Highlights:

• Mikhl Yashinsky (מיכל יאַשינסקי), a multifaceted actor, playwright, director, lyricist, translator and Yiddishist, discusses his translation of the new bookAdventures of Max Spitzkopf: The Yiddish Sherlock Holmes by Jonas Kreppel, originally written by Jonas Kreppel in Yiddish and recently published in English translation (October, 2025) by White Goat Press. Publisher's page: https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/about/white-goat-press-0/jonas-kreppel For more info on Mikhl Yashinsky visit: https://yashinsky.com

• The interviewer, Lillian ("Leah") Shporer-Leavitt, is a frequent cohost of The Yiddish Voice and an experienced Yiddish translator and teacher. She has taught Yiddish for many years at various institutions in the Boston area, including Workers Circle and Gann Academy.

• Music:

  • Moishe Oysher: Blessing the Chanukah Candles
  • Ikh Bin a Kleyner Dreydl
  • Pripetshik Singers: Kh'Bin a Dreydl
  • Marthe Schlamme: Chanuke o Chanuke
  • Pripetshik Singers: Akht Likhtelekh
  • Sidor Belarsky: O, Ir Kleyne Lichtelech
  • Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS from Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz

Air date: November 19, 2025

Highlights:

• Rabbi Zach Golden (זכריה גאָלדן) was ordained at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles in 2020. He is the co-founder of Der Nister Downtown Jewish Center and previously served as Deputy Editor at the Forverts Yiddish newspaper. He is the co-founder of Los Angeles Yiddish Day 2025, which takes place Sunday, November 23, 2025, on the campus of Hebrew Union College near Downtown Los Angeles. For information and registration, visit: LAYiddish.org We interviewed Zach in person at a meeting of the West Hollywood Yiddish Shmues-Krayz in Los Angeles on Sunday, November 9, 2025.

• From our archive: Rukhl Schaechter (שׂרה-רחל שעכטער), editor of Forverts (a/k/a the Yiddish Forward, פֿאָרווערטס), online at forward.com/yiddish, reflects on 25 years with this Yiddish institution, originally as a writer and now as its editor. She spoke with us on Zoom from her home in Yonkers on Nov. 24, 2024. The Forward celebrated her anniversary with a Celebrate Our Rukhl event in New York, NY, on Weds., Dec. 4, 2024. Info: https://www.pages.forward.com/rukhl-celebration (A longer version of this interview originally aired Nov. 27, 2024.)

• Music:

  • Sidi Tal:Nokhemke Mayn Zun
  • Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS from Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz

Air date: November 12, 2025

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.
  • 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