The 'Yiddish Voice' Podcast
by Yiddish Voice ייִדיש קול
Podcast of The Yiddish Voice, a weekly hour-long Yiddish-language radio show heard in the Boston area Wednesdays, 7:30 - 8:30 PM, on WUNR 1600 AM/Brookline, MA (USA) and live-streamed via yiddishvoice.com״דאָס ייִדישע קול״ איז אַ וועכנטלעכע ראַדיאָ פּראָגראַם אויף ייִדיש און אַ פּאָדקאַסט אויך. אגבֿ, ייִדיש שרײַבט מען אויך יידיש אָדער אידיש. הערט זיך צו און האָט הנאה!
Episodes
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Israeli Elections: Daniel Galay, Avremi Zaks, Leybl Botwinik
Highlights: The upcoming Israeli elections are discussed in unhurried conversations with three frequent guests of The Yiddish Voice: Daniel Galay (דניאל גלאי) is a composer, pianist, playwright, writer, educator and Yiddish activist, and Chairman of Leyvik House, the Yiddish cultural center in…
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Rosh Hashona with Maimon, Beinfeld, Braun, Mahalel, Breslow
Happy New Year! אַ גוט געבענטשט יאָר Highlights: Rabbi Nasan Maimon discusses Rosh Hashona generally and with the Breslever Chassidim in particular. We reached him on Tues., Sept. 8, via WhatsApp in Bucharest, Romania, which he was passing through on his way Uman, Ukraine. Maimon’s website…
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Moshe Lobel: SHTTL
Happy New Year! אַ גוט געבענטשט יאָר Highlights: Moshe Lobel is interviewed about the film SHTTL, in which he plays the leading role. Lobel and Adi Walter (writer/director) will appear in person at showings in New York City Sunday, Sept. 6, and Monday, Sept. 7, 2026, at New Plaza Cinema – Info:...
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Hannah Pollin-Galay: Occupied Words
Happy New Year! אַ גוט געבענטשט יאָר Highlights: Prof. Hannah Pollin-Galay is interviewed about the impact of the Holocaust on the Yiddish language and her most recent book Occupied Words: What the Holocaust Did to Yiddish (U Penn Press, 2024), which explores how Yiddish changed to express and...
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Ruth Wisse: Free as a Jew
Highlights: Prof. Ruth Wisse discusses her life and work, the subject of her memoir Free as a Jew: A Personal Memoir of National Self-Liberation (Wicked Son, 2021). She recalls encounters with Leonard Cohen, Itzik Manger and Isaac Bashevis Singer, and she reads excerpts from her book (in English)...
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Rabbi Nasan Maimon: His Life, Breslov Torah, Tisha B’ov
Highlights: Rabbi Nasan Maimon discusses his life and work, Breslover Chassidism and Tisha B’Ov, which is to begin this evening actually during our radio broadcast. His website, Breslov Torah, features his and others’ teachings on Breslov Chassidus. From our archive: presentation on Tisha B’Ov by...
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Anna Halberstam Rubin; Sholem Beinfeld: America Celebrates 250 Years
Highlights: Our co-host Sholem Beinfeld, who is Professor of History, Emeritus, Washington University, St. Louis, gives a historic, and Jewish, perspective on the United States of America in observance of the upcoming 4th of July, 2026, holiday. Later in the program, we play a series of songs in...
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Lea Koenig and Yaniv Goldberg on Yiddish Theater
Interview with Lea Koenig (ליאַ קעניג), one of Israel’s most beloved stage actresses, together with Yaniv Goldberg, author of The Stage of Her Life: Conversations with Actress Lea Koenig on Theater and Her Life. The program focuses on Koenig’s long career in Yiddish theater as well as Israeli...
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Trailer: Lea Koenig Interview Excerpt
Preview excerpt of our upcoming full episode featuring special guest Lea Koenig (ליִאַ קעניג) interviewed by special guest co-host Mikhl Yashinsky (מיכל יאַשינסקי), which was recorded on Zoom on May 6, 2026, with Lea in Israel and Mikhl in Australia. The full episode, also featuring special guest...
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Leybl Botwinik on Israel at War for Yom Hazikaron & Yom Haatsmaut
HIGHLIGHTS On the day of Israel Independence Day (Yom Haatsmaut) and one day after Israel’s Memorial Day (Yom Hazikaron), we welcome back Leybl Botwinik to talk about life in Israel while at war against Iran. Leybl Botwinik is a writer of science fiction, poetry and songs (in both Yiddish and...
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Joe Szwarcberg; Pesach 2026; Rabbi Teitelbaum
We wish all our cohosts, sponsors and friends a Happy and Kosher Pesach. מיר ווינטשן אַלע אונדזערע אונטערשטיצער, פֿרײַנד און באַטייליקטע אַ פֿריילעכן און כּשרן פּסח HIGHLIGHTS: We welcome back Rabbi Yitzchok-Boruch Teitelbaum, known in his Monroe, NY, community as der Pshischer Rebbe, for Pesach...
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Miriam Udel on Yiddish Children's Literature; Sholem Beinfeld on World Events
Highlights: Yiddish Voice co-host Sholem Beinfeld shares his commentary on the latest world events, including the Iran-Israel-USA war and the Russia-Ukraine war, from a Jewish perspective. Sholem spoke to us by phone from his home in Cambridge, MA, on Mar. 11, 2026. Emory University professor...
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Avremi Zaks on Iran Israel US War
This week, Avremi Zaks, presenter for Israel’s Kan Yiddish (כאן יידיש) radio show, covers Israel’s current military operation “Lion’s Roar” and related matters. We reached Avremi in Jerusalem via WhatsApp on Purim, March 3, 2026, Boston time, and Erev Shushan Purim, after sundown in Israel, the...
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Dovid Fishman: The War in Ukraine: Jewish News
Dr. David E. Fishman (דוד-אליהו פֿישמאַן), historian and writer, talks about his substack “The War in Ukraine: Jewish News” (davidfishman.substack.com). Coming out about every two weeks since November 2024, this substack has covered the brutal Russia-Ukraine war, which began four years ago, from…
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International Holocaust Remembrance Day with Survivor Adela Dagerman
In observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day we’re airing an interview with Holocaust survivor Adela Dagerman. Adela (born Adela Kraus) grew up in Nyírbátor, Hungary. In 1944, as a 16-year-old, she and her family were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. She and her sister Rose survived....
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Alex Dafner on the Massacre at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia
Happy Hanukkah ! אַ פֿרײלעכן חנוכּה Our normally happy Hanukkah programming was overshaddowed by the horrific massacre of Jews at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia’s Bondi Beach. We spoke with Alex Dafner, Australia’s main Yiddish radio presenter the past 40 years and a leading Yiddish...
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Sender Botwinik on New CD and Hanukkah Songs
Happy Hanukkah ! אַ פֿרײלעכן חנוכּה Highlights: Sender Botwinik (סענדער באָטװיניק), music and Yiddish teacher, chorus director and Yiddishist, discusses the new CD he produced and publishedZumer iz Shoyn Vider Do – זומער איז שוין ווידער דאָ featuring the music of his late father Dovid Botwinik…
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Mikhl Yashinsky, Translator of Max Spitzkopf, the Yiddish Sherlock Holmes
Highlights: Mikhl Yashinsky (מיכל יאַשינסקי), a multifaceted actor, playwright, director, lyricist, translator and Yiddishist, discusses his new English translation of Adventures of Max Spitzkopf: The Yiddish Sherlock Holmes by Jonas Kreppel, published by White Goat Press in October 2025....
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Zach Golden: Yiddish Activist in Los Angeles
Highlights: Rabbi Zach Golden (זכריה גאָלדן) was ordained at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles in 2020. He is the co-founder of Der Nister Downtown Jewish Center and previously served as Deputy Editor at the Forverts Yiddish newspaper. He is the co-founder of Los Angeles…
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Remembering Ben Lesser
As our show aired Erev Yom Kippur, we again presented excerpts of our past interviews on The Yiddish Voice/דאָס ייִדישע קול with Holocaust survivors who died during the past year. Since our previous episode, we’ve lost Ben Lesser, who died the first day of Rosh Hashona, so we were unable to…
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Remembering Aron Bell (Bielski), Natan Gipsman, Judy Altmann, Zoli Langer
We are again airing excerpts of interviews with Holocaust survivors, past guests of The Yiddish Voice/דאָס ייִדישע קול who died during the past year. Since our previous episode, we’ve lost Ben Lesser, who died the first day of Rosh Hashona, so we were unable to include this in our previous week’s...
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Shmuel Bak, Painter and Holocaust Survivor from Vilna
Shmuel Bak (Samuel Bak), the internationally renowned artist and Holocaust survivor, presented in a lengthy conversation with his friend, The Yiddish Voice co-host Sholem Beinfeld. Excerpts from Pucker Gallery’s page about Bak: *Samuel Bak was born in Vilna, Poland in 1933, at a crucial moment in...
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Matty Mendlowitz: Multisingual on YouTube
Matty Mendlowitz runs the YouTube channel Multisingual, featuring Yiddish-language vlogs of her travels, deep dives into world languages (especially Yiddish and its history and grammar, with a focus on contemporary Chassidic Yiddish), Disney clips dubbed into Yiddish, and much more engaging...
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Marc Caplan: A Complete Unknown and Bob Dylan; Yiddish Charlie on the MTA
Charlie on the MTA in Yiddish is performed by Yiddishists from Boston’s Arbeter Ring and exclusively recorded for The Yiddish Voice on Labor Day, Sept. 1, 2025, in Medford, MA. All of the following sang, with additional contributions noted: ליליע װײַצמאַן — Lily Weitzman · איבערזעצונג און נײַע...
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Deborah A. Green: Jews Who Fought in the Spanish Civil War
Deborah A. Green (דבֿורה גרין)— author, historian, translator, Yiddishist and retired litigator — discusses her translation of the late Yiddish journalist S. L. Schneiderman’s book קריג אין שפּאַניען about the Spanish Civil War, with an emphasis on the outsized role of Jews among the…
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Riki Rose
Riki Rose (ריקי רױז) — who works as a singer, songwriter and comic in both Yiddish and English — discusses her life and career. She’s built up a substantial following over the past several years through concerts and social media performances. Her latest recording, גלות Blues, has just been…
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Marvin Zuckerman: A Revisit Since LA Fires
This week, we present our second interview in the past year and a half with Marvin Zuckerman. Our first took place in his warm and welcoming home in LA’s Pacific Palisades, where the walls were adorned with beautiful paintings and lined with bookshelves holding thousands of volumes.…
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Adi Mahalel: Yiddish Language & Literature Scholar; Avremi Zaks: Latest on Israel's Wars
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…
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Leybl Botwinik, Sholem Beinfeld, Avremi Zaks on Israel Iran War
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...
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Leybl Botwinik, Yetta Kane (Pt. 2)
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…
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Samuel Kassow on Rokhl Auerbach's "Warsaw Testament"
Samuel Kassow is interviewed by Sholem Beinfeld about Rokhl Auerbach and her book Warsaw Testament („וואַרשעווער צוואָות“), which Kassow translated into English. The interview was by Zoom on May 30, 2025, with Kassow and Beinfeld at their homes in Connecticut and Cambridge, MA, respectively.…
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Samuel Kassow on Rokhl Auerbach's 'Warsaw Testament'
Samuel Kassow is interviewed by Sholem Beinfeld about Rokhl Auerbach and her book Warsaw Testament („וואַרשעווער צוואָות“), which Kassow translated into English. The interview was by Zoom on May 30, 2025, with Kassow and Beinfeld at their homes in Connecticut and Cambridge, MA, respectively.…
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Avremi Zaks: Israel Analysis and Opinions; Miriam Libenson (z"l): Lag B'Omer
Highlights: On Lag B'Omer by Miriam Libenson ז״ל from our archive from the 1990's. A report from Israel by Yiddish radio presenter Avremi Zaks, host of the Kan Yiddish כאן יידיש radio show in Israel. We reached Avremi in Jerusalem via Zoom on May 8, 2025. Music: Tova Ben-Zvi: Lag B'Oimer Tova...
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Avremi Zaks: Israel Analysis and Opinions; Miriam Libenson (z'l): Lag B'Omer
Highlights: On Lag B’Omer by Miriam Libenson ז״ל from our archive from the 1990’s. A report from Israel by Yiddish radio presenter Avremi Zaks, host of the Kan Yiddish כאן יידיש radio show in Israel. We reached Avremi in Jerusalem via Zoom on May 8, 2025. Music: Tova Ben-Zvi: Lag B’Oimer Tova...
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Yom HaShoah 5785 with Arthur Schneier, Yetta Kane
This week’s show is in observance of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Highlights: Rabbi Arthur Schneier, Holocaust survivor, world-renowned human rights activist, and senior rabbi of Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue for more than fifty years, shares his wartime memories of the Carpathian…
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Pesach 5785 with Yitzchok-Boruch Teitelbaum, Moshe Moskovitz
This week’s highlights: We welcome back Rabbi Yitzchok-Boruch Teitelbaum, known in his Monroe, NY, community as der Pshischer Rebbe, for Pesach greetings and words of wisdom. We meet Chazan Dr. Moshe Moskovitz, the High Holiday cantor at Los Angeles’s Congregation Shaarei Tefila, to discuss his...
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Purim 5785 with Londner, Baker, Segal, Lakhman, Libenson, Hollender, Friedman
Happy Purim ! אַ פֿריילעכן פּורים Highlights: Sholem Londner: 2 jokes for Purim Shane Baker: Yiddish story for Purim: Drunk All Year, Sober on Purim אַ גאַנץ יאָר שיכּור, פּורים ניכטער Used with the permission of Shane Baker and the Congress for Jewish Culture, originally released on YouTube in...
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Beinfeld (New): Trump 2; Schaechter (Encore): 25 Years at Forverts
Highlights: Sholem Beinfeld, regular co-host of The Yiddish Voice and professor emeritus at Washington University, St. Louis, shares thoughts on the new Trump administration as of March 5, 2025, one day after President Trump’s first speech to Congress of his second administration. Rukhl…
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Benyomen Moss: An Unchosen People
This week on The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול, we featured an in-depth conversation with historian Benyomen Moss (Kenneth B. Moss), the Harriet and Ulrich E. Meyer Professor of Jewish History at the University of Chicago. He spoke with Sholem Beinfeld, professor emeritus at Washington...
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80th Anniversary of Auschwitz Liberation: 4 Survivor Interviews from Our Archive
In honor of International Holocaust Memorial Day, which this January 27, 2025, marks 80 years since the Soviet Red Army liberated the Auschwitz death camp, we present interviews in Yiddish from your archive with four survivors of Auschwitz. As of the broadcast date all were alive and well to the...
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Sholom Ber Diskin, Shulem Londner on LA Fires; Kolya Borodulin on Winter in Yiddishland; New Yiddish Music
Episode Highlights Air date: January 15, 2025 Rabbi Sholom Ber Diskin A shaliach at Chabad of Pacific Palisades, Rabbi Diskin shares his first-hand experience of surviving the Los Angeles wildfires that destroyed his home. He discusses the ongoing relief efforts he and his team are leading. We...
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Arele Schaechter Viswanath: Harry Potter un di Kamer fun Soydes
Arele Schaechter Viswanath, the translator of the Harry Potter book series into Yiddish, was interviewed about, and read excerpts from, his translation of the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which was recently published by Olniansky Press (Sweden, 2024) under the Yiddish…
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Moyshe Hoffman: Hoffy's Restaurant
Highlights: Moyshe Hoffman, proprietor of Hoffy’s Kosher Restaurant in Antwerp, Belgium, where you can “enjoy Yiddish traditional cuisine”. He talks about his restaurant, some personal and family history, and a bit about Yiddish life in Antwerp. We interviewed Moyshe Hoffman at Hoffy’s on Nov.…
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Rukhl Schaechter: 25 Years at the Forverts
Highlights: Rukhl Schaechter (שׂרה-רחל שעכטער), editor of Forverts (a/k/a the Yiddish Forward, פֿאָרווערטס), online at forward.com/yiddish, reflects on 25 years with this Yiddish institution, originally as a writer and now as its editor. She spoke with us on Zoom from her home in Yonkers on Nov....
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Abraham Friedman from Di Tzeitung; Unaired Outtakes: Prof. Shmuel Kassow (2017), Kutzik, Forman (2021)
Highlights: Abraham Friedman (אבֿרהם פֿרידמאַן), publisher of Di Tzeitung (די צייטונג), a major weekly newspaper in the Chareidi world, especially among the Chassidic community in New York. In this interview he talks about what his newspaper offers, discusses current events recently covered by…
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Erev Yom Kippur with Teitelbaum + October 7 Anniversary with Zaks, Galay, Trinh
אַ גמר חתימה טובֿה! און אַ גוט געבענטשט יאָר! Highlights: Rabbi Itzik-Boruch Teitelbaum (Monroe, NY), known as Der Pshiskher Rov, with a vort for erev Yom Kippur. We reached him by phone at his home in Monroe on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024 Interviews with Israelis about Oct. 7, one year on. Avremi…
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Erev Rosh Hashona with Novershtern, Sharfstein, Teitelbaum, et al
אַ כּתיבֿה וחתימה טובֿה! Highlights: Avrom Novershtern (Israel) Professor Emeritus of Yiddish Literature, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. We reached him by phone on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. Eli Sharfstein (Israel) writer and poet. We reached him by phone in Greece, where he was stranded due to...
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Erev Rosh Hashona with Sutzkever Poetry Translated and Read by Richard Fein and Sholem Beinfeld
This week, greetings for Rosh Hashona from friends, participants, and sponsors of The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול, combined with a poetry reading by Richard Fein and Sholem Beinfeld. אַ גוט, געבענטשט יאָר אַלע אונדזערע צוהערער - לשנה טובֿה Highlights: Author and translator Richard J. Fein...
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Erev Rosh Hashona with Moshe Waldoks, Henry Slucki, et al
This week, greetings for Rosh Hashona from friends, participants, and sponsors of The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול, combined with an exciting new interviews with Rabbi Moshe Waldoks and Holocaust survivor Henry Slucki. אַ גוט, געבענטשט יאָר אַלע אונדזערע צוהערער לשנה טובֿה Highlights…
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Perl Teitelbaum, Teacher and Singer; Hy Wolfe, Actor and Singer
This week, interviews with Perl Teitelbaum and Hy Wolfe. We spoke with them in person at 2024 Yugntruf Yidish-Vokh in Copake, NY, on Aug. 21, 2024. Paula (Perl) Teitelbaum is a Yiddish language at Arbeter Ring, Yivo Institute, and elsewhere. She talked about a new technique she’s been using for...
About this show
Podcast of The Yiddish Voice, a weekly hour-long Yiddish-language radio show heard in the Boston area Wednesdays, 7:30 - 8:30 PM, on WUNR 1600 AM/Brookline, MA (USA) and live-streamed via yiddishvoice.com״דאָס ייִדישע קול״ איז אַ וועכנטלעכע ראַדיאָ פּראָגראַם אויף ייִדיש און אַ פּאָדקאַסט אויך. אגבֿ, ייִדיש שרײַבט מען אויך יידיש אָדער אידיש. הערט זיך צו און האָט הנאה!
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Yiddish Voice ייִדיש קול
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