Share
Email
PrintUkraine honors Yiddish teacher
KIEV (JTA) -- Ukraine honored its oldest teacher of Yiddish.
Josef Torchinsky, 90, was presented with the “Honored Diploma” last Thursday by the national Committee for Nationalities and Religions “for his personal contribution to the development of Jewish Culture and Yiddish in Ukraine on the occasion of his 90th birthday.”
Jewish organizational activists, graduates of Kiev's Jewish Sunday school and other guests and officials gathered Thursday at the Jewish Charitable Foundation Hesed Nahalat Avot Azriel in Kiev to mark Torchinsky's birthday.
Torchinsky thanked the committee and recited some of his poems in Yiddish and Ukrainian. The participants recited poems and sang songs in Yiddish, Russian and Ukrainian.
Torchinsky has served since 1989 as a Sunday school Yiddish teacher. He also is the author of a Yiddish-Ukrainian dictionary, phrase books and a collection of Jewish
music, folklore, proverbs and sayings. He has written numerous poems in Yiddish, Ukrainian and Russian.
Some 250 students have graduated from his Sunday school in Kiev.
Click to login and write a letter to the editor or sign up for the Daily Briefing.
This article was made possible by the support of readers like you. Donate to JTA now.
Featured Content
Need to know? Get JTA's free e-newsletters!
- Poll: Half of U.S. voters back strike on nuclear Iran
- Reform leader Rabbi Gunther Plaut dies
- D.C. Hebrew-language charter school accepted for review
- Op-Ed: Kick the reaction addiction on campus
- Berman moves to grant investor visas to Israelis
- Holy cow! Calves hijacked into Palestinian territory
- Report: Israeli journalist also works for prime minister
- Larry Greenfield tapped to lead JINSA
