• 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 International Brigades who took part. Deborah's new translation into English is Journey Through the Spanish Civil War. We reached Deborah by Zoom on Aug. 7, 2025.

• The interviewer Sholem Beinfeld is co-editor-in-chief of the Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary and Professor of History, Emeritus, Washington University, St. Louis. He translated The Rudashevsky Diary, which was published as the November, 2024, issue of The Jewish Quarterly.

• In the second half of our show, we present two recordings from our archive in memory of 12 August 1952 and the execution of leading Jewish figures by the Soviet authorities: (1) Yosef Lakhman (in memory of the victims of 12 August 1952, originally aired in 2010) and (2) Interview with Gennady Estraikh about the 12 August 1952 events and their memorialization in the years since (originally aired in 2012).

• Related links:

  • About page at Fighting Fascism: https://jewsfightingfascism.com/about/
  • Book: Journey Through the Spanish Civil War

• Music:

  • Emil Gorovets: Ikh Bin a Yid
  • Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS from Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz

Air Date: August 13, 2025

• 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 released on YouTube, Spotify and most other platforms. We reached her by phone at her home in the New York City area on Aug. 6, 2025. Related links:

  • Home page: https://rikirose.com
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riki_rose
  • X (Twitter): https://x.com/Riki_Rose
  • Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@therikirose
  • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@riki_rose
  • Upcoming performance Aug. 24 in NYC/UWS: https://www.instantseats.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.event&eventID=F6B95EE0-ABD8-F36E-F1507EED3192742C

• Music:

  • Riki Rose: Galus Blues
  • Riki Rose: Utem Arein Utem Arois
  • Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS from Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz

Air Date: August 6, 2025

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. Unfortunately, that house was destroyed in the LA fires of January 2025. Marvin and his wife, Kathy Kohner Zuckerman, have since relocated to a rental apartment in Santa Monica, where we conducted this follow-up interview on June 26, 2025. In this conversation, Zuckerman reflects on the devastating fire and shares further insights from his remarkable and multifaceted life.

Zuckerman was raised in the Yiddish-speaking milieu of the Jewish Labor Bund in the Bronx, New York. He later became a professor of English at a Los Angeles college and co-authored the well-regarded Yiddish textbook Learning Yiddish in Easy Stages as well as several other works in the field of Yiddish. He also translated the memoir of prominent Bundist Bernard Goldstein, Twenty Years with the Jewish Labor Bund: A Memoir of Interwar Poland (Purdue University Press, 2016). His latest book is Dickinson in Yiddish & Other Essays & Translations (Brass Tacks Press, 2024).

• Music:
  • Sveta Kundish & Patrick Farrell: Ikh un di Velt (words by Avrom Reyzen)
  • Ida Gillner & Livet Nord:Mayn heym – Mitt hem (words by Anna Margolin; Swedish translation by Beila Engelhardt Titelman)
  • Levyosn: Fisher-Lid (words by Aliza Greenblatt)
  • Levyosn: Fun der Khupe / Moh Rabu / Kleyne Printsesin
  • Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS from Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz

Air Date: July 15, 2025