Yiddish

Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, toward the end of the Ottoman Empire's control over Palestine.

Before Zionism: The shared life of Jews and Palestinians

Before the advent of Zionism and Arab nationalism, Jews and Palestinians lived in peace in the holy land. Menachem Klein’s new book maps out an oft-forgotten history of Israel/Palestine, and offers some guidance on how we may go back to that time. By Noam Rotem Menachem Klein’s book, Lives in Common: Arabs and Jews in…

By +972 Magazine April 4, 2016

A pro-Israel rally, Washington D.C, July 18, 2014 (photo: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Overcoming Jewish America’s Israel fantasy

The idea of Israel has long been an integral part of Jewish-American identity. But with a generational change among American Jews and increasingly stark political differences with Israel’s leadership, could this be the dawn of a new era? Last summer Michael Oren, who served as Israel’s ambassador to the United States from 2009-13, blithely offended virtually…

By Lisa Goldman December 31, 2015

The Israel-Palestine Lorde Diaries, chapter 12: Never be Royals?

When the going gets tough, the only way to move forward is to think differently. Following the disheartening drive from the South, the Lorde tribute project picks a new direction. Part 12 of 15. To read the rest of the series, click here. Friday was the last day of the rainy spell. The brave editor of…

By Yuval Ben-Ami February 23, 2015

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A sign marks the entrance to Birobidjan. (Photo by Yakov Rabkin)

A land without a people?: A visit to Russia’s Jewish autonomous region

A visit to Birobidzhan, where Jewish autonomy hasn’t exactly worked out — and yet, the sign for Lenin Street is still written in Yiddish and public monuments commemorate Sholem Aleichem. By Yakov Rabkin Last summer, after three months of teaching in Japan, I decided to return home to Montreal via Birobidzhan, in Russia’s Far East. The Jewish Autonomous…

By +972 Magazine December 15, 2014

A Ukrainian klezmer wedding band, ca. 1925 (Menakhem Kipnis/Yivo Encyclopedia)

Mizrahi culture was suppressed, Ashkenazi culture is simply forgotten

Since the founding of the State of Israel, the Ashkenazi elite has suppressed the Mizrahi culture Jews from Arab countries brought with them. But almost without us noticing, those who led the Zionist project also erased whatever was left of the Ashkenazi traditions from Eastern Europe. By Edan Ring Family Day was no different from…

By Cafe Gibraltar April 29, 2013

Yitzhak Luden stands in the Yiddish community center
(photo: Alon Aviram) 14th November 2012

Remember the Jewish Labor Bund?

The Bund was a Jewish socialist, revolutionary party in Eastern Europe dedicated to class struggle. It is all but forgotten in modern day Israel, but a few members are still around to tell the story. By Alon Aviram A piano played and a middle-aged woman stood in the middle of the room singing classical Yiddish…

By +972 Magazine November 25, 2012