Part 1: the post-war period to today

In Part 1, we meet three women (Carla, Rosa and Rosita) who grew up in vibrant post-war Jewish Sydney, among a community of Yiddish speakers, Bundists and performers. The women recall a time when the Folk Centre, a small club house for Yiddish speakers located in Bondi Junction, bustled with newly arrived refugees and migrants. Central to this period was Salo Sperling – the Singing Barber of Bondi. Sperling, born in the Yiddish-speaking heartland of Chernowitz (then Romania, today Ukr...

Om Podcasten

2020 has signalled a new dawn for Yiddish. Hit Netflix series Unorthodox has beamed the language into millions of loungerooms for the first time. Video conferencing platforms have connected Yiddish speakers – from beginners to advanced –living in lockdown. A Yiddish translation of Harry Potter sold out in days.But in Sydney – the city that hosted Australia’s first ever Yiddish theatrical performances and was once home to the much-loved Yiddish Entertainment Group – the language has been on a long, slow decline. This two-part podcast investigates what became of the city’s small but passionate Yiddish community. And whether Zoom, streaming services and a renewed interest in the past, might hold the key to its future.