Blogs

Was Christopher Columbus Jewish and did he speak Judeo-Spanish (Ladino)?

Regardless of your stance on Columbus Day, recent news shed light on a fascinating possibility: Christopher Columbus, traditionally hailed as Italian, might have had Sephardic Jewish heritage….

Oleg Tsank

Oleg Tsank, a Ukrainian-born artist, creates vibrant paintings that blend the literal and nonrepresentational. His work is influenced by his heritage and classical artists like Chagall and Soutine……

Miriam Libhaber

Our featured painter of the month is Miriam Libhaber. You can view her Yiddishland exhibit at UC San Diego Hillel in La Jolla. Discover how her Yiddishkeit roots and Mexican heritage shaped her unique artistic voice….

Yiddish, Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), and Claudia Sheinbaum

Recently, we received the news about Mexico’s new president being elected, Claudia Sheinbaum. With this Yiddish-sounding name, many are wondering about her family background. Let us bring to your attention a bit about her heritage and the linguistic aspects of her family background….

What was or what is Yiddishland? 

What volunteering for YAAANA and Yiddishland California has taught me is that, while academics argue about the intricacies of the Yiddish language and write brilliant books and dictionaries, the general Jewish American population still, for multiple reasons, is foreign to  the Yiddish past of their ancestors….

“The City without Jews” – Facebook without Jews? Personal Reflections from Mexican Exile

Time to get serious, folks, and not num things down so much. I feel blessed to be writing this from Mexico where Yiddishland in exile is enjoying a relatively peaceful existence… Yiddishland’s friends and Jewish institutions back in the United States report to us countless incidents of antisemitism….