As our show aired Erev Yom Kippur, we again presented excerpts of our past interviews on The Yiddish Voice/דאָס ייִדישע קול with Holocaust survivors who died during the past year. Since our previous episode, we've lost Ben Lesser, who died the first day of Rosh Hashona, so we were unable to include this in our previous week's show. The remainder of the show is a repeat of the previous week's show.

• Ben Lesser (died September 23, 2025, age 96) - Ben was a Holocaust Survivor, Author, Lecturer, and visionary founder of The ZACHOR Holocaust Remembrance Foundation. He was known around the world for his courageous testimony, tireless advocacy and unwavering commitment to education and remembrance. Born in Krakow, Poland in 1928 to Shari Segal and Lazar Leser. Ben was the second youngest of five children, Moshe Leser, Lola Lieber-Schwartz, Goldie Leser and baby brother Naphtali Leser. At age ten his life as a boy was forever changed. He endured four concentration camps, a seven-week death march, and two death trains, one of which was the notorious ill-fated death train from Buchenwald to Dachau where of the 6,000 inmates that walked on, only 18 walked off. Ben was the last living survivor from that train. We reached him by Zoom on Apr. 17, 2023. Originally aired April 19, 2023.
  • Funeral service Oct. 5, 2025 (per Legacy.com obituary: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/latimes/name/ben-lesser-obituary?id=59641327): Sunday October 5, at 1:30pm Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Hollywood (Los Angeles, CA).
  • NOTE: MEMORIAL SERVICE OCT 19 2025: https://templebethsholomlv.shulcloud.com/form/ben-lesser-memorial
• (for additional show notes, see show notes for last week's episode: https://podcast.yv.org/episodes/remembering-aron-bell-bielski-natan-gipsman-judy-altmann-zoli-langer)

Air date: October 1, 2025

We're airing excerpts of interviews with four Holocaust survivors, past guests of The Yiddish Voice/דאָס ייִדישע קול who died during the past year.

• Aron Bell (Bielski) (died September 22, 2025, age 98) - born in the village Stankiewicze, near Navaredok (now in Belarus), he was the last of the famed Bielski brothers, who led the Bielski Partisans, which collectively saved more than 1,200 Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust. We reached him by phone at his home in Palm Beach, FL, on Jan. 12, 2009. Originally aired Jan. 14, 2009.
• Natan Gipsman (died the night of September 10th, 2025, age 100) - born in Hindenburg (Upper Silesia, Prussia), Germany (now Zabrze, Poland), he was confined in the Będzin (Yiddish: בענדין) Ghetto and survived six concentration camps, including Buchenwald. We interviewed him at his home in Los Angeles on Jan. 26, 2024. Originally aired Feb 15, 2024.
• Judy Altmann (died April 30, 2025, age 100) - born in Jasina, Czechoslovakia (Körösmezö, Hungary during WWII; now Yasinya, Ukraine), she survived Auschwitz and death marches. We reached her by phone at her home in Stamford, CT, on Aug. 18, 2018. Originally aired Apr. 25, 2019.
• Zoli Langer (died February 28, 2025, age 98) - born in the village Minai, near Uzhgorod, Czechoslovakia (Ungvar, Hungary during WWII, now Uzhhorod, Ukraine), he survived Auschwitz and death marches. We interviewed at his home in Los Angeles on Oct. 31, 2019. Originally aired Apr. 22, 2020.

‫אַ גמר חתימה טובֿה!

Featured Announcements for Rosh Hashona/Yom Kippur:

• Greetings on behalf of the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants of Greater Boston, featuring members Tania Lefman (Treasurer), Mary Ehrlich and Rosalie Reszelbach. Recorded Sept. 9 and 10, 2025.
• Hy Wolfe, manager of CYCO Books, Hebrew Actors Foundation and the Yiddish National Theatre. Recorded Sept. 21, 2025.
• Greetings on behalf of the League for Yiddish / די ייִדיש-ליגע by Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, Board Chair. Recorded Sept. 9, 2025.
• Greetings from Eli Dovek ז״ל, late proprietor of our sponsor Israel Bookshop, Brookline, MA. Recorded in 2009.
• Greetings on behalf of the Boston Workers Circle / דער באָסטאָנער אַרבעטער-רינג by Libe Gritz. Recorded Sept. 17, 2025.
• Greetings by The Yiddish Voice co-hosts Leye Schporer-Leavitt, Sholem Beinfeld and Dovid Braun. Recorded Sept. 17, 2025.

Music:

• Sholom Katz: Zochreinu L'Chayim
• Sholom Katz: Kol Nidre
• Jan Peerce: Ovinu Malkeinu
• Shalom Katz: El Moleh Rachamim
• Leibele Waldman: Der Nayer Yor
• Goldie Malavsky: Zochreinu L'Chayim
• Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz

Air date: September 24, 2025

• Shmuel Bak (Samuel Bak), the internationally renowned artist and Holocaust survivor, presented in a lengthy conversation with his friend, The Yiddish Voice co-host Sholem Beinfeld. Excerpts from Pucker Gallery's page about Bak:
  • *Samuel Bak was born in Vilna, Poland in 1933, at a crucial moment in modern history. From 1940 to 1944, Vilna was under Soviet, then German occupation. Bak’s artistic talent was first recognized during an exhibition of his work in the Ghetto of Vilna when he was nine years old. While he and his mother survived, his father and four grandparents all perished at the hands of the Nazis. At the end of the war, he fled with his mother to the Landsberg Displaced Persons Camp, where he enrolled in painting lessons at the Blocherer School in Munich. In 1948, they immigrated to the newly established state of Israel. He studied at the Bezalel Art School in Jerusalem and completed his mandatory service in the Israeli army. In 1956, he went to Paris to continue his education at the École des Beaux Arts.... Bak has exhibited extensively in major museums, galleries, and universities throughout Europe, Israel, and the United States. He lived and worked in Tel Aviv, Paris, Rome, New York, and Lausanne before settling in Massachusetts in 1993 and becoming an American citizen. Bak has been the subject of articles, scholarly works, and over twenty books, most notably a 400-page monograph entitled Between Worlds. In 2001, he published his touching memoir, Painted in Words, which has been translated into four languages, and a biography entitled Art & Life: The Story of Samuel Bak was published in 2023. Related links:
    • Wikipedia page for Samuel Bak: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Bak
    • Pucker Gallery page for Samuel Bak: https://www.puckergallery.com/samuel-bak
    • Samuel Bak Museum: The Learning Center (Omaha, NE): https://www.unomaha.edu/samuel-bak-museum-the-learning-center/
• Sholem Beinfeld is co-editor-in-chief of the Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary and Professor of History, Emeritus, Washington University, St. Louis. He translated The Rudashevsky Diary, which was published as the November, 2024, issue of The Jewish Quarterly.

אַ כּ‫תיבֿה וחתימה טובֿה!

Featured Announcements for Rosh Hashona:

• Greetings on behalf of the League for Yiddish / די ייִדיש-ליגע by Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, Board Chair. Recorded Sept. 9, 2025.
• Greetings on behalf of the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants of Greater Boston, featuring members Mary Ehrlich, Rosalie Reszelbach and Tania Lefman (Treasurer). Recorded Sept. 9 and 10, 2025.
• Greetings from Eli Dovek ז״ל, late proprietor of our sponsor Israel Bookshop, Brookline, MA. Recorded in 2009.
• Greetings on behalf of the Boston Workers Circle / דער באָסטאָנער אַרבעטער-רינג by Libe Gritz. Recorded Sept. 17, 2025.
• Greetings by The Yiddish Voice co-hosts Leye Schporer-Leavitt, Sholem Beinfeld and Dovid Braun. Recorded Sept. 17, 2025.<...