- Emanuel Ringelblum, Holocaust, Israel, Lviv, Oyneg Shabes, Poland, Soup Kitchen, Tel Aviv, Warsaw, Warsaw Ghetto, Women's History Month, Yad Vashem, Yiddish Women Writers, YIVO, Yizkor, Zionist, רחל אוירבך
Witnessing & Witnesses (Women’s History Day Five)
Carrying the weight of cultural remnants from the time before and during the Shoah, Rokhl Oyerbakh was one of three members of the oyneg shabes who survived the horrors of the Holocaust. Before the…
- Balabusta, Businesswomen, Diaries, Forverts, German Jews, Glückel of Hameln, JTS, Women's History Month, Yiddish Women Writers, גליקל בת ר' יהודה לייב האַמיל
The Original Balabusta (Women’s History Day Four)
Perhaps not the first woman Yiddish writer I learned about, Glückel of Hameln is certainly the earliest we’ve been able to get to know. Her diary entries, published by a descendant, portray the life of…
- Holocaust, Immigration, New York, Paris, Poetry, Poland, Rajzel Żychlińsky, Refugee, Warsaw, Women's History Month, Yiddish Women Writers, רײזל זשיכקינסקי
Topsy-Turvey Refugee (Women’s History Day Three)
During my January intensive Yiddish course, my teacher offered us the opportunity to introduce a poet to the class (auf Yiddish, nu!). Never having heard of Rajzel Żychlińsky before, I found myself meeting a…
- Belarus, Fiction, Forverts, Immigration, Israel, Kadya Molodowsky, Mameloshn, Poetry, Tel Aviv, Women's History Month, Yiddish Book Center, Yiddish Women Writers, YIVO, קאַדיע מאָלאָדאָװסקי
Immigrant, Multiplied (Women’s History Day Two)
My friends know that I’m not someone who regularly listens to podcasts – until my harbour walks during the pandemic led me to find a new friend, and a way to learn much…
- Bainbridge, Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, Bronx, Mameloshn, Mosholu, Pakn Treger, Poetry, Songs, Women's History Month, Yiddish, Yiddish Book Center, Yiddish Women Writers, YIVO
Mosholu’s Finest (Women’s History Day One)
In a new series on my akademishe blog: Women’s History Month, March MMXXI. After a year (plus a bisl mer) of Yiddish study, I want to introduce you to some of my favorite…
- 5781, Abraham, Akedah, Cliffhanger, Dissertation Diary, Doubt, Genesis, Hagar, Isaac, Ishmael, Mamre, Midrash, Parsha, Provision, Sacrifice, Sarah, Sodom, Trust, Vayera, Visitors
In With the New…Doesn’t Get Rid of the Old
The fourth parsha of our year is intense: beginning with a birth announcement and ending with a near-death experience. Well, technically, beginning with a newly-named Abraham sitting in his tent’s opening…waiting? hoping? wondering?…
- 5781, Abraham, Blessing, Covenant, Dissertation Diary, Faithfulness, Genesis, Hagar, Ishmael, Journey, Lekh Lekha, Lot, Names, Nation, Pandemic, Parsha, Promises, Sarah, Travel
Into the Unknown!
Seven months into a changed way of life during a pandemic, the unknown is old news. Rather than embarking as a result of our own volition, or even being asked to do so,…
- 5781, Ark, Bible, Canon, Climate Change, Climate Crisis, Creativity, Dissertation Diary, Genesis, Interpretation, Kabbalah, Midrash, Noach, Parsha, The Met, Yiddish
Drowning in Interpretation
We’re only on the second week of 5781’s Torah reading cycle, reading no more than six chapters a week. This is a reminder that the Bible, whatever form this takes for you (39…
- 5781, Bereshit, Creativity, Dissertation Diary, Genesis, Health, History, Human Experience, Pandemic, Parsha, Relationship, Repentance, Responsibility, Stewardship
What’s New?
Just like that, we’re back to the beginning – but this time, we’re in a jarringly different world. As in other crazy historical situations, rituals and traditions offer a framework and bring depth…
- 5781, Collaboration, Dissertation, Dissertation Diary, Elul, Faithfulness, Goals, Interfaith, New Year, Pandemic, Parsha, Ritual, Yiddish
Elul + Goalz
This year has been magnificent, stressful, eye-opening, life-changing, a whirlwind, a time for reflection, hopeful, frightening, confusing, illuminating, disappointing, and anything but normal. Although 5780’s not yet done, reflecting on the course…