Jewish Languages

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Yiddish and Me

When I first began studying Yiddish, I felt like I was remembering something I already knew.It was a lovely sensation, this ...

The Workmen’s Circle in Birmingham

The Workmen’s Circle—Arbeter Ring in Yiddish—is a Jewish fraternal organization devoted to progressive politics, the labor movement, and Yiddish language and culture.  In its ...

Speaking Backwards

I’ve been told that students in my college courses sometimes have trouble following what I’m saying because I speak backwards.The ...

Illusions and Remembering

I liked to sit sipping coffee in the tall kitchen window of my apartment in Vilnius. The window overlooked the ...

A Yiddishist in Vilnius

I had fun in Vilnius, despite my low tolerance for fun. Not to mention that fun in Vilnius seemed like ...

Hebrew By Design

Before I could read and write in English, I spoke Yiddish. At age 3 I learned the Hebrew alef-bet alongside ...

What the Kids are Doing With Their Lives

I realized late in life that my parents weren’t your typical Baby Boomers. My dad wasn’t anti-establishment. My mother wasn’t a feminist. ...

Autumn in His Heart

I’ve thought a lot about Isaac Babel’s lovely characterization of the Jew as a man with “[s]pectacles on his nose and ...

The Comedienne

One of the strange things about having your first book come out is that you think you’ve written one thing, ...

Free Jewish-Books Summer Camp!

When I was a kid, I got sent to a sports camp outside of Philadelphia. Which was sort of the ...

A Bintel Brief: A Bundle of Letters

This is the first page of a comic book I’m working on. It’s based on the Bintel Brief, a popular Yiddish ...

Sweet and Sour

In my grandparents’ homes, as in the shtetlach from whence they came, the food was sweet and sour – just ...

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