Yitskhok Niborski: Yiddish at Medem, Paris; Leana Jelen: Yidish-Vokh

Yitskhok Niborski was born in Buenos Aires in
1947 and raised in a Yiddishist, secular family. He attended
the Yiddish schools that then thrived in Buenos Aires and the
Yiddish teachers' training academy (Lerer-Seminar),
specializing in Yiddish literature. He moved to Paris in 1979
to take up a position as Director of the Medem Library while
also teaching at the prestigious Ecole Nationale des Etudes
Orientales. He remained at the head of the Medem Library for
over thirty years, helping to turn the Medem Library-Paris
Yiddish Center into one of the most active Yiddish institutions
in the world. He has devoted his entire adult life to Yiddish
education: in elementary schools, in classes for adults, and in
universities. He participated in publishing several Yiddish
dictionaries and textbooks, nobably the Verterbukh fun
Loshn-koydesh Shtamike Verter in Yidish (first edition 1997)
and the Dictionnaire Yiddish-Français (Yiddish-French
Dictionary) (2002), both published by the Medem Library-Paris
Yiddish Center. He has also written and published over twenty
poems in Yiddish. See also:

Medem Library-Paris Yiddish Center home page:
http://www.yiddishweb.com/



The interviews are conducted by Sholem
Beinfeld, who is Professor Emeritus of History at
Washington University in St. Louis, and is perhaps best known as
Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Comprehensive Yiddish-English
Dictionary (Arumnemik Yidish-English Verterbukh), as well as a
translator of Yiddish texts and creator of new subtitles for
classic Yiddish movies. The Dictionary is based on the
Yiddish-French Dictionary edited by Yitskhok Niborski and
published by the Medem Library/Paris Yiddish Center. Sholem's
connection with the Medem Library goes back many decades,
beginning with his Fulbright Fellowship in Paris as a graduate
student.

Today's show continues our series of interviews with
activists on the Yiddish scene around the Paris Yiddish
Center-Medem Library, which began Wednesday June 12 2019
with an interview with Ri J. (Reyze) Turner. Tonight's guest:
Yitskhok Niborski

Other interviewees in this series are Ri J. (Reyze) Turner,
whose interview was aired on June 12 2019, and Gilles Rozier,
whose interview will be aired on an upcoming program, to be
announced.

Note: watch for bonus podcast soon: we ran low on time, so
not all of Niborski's interview could be aired at this time, so
we'll put out the remainder in a bonus podcast.

Also: a talk with Leana Jelen, the
Activities Coordinator for Yidish-Vokh, the annual summer Yiddish
immersion summer camp organized by Yugntruf - Youth for Yiddish.
See also:

Yidish-Vokh: https://yugntruf.org/yvokh/



Music

Leyke Post: Yiddish Redt Zikh Azoy Sheyn (Yiddish Sounds
So Beautiful), accompanied by Rubin Ossofsky

Jan Pierce: Mai-Ko-Mashma-Lon



Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental
track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz



Air date: June 26, 2019