris is what nudniks have and are only too willing to share with others,” according to the Everyday Yiddish-English Dictionary. The online Urban Dictionary calls it “a Yiddish phrase for worries, stress or hassle,” giving this example: “Oy, Zelda, I don’t want to be a kvetch, but I’ve got tsuris up to here.” Tsuris is a Yiddish word, but its root is the Hebrew tzarah, meaning trouble; its relative, litzrot, means to become narrow or to be in a tight place, says Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York, a longtime student of Yiddish...

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12 May
Arts & Culture, Culture

Not Your Bubbe's Punk Rock: An Interview with the Shondes

by Amanda Walgrove The Shondes is a Brooklyn-based indie band that has garnered attention for their gritty Riot Grrrl rock sound, Jewish influences and political messages. Comprised of Louisa Solomon, Temim Fruchter, Elijah Olberman, and Fureigh, the band has released two albums since their formation in 2006: self-released debut The Red Sea (2008) and My Dear One (2010) with Fanatic Records. The band recently made a celebrated appearance at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, and has a new record in the works. I asked them a few questions about the religious roots of their music, their partnership with progressive Jewish organizations, and a general affinity for bubbe accents. Using a Yiddish word meaning "disgrace" or "shame" for a band name ties you to Jewish roots and yet separates you from religious orthodoxy. Can...

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12 May
Arts & Culture, Culture

Not Your Bubbe’s Punk Rock: An Interview with the Shondes

by Amanda Walgrove The Shondes is a Brooklyn-based indie band that has garnered attention for their gritty Riot Grrrl rock sound, Jewish influences and political messages. Comprised of Louisa Solomon, Temim Fruchter, Elijah Olberman, and Fureigh, the band has released two albums since their formation in 2006: self-released debut The Red Sea (2008) and My Dear One (2010) with Fanatic Records. The band recently made a celebrated appearance at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, and has a new record in the works. I asked them a few questions about the religious roots of their music, their partnership with progressive Jewish organizations, and a general affinity for bubbe accents. Using a Yiddish word meaning "disgrace" or "shame" for a band name ties you to Jewish roots and yet separates you from religious orthodoxy. Can...

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07 Jan
Uncategorized

Sects, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll

By Symi Rom-Rymer A group of young Hasidic men hang out at the foot of the subway stairs at a station in Brooklyn, New York.   Soon, another one joins them and the conversation quickly turns heated.  “Do you bite your thumb at us sir?/I do bite my thumb, sir./Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?/No sir, I do not bite my thumb at you sir, but I bite my thumb sir.”  These lines may seem familiar, as they open one of the most famous plays ever written: William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.  But would they seem as familiar in Yiddish? That is a question tackled in “Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish,” a film by Eve Annenberg now playing as part of the 2011 New York Jewish Film...

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30 Dec
Culture, History, Latest

Renewing Galicia

by Gabriel Weinstein My grandfather always chuckled when we spoke about the Galicia region of northwestern Ukraine and southeastern Poland. He’d cackle, “Galicia! We used to make fun of people from there in Rovno .”  His depiction was a bit skewed. He failed to mention Galicia was a cultural incubator that produced Hasidic dynasties, the writer Shai Agnon and modern Yiddish music. My grandfather is not the only person to neglect Galicia’s rich Jewish heritage. According to Yaroslav Hrystak, director of graduate studies at the Ukrainian Catholic University, Ukraine’s Jewish history is “ …like a whole subject that disappeared ”.  Galicia’s once-majestic synagogues and sprawling Jewish cemeteries are now decaying shacks and unkempt meadows. Although Galicia was home to a diverse Jewish culture, the region’s traditional religious leaning was one of its most distinguishing characteristics. Galician...

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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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03 Feb
Arts & Culture, History, Latest

Kiev Celebrates Sholom Aleichem, then Destroys his House

By Jeremy Gillick Following celebrations in Kiev in honor of the 150th anniversary of Sholom Aleichem's birth, developers destroyed his house. The great Yiddish writer would not have been surprised. Many of his stories dealt with misfortune, luck and the arbitrariness of life. He himself fell victim to risk and a volatile economy. As Dara Horn writes in an essay at jbooks.com, "Right on the Money," Aleichem "lost his entire fortune on the Kiev stock exchange, and spent the rest of his life evading his creditors." On another note, for the first time in a long time, Sholom Aleichem has a new book out in English, Wandering Stars, also in honor of his 150th birthday (the Forward has an excerpt). Thankfully, it doesn't directly relate to Madoff or any other contemporary scandal, crisis, election or war;...

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30 Dec
Culture, Latest, topics

Laughter Through Tears

By Jeremy Gillick Sholom Aleichem, the revered 19th century writer whose earnest, incredulous and good-natured humor came to define a century of Jewish jokes, is back. Not resurrected--Aleichem was never much of a believer, though he undoubtedly would have welcomed the Messiah into the world like an old friend into his home--but reincarnated in the body and voice of Theodore Bikel. At 84, the man who made Fiddler on the Roof into an American story--Bikel has played Tevye the Dairyman upwards of 2000 times--has brought back to life the man whose writings shaped his long and illustrious career. "Laughter Through Tears," which recently premiered at the DCJCC's Theater J and which, following it's strong reception, was extended to run through January 18th, is a one-man tribute to Sholom Aleichem. Written, acted and sung by Bikel himself, the...

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04 Dec
Culture, Latest, Religion

An Interview with Peter Manseau, Author of Songs for the Butcher's Daughter

By Jeremy Gillick “Rise and go to the town of the killings,” Bialik wrote of Kishinev, the Moldovan city, formerly Russian, where a 1903 Easter Sunday blood libel famously escalated into a brutal three-day pogrom. A momentous event, the pogrom both expedited the Jewish exodus from Eastern Europe and helped usher Zionism into the 20th century. “Your feet will sink in feathers,” wrote Bialik forebodingly. “Half the buds will be feathers, and their smell the smell of blood.” This image of blood and feathers in the heart of the Yiddish-speaking world is the backdrop of Peter Manseau’s new novel, Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter. As the Kishinev pogrom begins and feathers flutter from Jewish windows, Itsik Malpesh, destined to become the last great Yiddish writer, is born. Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter tells his story, from his...

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