• Adi Mehalel (עדי מהלאל) talks about teaching Yiddish language and literature at Univ. of Maryland and Yivo Summer Program and discusses the writers I. L. Peretz, the subject of his book The Radical Isaac: I. L. Peretz and the Rise of Jewish Socialism, and Hanan Ayalti, whose book Boom and Chains: A Yiddish Novel Set in Israel/Palestine is forthcoming with Mehalel's translation and introduction. Interviewed in New York City via Zoom on July 2, 2025. Book links:

  • Boom and Chains: https://wsupress.wayne.edu/9780814351802/
  • The Radical Isaac: https://sunypress.edu/Books/T/The-Radical-Isaac

• Avremi Zaks (אבֿרהמי זאַקס), host of the Kan Yiddish (כאן יידיש) radio show in Israel, discusses Israel's recent war with Iran and its ongoing war with Hamas. Interviewed in Jerusalem via Zoom on July 2, 2025. Archive of Kan Yiddish: https://www.kan.org.il/content/kan/kan-reka/p-10820/

• Music:

  • Yiddish songs about America, in honor of the July 4th Independence Day holiday:
    • Mandy Patinkin: American Tune
    • Aaron Lebedeff & Alexander Olshanetsky Orchestra:Vot ken you makh? Es iz Amerike!
    • Yiddish Philharmonic Chorus, directed by Binyumin Schaechter: Amerike di Prekhtike
  • Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS from Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz

Air Date: July 2, 2025

• Sholem Beinfeld (in Cambridge, MA, recorded by phone, June 26, 2025)

• Leybl Botwinik (in central Israel, recorded via Zoom, June 26, 2025)

• Avremi Zaks (recorded June 20, 2025, courtesy of Kan Israel radio (https://www.kan.org.il/content/kan/kan-reka/p-10820/))

• Music:

  • (Yiddish music performed by various artists)
  • Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS from Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz

Air Date: June 25, 2025

• Leybl Botwinik is a writer of science fiction, poetry and songs (in both Yiddish and English) who grew up in Montreal's vibrant Yiddish cultural scene. He is the son of the late Dovid Botwinik, a composer of Yiddish songs, music educator, and Yiddish activist, and the brother of Sender Botwinik, a Yiddish educator, choral director, and music producer. Now living in Israel, Leybl has passed on the Yiddish language and culture to his children. In this episode, he shares stories from his Yiddishist upbringing as well as personal experiences and reflections on the October 7 massacre. The interview was conducted via Zoom on May 30, 2025 (Erev Shabbos/Shvues).

• Rebbetzin Yetta Kane, a Holocaust survivor, grew up in Miadziol (Yiddish: Miadl – מיאַדל), a small town in Belarus. She recounts memories of her childhood and how her family survived the Holocaust by hiding in the forests of Belarus with the partisans. Yetta and her late husband, Rabbi and Cantor David Kane, co-authored the memoir How to Survive Anything: The Life Story of David and Yetta Kane. This is Part 2 of our interview, recorded at her home in the Los Angeles area on April 8, 2025. Part 1 aired on April 23, 2025.

• Music:

  • Chava Alberstein: Friling
  • Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS from Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz

Air Date: June 11, 2025