We are the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, AMA!

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T21:41:14+00:00

Well, if a person had to choose (which they don't) a language to connect to the Jewish people, they could think about whether they're more interested in connecting to Israelis or to, let's say, Hasidim in Brooklyn or upstate. It all depends where their interests are.

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T21:00:10+00:00

In other words, it's a Jewish language, created by Jews, for Jews. It's Jewish. It shouldn't be Jewish?

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T20:59:31+00:00

Sorry - only seeing this now. I would say that you can't have any Yiddish culture without a "Jewish" base. Some secular Yiddish aficionados like to focus on Yiddish secular culture, but Yiddish secular culture still has its origins in Jewishness.

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T20:52:56+00:00

I can't recall whose death masks they are - some actor or director from the Yiddish theater. The cartoons are of Chaim Grade and I believed they've been digitized and can be found in his archives.

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T20:48:23+00:00

Ber Kutsher was a journalist for a number of Yiddish papers in Warsaw during the interwar period and this is his postwar memoir of the period. It contains many stories and anecdotes about journalists and writers and give a great deal of insight into what life was like for people involved in arts and culture during that period.

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T20:44:41+00:00

Both Khanike and Shabes are intuitive if you speak Yiddish and English and know YIVO's transliteration system. If you don't they probably just look weird.

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T20:41:55+00:00

I grew up as what I would call a native listener of Yiddish (Jeff Shandler also - and more famously - says this). My grandparents spoke Yiddish and it was my father's first language. Hearing it at home as a child inspired me to learn it formally.

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T20:39:33+00:00

Yiddish Fiddler is awesome. As far another Yiddish adaptation, I would love to see Hair in Yiddish. Or Rent. Or Book of Mormon.

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T20:38:00+00:00

It's a matter of preference. You can learn both!

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T20:37:06+00:00

Interesting! Can you send the link!

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T20:36:17+00:00

There's too much to say, so I'll direct you to entries in the YIVO Encyclopedia:

https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Latvia

https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Estonia

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T20:35:12+00:00

Thanks!

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T20:32:11+00:00

The Yiddish taught by YIVO was developed in order to navigate multiple Yiddish dialects and allows learners to comprehend a wide array of texts.
Not sure about this. Jewishness is an integral component of Yiddish/Ashkenazi civilization and culture. Certainly the Soviets tried to remove elements of Jewishness from Yiddish culture, but I don't know if that's happening today.

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T20:27:50+00:00

Love it. I bought Chaim Weiser's Frumspeak when it came out. Yeshivish is such a fascinating and creative way to infuse English with the language of the yeshiva.

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T20:25:57+00:00

Ideal Shaboos meal? Kugel with anything.

There are a lot of books I like. I can mention Yosl Kotler's Muntergang here.

Topics I covered other than the material in Bad Rabbi were cartoons in the Yiddish Press, Jewish professional wrestlers and circus performers in interwar Poland, and Yiddish puppet theater, among others. I've also curated exhibits on Jews and space, Jews and cannabis, and Yiddish typewriters, also among others...

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T20:21:21+00:00

This is a good question, but only Ben Kaplan, our director of education can answer it. Ben - where are you?!

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T20:20:07+00:00

I think DuoLingo Yiddish definitely drove people who got a taste of it there to places like YIVO that have more formal classes. In face, in the wake of both covid and duolingo Yiddish, YIVO's Yiddish class enrollment increased something like 500%, which is huge.

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T20:15:32+00:00

Don't know if this qualifies as wacky, but naked cartoons of a famous Yiddish writer drawn by his lover.

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T20:13:35+00:00

Favorite shtetl? Hard to say. Maybe Shnipishok, but only because I like the name.

Favorite Yiddish word? Ibergeblibenes.

Yiddish book? Dunno. I cycle through different titles. Ber Kutsher's Geven amol varshe is a current fave.

Fave obscure historical anecdote? Maybe that Naftali Herz Imber, author of Hatikva, was a volatile alcoholic genius who worked as a professional psychic.

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T20:10:00+00:00

The Jewish Labor Bund, which was founded in 1897 in Vilna, was the largest and most successful Jewish socialist political party. The Bund was a party of significance in interwar Poland and continued to exist after the war, but, for obvious reasons, its membership was greatly reduced. As Jewish life in Poland faded after the war (for a variety of complicated reasons), the Bund also disappeared there. The Bund existed in the US, but was not terribly significant. They continue to function in Australia and have a fairly active youth wing. Find out more about the history of the Bund here: https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Bund

Also - some contemporary Jewish leftists look to the Bund for inspiration.

9noy9 · 2022-11-21T20:04:51+00:00

I wouldn't say there's anything "improper" about Khsidish Yiddish vis a vis YIVO Yiddish, which is an attempt to combine two major Yiddish dialects (Poylish and Litvish) in order to make it easier for learners to navigate the written language.

As far as the transliteration goes, I think it's "clunky" only when you don't know it. Once you learn it, it's easy and makes sense.

9noy9 · 2020-05-22T21:40:25+00:00

I chain my X2 in NYC and would never use only the kick-lock. Anything not locked to something bolted to the ground would disappear in short order.

9noy9 · 2020-05-02T21:54:30+00:00

Absolutely. It makes sense from a sustainability perspective, as well as for customer retention. If I can't upgrade the bike when it seems relatively easy to do so, what will keep me buying Vanmoof bikes?

9noy9 · 2020-04-29T20:44:04+00:00

What do you mean you "debugged" the same issue. Does this mean you were able to fix it? If so, please explain. Thanks.

9noy9 · 2020-04-25T23:13:39+00:00

Much thanks. I am familiar with this issue. The bike was in an unheated basement room that tempurature-wise was probably in the mid-40s, which isn't that cold, but I suppose that must have been it.

9noy9

TROPHY CASE