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This letter was tucked into a drawer in my maternal grandmother's, OBM, dresser. I believe it was written around 1933/34 when my uncle, OBM, a baby at that time, and his mother, my grandmother, were visiting her eldest brother and some cousins. If I'm right, this was a few years before my mom's birth in 1938.

While my matental grandparents eventually settled in Chicago after coming to the US, we had some family that settled a little bit earlier in Council Bluffs, Iowa, as well as Nebraska. A very different existence from the shtetl they left behind.

A proper translation of this note would be greatly appreciated.

Like on the street, can I just say 'enthshuldikt' to somebody if I want to ask them something. I want to make sure

Ok so I’m trying to learn Yiddish because it’s my family’s ancestral language and I was wondering if there’s any terms for indigenous tribes/nations/ ethnic groups/ languages of North America. The land I live on (Lenapehoking, or New Jersey) is part of the Lenape people’s land and I was trying to see if there were any words for the Lenape people in Yiddish and that also led me to realize there’s just not many terms for Native American tribes/languages/nations in Yiddish in general (at least from how much I’ve searched). So I’m just planning on making a Google doc with Yiddish translations I’ve made for indigenous groups and options for what they could be in Yiddish (eg. For the Cherokee people, I’d write the Yiddish transliteration of “Cherokee” and then “Tsalagi” (Cherokee word for Cherokee) in Yiddish). Let me know if any of you know any words as well.

Hello, I’m looking for someone who can help me translate from Yiddish.

While going through some old boxes that belonged to my grandmother and, before her, to her family, I found a letter that seems to be written in Yiddish. Could anyone help me translate this letter? 🥹 I would be so grateful!

I recently learned that Ayn Rand knew some Yiddish -- enough to use it to send a message from the United States to a relative in St. Petersburg, where she grew up.

It struck me today, as I was doing Duolingo Yiddish, that the name Galt, as in John Galt, has the same consonant sounds as געלט, and money is an association that would fit that character from Rand's "Atlas Shrugged."

The question is the vowel. How would that vowel have been pronounced in St. Petersburg in the early 20th century?

For that matter, how would the vowel in גאלד ("gold") have been pronounced? That association would also fit the character.

(Yes, given the association between Yiddish and left-wing politics, there's a certain irony in Rand's speaking Yiddish, and there'd be even more if she got John Galt's name there.)

Thank you!

I'm nearing the end of my first reading of Sutskevers Vilna-ghetto and prison poetry. Every line of verse is devastating.

It's taking me weeks to get through it. This is the most viscerally painful thing I have ever read.

Here is an attempt at an English translation of צום חבר which can be found on page 50 of the book, published in 1945. Nothing could compare to the Yiddish, but some of these lines are simply word-for-word translations that have much the same impact.

To My Friend

...Killed Friend

By the barbed fence,-

Still clutching by your heart

The meagre piece of bread.

Forgive me for my hunger

And forgive my spirit,-

I took a bite of your bread

Your bread dotted in blood.

Nameless Friend,

I already know what you are called:

May this bread in dots

Also be for you a comfort.

Like this people's nourishment

From the holy shine -

With this bread together

You are within me, inside.

Silent Friend,

I absorb you and live.

I demand an account of the world

Through each of my weavings.

If like you I will fall

By the barbed fence -

May a second person swallow

My word, like I, your bread.

If anybody has any notes or is familiar with an already extant English translation, please comment.

Thank you.

Today i purchased this collection of Kafka’s writings. What does the inscription say? Paul Tsirlve Jerusalem? Thanks for your help אָ

I saw this new film at a Jewish film festival last week and wanted to pass along the trailer:

https://youtu.be/3a1sqQpKYmw?si=MWpMqGngxO4Txil7

Letterboxd review: https://letterboxd.com/film/welcome-to-yiddishland/

It featured interviews and rehearsal & performance footage of some great contemporary Yiddish music and theatre in Germany and Australia – including the brilliant new adaptation of “Yentl” in Yiddish and English that played in Melbourne and Sydney this year, which might be getting a run in NYC next year. (I saw it twice and highly recommend it.)

The film is playing in various festivals and I’m not sure what kind of release it will get afterwards, but you can sign up for a notification for when it’s streaming in your region at JustWatch.com.

Hello friends!

I found this little gem but I don't speak Yiddish so I can't understand what's he's singing about. Could anybody provide a translation? Thank you in advance. :)

Simon Osovitzky - A yiddish liedl (Yiddish Song)

For some context...My partner had a friend who used to say a Yiddish phrase when they were boys (friends) and fighting. This phrase was supposed to remind them to just 'let it go' or stop fighting. This phrase sounded something like "Lezet Gain" or "le'ezov gei".

Can anyone help with the what the phrase actually sounds like in English and ideally too the accurate way to write it in Hebrew/Yiddish? Would be amazing if so...Thanks in advance.

I am going to work on a little translation project with a set of Yiddish letters by/to an immigrant family from Galicia, living in the American West around the turn of the century. What is your recommended dictionary to be my base reference?

I've been looking for the yiddish lyrics for this song, if anyone has the lyrics and translation please share! Thanks in advance!

So this will be onstage in NYC, in Yiddish with English supertitles, starting December 18th, 2024: https://mailchi.mp/150e6be0d2e7/basheviss-demons-3-tales-by-isaac-bashevis-singer

Hello,

I'm looking for an appropriate phrase for the concept of a "study circle," i.e. where people get together to read books and learn.

The KYU Yiddish dictionary suggested khevruse (חבֿרותא). Is that good? I also found "leyenkrayz" for "reading circle."

Is there something along the lines of "book club"?

Is there anything that would convey a political orientation (political study circle)?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

My family tied to buy a house but they wouldn’t sell because we were Jewish so the family sent a guy that wasn’t Jewish to buy it for us. And my uncle used a word he said you “you have to get a —- to make the purchase” but i can’t remember the word? This was in the 50s

I found this message written on the top of a postcard from my grandfather sent to his other, during my grandparents honeymoon. I’m just curious if anyone can translate what it says? I’m not sure if it’s from him to her or from her to him

היינט האב איך געלייענט בערך א האלבער פון די קאלעקציע איבערגעגעבן אין יאר 1945.

האלוואי אז אייך און איערע משפחות זענען זיכער און געזונט אט דאס פרייטיק-צו-נאכט.