אַ זיסן, כּשרן, געזונטן און פֿרײלעכן פּסח אײַך אַלעמען!

Annual Authority Prizes Ceremony

Every year, the National Authority for Yiddish Culture awards prizes to prominent figures in the fields of arts and literature who contribute significantly to Yiddish language and culture in Israel. In 2019, this ceremony took place on November 19 at the Einav Cultural Center, located at Ibn Gvirol St. 71, Tel Aviv, on the roof of the Gan Ha'ir compound.  

This time, the Authority's Public Council chose to bestow lifetime achievement awards upon the actress of Yiddish & Hebrew theaters Annabella Yaakov; veteran Yiddish teachers Rivka Reich and Esther Rozhansky.

Esther Rozhansky receiving the prize

Rivka Reich receiving the prize

Miri Yaakov receiving the prize for her mother Annabella

Ethel Niborsky receiving the first prize at the Yiddish short story content

Shiri Shapira receiving the second prize at the short story content

Raphael Halff receiving the third prize at the short story content

Violinist Chaya Livni

Singer Diana Zingerman

Singer Maxim Lewinsky accompanied by pianist Regina Dricker

Singer Chen Lachs with her pupil Eden

Notable Yiddish cultural figures born in March

Shalom Aleichem (born as Sholem Yakov Rabinovich March 2, 1859, in Pereyaslav, now Ukraine, and died May 13, 1916, in New York) was the greatest writer in the history of Yiddish literature.

Esther-Rochl Kamińska (née Halperin: born March 10, 1868, in Porazava, now Belarus, and died December 27, 1925, in Warsaw) was an outstanding actress in the Yiddish theater.

Solomon Michoels (born as Shloime Vovsi: March 16, 1890, in Dvinsk, now Daugavpils, Latvia, and died January 13, 1948, in Minsk) was the greatest actor and director in the history of Yiddish theater. He was brutally murdered by Stalinist agents.

Moyshe /Moses/ Kulbak (born March 20, 1896, in Smorgon, now Belarus, and died October 28, 1937, in Minsk) was a poet, playwright, and novelist. His most important works are: a three-volume novel "The Zelmenyaner"; dramas "Jacob Frank" and "Moshiach Ben Efraim"; a play "Boytre"; and a poem "Child-Harold from Disna". In 1928, Kulbak emigrated from independent Lithuania to the USSR, and ended up a victim of the Stalinist regime.

Isroel Axenfeld (born March 1787 in Nemirov, now Ukraine, and died in the summer of 1866 in Paris) was a prose writer of the Haskala (Enlightenment) era. He spent many years in Odessa. His works were distributed in manuscript form, but only two were printed, in Leipzig in 1861: "The Sterntichl" (the name of a traditional Jewish female head-covering) and "The First Jewish Recruit".

Berl Broder (born as Margulis in March 1815, in Brody, Galizia, now Ukraine, and died in 1868, in Carlsbad, Austro-Hungary, now Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic) was the founder of a group of Jewish folk singers called "Brodersingers". He toured with his vocal repertoire around the towns and shtetls of Romania and Ukraine.

YIVO [Yidishe Visnshaftlekhe Organizatsye] - the Institute for Jewish Research, founded on March 24, 1925 in Vilna (then Poland, now Vilnius, Lithuania) which preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia. It also undertakes varied studies related to the Yiddish language and its literature. Among its founders and directors were Max Weinreich, Zalman Reisen, Zelig Kalmanovich and Nochum Shtif. Shtif invested much energy in creating YIVO, but immediately after its opening moved to Kiev, where he headed the "competing" research organization established by the USSR authorities - and destroyed by them before WWII. Since 1940, the Institute has been based in New York. 

    Ya'akov Glatstein, American-Yiddish poet: "Talk to me in Yiddish, my Jewish land, and I'll certainly address you in Hebrew"

רעד צו מיר ייִדיש, מײַן ייִדיש לאַנד. 
און איך וועל צו דיר רעדן עבֿרית ממילא. 
אַבֿרהם מיט שׂרהן קומען מיר אַנטקעגן 
פֿון דער מערת־המכפּלה... 

 Because of the Corona epidemic, all our events are canceled or postponed till the dates to be announced later. 

Take care of your health - in Yiddish as well!

Coronavirus glossary from the Yiddish League

coronavirus pandemic די קאָראָ֜נאַ־ווי֜רוס־פּאַנדעמיע [DI KORÓNA-VÍRUS-PANDÉMYE]

containment zone די אײַ֜נהאַלט־<אײַ֜נצאַם־>זאָ֜נע, ־ס
[DI ÁYNHALT-<ÁYNTSAM->ZÓNE, -S]

For the year 2020, the Authority's Public Council chose to bestow lifetime achievement awards upon:

Dudu Fisher - singer, actor, cantor

Daniel Galay - composer

The Winners Of Israel’s Yiddish Story Contest

Israel’s National Authority for Yiddish Culture launched the first government-sponsored Yiddish-language writing contest ever held in the Jewish state. Ethel Niborsky, age 17, won the first prize for her short story “Letters to a Blind Grandfather,” for which she received an award of 3,000 shekels. The second prize, with an award of 1,500 shekels, went to Shira Shapira, 31, for her story “Three Widows.” Raphael Halff, 25, got the third prize: 1,000 shekels for “A Letter to the Mail.” These prizes were awarded during a ceremony in Tel Aviv on November 19, 2019.

Shiri Shapira, also a Jerusalem resident, is a literary translator who translates works from English, German and Yiddish into Hebrew; her translations include works by the Yiddish writers Deborah Fogel and Yisroel Rabon. She earned M.A. degrees in literary translation and Yiddish studies from the Hebrew University.

Raphael Halff, studying for M.A. in Yiddish at Tel Aviv University, is originally from Teaneck, New Jersey. He graduated with a joint degree from Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary. A former fellow at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, he made his literary debut in the last print issue of the Yiddish Forward in April 2019.

See the full article in the Forward newspaper.

In June 2019, the National Authority for Yiddish Culture in cooperation with the International Yiddish Center at the World Jewish Congress held a seminar on Yiddish language and culture in Vilnius, Lithuania. 15 Israeli students who are studying Yiddish culture and language in Israeli universities attended the event.

Yiddish Radio Show – also online

The National Authority for Yiddish Culture was established following the Knesset's resolution authorizing it in 1996. The Authority's mission includes:

* Deepening acquaintance with and increasing exposure of the Israeli public to Yiddish culture in all of its forms;

* Fostering research of Yiddish culture;

* Promoting the instruction of Yiddish language and literature;

* Encouraging the creation of contemporary works in Yiddish, including literature, poetry, theater, etc.

* Compiling, documenting and cataloguing oral folklore and written culture in Yiddish;

* Publishing selected works both in their original Yiddish versions and in Hebrew translation;

* Organizing events for people of all ages, transmitting Yiddish heritage from generation to generation.

The Authority's activities are focused mainly inside the State of Israel, but it also promotes collaboration with Yiddish cultural institutions around the world.

See two reports on our activity published in the leading Yiddish-language paper "Forverts", NY: from August 21, 2015 and from January 10, 2016.