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yiddish

A Yiddish ‘Fiddler’ to Honor Aleichem

Actor and Yiddish-language true believer Theodore Bikel grew up in prewar Europe, with German as his first language and Yiddish a quick second, partly due to his father reading his family Sholom Aleichem stories every Tuesday night.

All by Himself

Few performers have the talent and magnetism to carry a one-person show by singing old Broadway show tunes, sentimental ballads and Yiddish classics. But Mandy Patinkin, the Tony and Emmy Award-winning showman, consistently entertains, even electrifies, the most urbane audiences singing his eclectic mix of popular songs, usually sharing the stage only with his piano player and a flowering pot or two.

UJ Stages ‘The Quarrel’

About 10 years ago, give or take a year, I was invited to director Arthur Hiller\’s home to attend a reading of a work in progress. About 80 to 100 people turned out and listened raptly as two wonderful actors, script in hand, read the work in progress. It was a play called \”The Quarrel,\” written by two friends, David Brandes and Rabbi Joseph Telushkin and based on a short story by Yiddish writer Chaim Grade. I mean no exaggeration when I say that everyone seated in Hiller\’s spacious living area knew they were listening to a play that was special.

Radio Yiddish

When she was 16, KCRW General Manager Ruth Seymour was captivated by her studies with the Yiddish scholar Max Weinreich. \”Yiddish is magic,\” he told her. \”It will outwit history.\”

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