The Dead Man

Yiddish Book Center's Audio Tour (Stop 2) narrated by Mikhl Yashinsky.

Audio Tour

Audio Tour Stop 2

Yiddish Book Center's Audio Tour Stop 1 Yiddish Version.

Narrated by Mikhl Yashinsky and edited by Caraid O'Brien.

Yiddish Version Audio Tour Stop 1

Yiddish Book Center's Audio Tour Stop 3 Yiddish Version.

Narrated by Mikhl Yashinsky and edited by Caraid O'Brien.

Yiddish Version Audio Tour Stop 3

Yiddish Book Center's Audio Tour Stop 4 Yiddish Version.

Narrated by Mikhl Yashinsky and edited by Caraid O'Brien.

Yiddish Version Audio Tour Stop 4

Yiddish Book Center's Audio Tour Stop 5 Yiddish Version.

Narrated by Mikhl Yashinsky and edited by Caraid O'Brien.

Yiddish Version Audio Tour Stop 5

Sholem Asch’s "On the Road to Zion," a radio drama translated and directed by Caraid O’Brien, with original music by Zeke Levine, premieres in English on Sunday, May 21, at 7 p.m.
 
In 1905, Sholem Asch debuted his first full-length play, a symbolist drama about Jewish thought in Poland at the turn of the twentieth century. In it, a family gathers from across Europe to say goodbye to their octogenarian grandparents, who are moving to Palestine to live out their final years. The family includes the traditionally religious, capitalists, Germanophiles, a Zionist, a Socialist Democrat, a secular Yiddishist, a Polish nationalist, and an artist in search of himself— and everyone has a different idea about the future of Jewish life. "On the Road to Zion’s" 1905 Russian-language premiere introduced the Russian intelligentsia to the existence of an exciting new literature in Yiddish. Produced by the grande dame of Russian theater, Vera Komissarzhevskaya—who played the original Nina in Chekhov’s "The Seagull"—it was a sensation. Jacob and Sarah Adler starred in its Yiddish-language premiere, in New York City.

Made possible with support from the Association of Jewish Studies.

RADIO DRAMA | Sholem Asch's ROAD TO ZION

The 1905 Yiddish-English Phrase Book

In these short conversations, from the Yiddish-English Manual, we hear Mikhl Yashinsky in conversation with Clara Kantor as they practice their Yiddish-to-English phrases. The Yiddish-English Manual was compiled in 1905 by the English Evening Classes Committee in London. The 221-page bilingual booklet contains phrases and conversations—from salutations and directions to letters and business transactions—for the Jewish traveler or immigrant. 

The Yiddish-English Manual is part of the Yiddish Book Center’s Collection. A reprint is available through the Center’s online and onsite bookstore.

Yiddish Phrase Book

How do you say “I like sugar in my tea” in Yiddish?

Our latest episodic radiocast, Joe the Waiter, by Israel Joseph Zevin (1872–1926) and translated by Dan Setzer, is a collection of humorous stories of Jewish life that give us a unique glimpse into the morals, society, and customs of turn-of-the-century New York, as well as insights into the ups and downs of everyday life. Each story is very short, only three or four pages, a format that was ideal for publication in a daily newspaper.
Zevin created characters from his observations of the people he met and knew (Joe the Waiter is a brash young man of the Lower East Side looking for adventure—and a wife). In these stories we get a privileged look into the daily life of the Jewish immigrant community in the early years of the twentieth century.

Joe the Waiter

Joe The Waiter Radiocast:  Two New Customers

Our latest episodic radiocast, "Joe the Waiter," by Israel Joseph Zevin (1872–1926) and translated by Dan Setzer, is a collection of humorous stories of Jewish life that give us a unique glimpse into the morals, society, and customs of turn-of-the-century New York, as well as insights into the ups and downs of everyday life. Each story is very short, only three or four pages, a format that was ideal for publication in a daily newspaper.

Zevin created characters from his observations of the people he met and knew (Joe the Waiter is a brash young man of the Lower East Side looking for adventure—and a wife). In these stories we get a privileged look into the daily life of the Jewish immigrant community in the early years of the twentieth century.



May 31, 2023

Amherst, MA

Joe The Waiter Radiocast: Joe Is A Businessman

Peretz Salon

Max Spitzkopf

Gut Yom-Tev Kinder!

Ikh bin a guter muzikant

Collection: Frances Brandt, Asset ID 1295_5290
Language: English
Creator (reader): Ruth R. Wisse
Original content: https://archive.org/details/ybc-fbr-1295_5290
Date recorded: 9/9/1985
Recorded at the Jewish Public Library, Montreal

From the collections of the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts: www.yiddishbookcenter.org

Ruth Wisse Talks About I.L. Peretz (Montreal, 1985)

Collection: Frances Brandt 
Language: Yiddish
Creator (reader): Hanna Rovina
Original content: archive.org/details/ybc-fbr-375_4374
Date recorded: 11/13/1969
Recorded in Tel Aviv
 
From the collections of the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts: www.yiddishbookcenter.org

H Rovina Reads I Manger's "For Years I Wallowed" ("Kh'hob zikh yorn lang gevalgert") Tel Aviv, 1969

Collection: Frances Brandt
Language: Yiddish
Creator (reader): Israel Gonshor
Original content: archive.org/details/ybc-fbr-154_4154
Date recorded: 3/15/1969
Recorded at the Jewish Public Library, Montreal
 
From the collections of the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts: www.yiddishbookcenter.org

I Gonshor reads I Manger's "For Years I Wallowed" ("Kh'hob zikh yorn lang gevalgert") Montreal, 1969

“Coney Island” is one of a series of "ritmish resitatsye" ("rhythmic recitation") poems written by Victor Packer and performed by him live on New York radio station WLTH in the late 1930s. From surviving broadcast disks housed at the Henry Sapoznik Yiddish Radio Archives at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress.

Image of "Crowds on Beach and Boardwalk, Coney Island, N. Y." postcard from the Tichnor Brothers Collection at the Boston Public Library, ca. 1930-1945, created by the Acacia Card Company, 258 Broadway, New York.

Victor Packer performing his radio poem, "Coney Island"

Goldie On "Edgia's Revenge"

Creator: Grace Paley
Language: English
Date Recorded: 11/16/2002
Recorded at the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, M

Grace Paley reads "My Father Addresses Me on the Facts of Old Age" and "Traveling" then takes questions from the audience.

Grace Paley Reads From Her Work at the Yiddish Book Center's Great Jewish Books Conference

From "Allen Ginsberg Poetry Reading and Press Conference'"
Collection: Frances Brandt, fbr-173_4173
Language: English
Creator: Allen Ginsberg
Date recorded: 31/10/1969
Recorded at McGill University Hillel, Montreal

Recording of full event available at archive.org/details/ybc-fbr-173_4173

Allen Ginsberg on Relationship Between Gnostic Thought and Judaism

Allen Ginsberg on Relationship Between Rabbinical Music and Hare Krishna

Allen Ginsberg on Jack Kerouac and Religion

Allen Ginsberg on The 1968 Chicago Protest

From "Literarisher ovnt lekoved rokhl korn tsum dershaynen fun ir bukh 'farbitene vor' / Literary evening in honor of Rokhl Korn, upon the publication of her book 'A Changing Reality'"
Collection: Frances Brandt, fbr-610_4609
Language: Yiddish
Creator: Rokhl Korn
Date recorded: 13/11/1977
Recorded at the Jewish Public Library, Montreal

Recording of full event available at https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/archival-recordings/fbr-610_4609/literary-evening-honor-rokhl-korn-mark-publication-rokhl-korn (this excerpt appears at 46:24-59:36 of Track 1)

Rokhl Korn speaks on the destiny of the Jewish poet

Khad-Gadyo

Yiddish poet Bertha Kling sings the song "Flantst mayn shvesterl a gortn (hoy hoy)," words (and possibly melody) by fellow poet Mani Leib. Followed by a recollection of Mani Leib from later in the interivew.

Collection: Frances Brandt, fbr-185_4185
Language: Yiddish
Creator (reader): Bertha Kling, Yechiel Kling
Producer: Abraham Tabachnik
Date recorded: 1/15/1955
Recorded in NY

2:02–3:42 and 12:10–13:40 of the full interview with Kling at https://soundcloud.com/yiddishbookcenteraudio/bertha-kling-sings-and-converses

Bertha Kling sings Mani Leib's 'Flantst mayn shvesterl a gortn (hoy hoy)'

Vocals: Asya Vaisman Schulman; Guitar: Allison Posner

Tumb, tumba

Drey dreydele

Asch wrote "BIG" on topics beyond Jewish life

Singer's Post-Holocaust Works

The Appeal of the Soviet Union for Yiddish Writers in the 1920s

Translations into Yiddish- Why Jews were Interested in Reading World Literature

Women using the Tsene-rene to Engage with the Torah and Jewish Religion

This page features brief clips from the Center's extensive audio library. For more information please visit www.yiddishbookcenter.org.

The Yiddish Book Center is a nonprofit organization working to tell the whole Jewish story by rescuing, translating, and disseminating Yiddish books and presenting innovative educational programs that broaden understanding of modern Jewish identity.

Yiddish Book Center Audio

Popular tracks