#yiddishkeit

✨ Khanike iz freylekh! ✨ Khanike iz sheyn! ✨ Khanike iz yontef far groys un far kleyn. A khanike-lempl mit likhtelekh akht; Tsindt men di likhtelekh a nakht nokh a nakht. Likhtlekh aun dreydl aun khanike gelt! Ts’iz yontef bay yid'n af der gantser velt!

(Khanike is happy! Khanike is beautiful! Khanike is a holiday for big and small. A Khanike lamp with eight little candles — you light the candles night after night. Candles and dreidles and Khanike money! It’s a holiday for Jews all over the world!)

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My attempt at a more historically-informed banner representing the historical Jewish Labour Bund. The most common one I see all over the internet features a black square inside of a yellow ring on a red background. I have looked for the origin of this flag and basically everywhere it’s posted there’s at least one comment asking something like “Where does this flag come from? When did the Bund use it?” and every time there is no answer, so now I’m just assuming that this is not in-fact a flag that wast ever historically used by the Bund, because I cannot for the life of me find any evidence for such a thing.

Ever heard of a Black Wedding held in a cemetery to ward off plagues? Or the Schulklopfer knocking on windows to wake the people for morning prayer?

Here’s a sneak peek at two work-in-progress illustrations from our "Jewish Folklore of Eastern Europe" zine! 📖 Help us bring these forgotten stories to life by supporting the project.

We are getting so close to our goal! 🎯 Remember: by backing a reward, you are actively pre-ordering your own physical or digital copy of the zine.

a two-panel page from my comic-in-progress, hard core drugs

She heard about the book bc apparently the translator is a friend of someone on her IT Security Slack, and she figured I'd like it.

And... I do. I very much do. It's a quick read, and it definitely has A Point Of View - which is ofc not surprising, in context of the author's life & beliefs. (Ben Gold was the head of the Furrier's Union in NYC at the time when the union won the first 40-hour, 5-day work week contract in the United States in 1926. This is the contract that started that standard.) It is both a snapshot of life in the Pale of Settlement & in immigrant NYC radical leftist organizing in the early 20th century. As with all books that I really love, this book knows exactly what it is and does that thing 200% without apology.

The translator, Annie Sommer Kaufman, does an excellent job of preserving the feel of Yiddish text. Yiddish has a very lyrical flow to it that's unmistakable once you're accustomed to it, and you'll find it clearly preserved here. (Also, Kaufman appears on the late November episode of the Proste Yiddish/Simple Yiddish podcast, a podcast that allows Yiddish learners to practice listening to spoken Yiddish. If you speak Yiddish or are trying to learn, I definitely recommend at least that episode!)

How do y'all stay observant in places where walking to shul on shabbos is a whole ordeal, kosher food is prohibitively expensive, and working a job makes davening (especially davening with a minyan) difficult?

I love the Barry Sisters version. For comparison, here's the 1938 original, performed by Molly Picon (US actor, given name Malka Opiekun) in the Polish film Mamale:

More on the Barry Sisters

More on Molly Picon