I’m not sure where to jump into this convo so I’ll start here. As the child of fluent Yiddish speakers/1st gen Americans, I can tell you that many of their gen chose to put the past behind them. Think of the trauma they were fleeing. This was true in Israel as well. They didn’t want the reminder.

Public libraries often have free genealogy databases (ours has Ancestry). Also, I follow www.threads.net/@jennifermen...
and she might be a resource. I haven't looked to see if she's here yet.

This is really interesting! What I've come across in my research is "Ellis Island couldn't have changed names because they got names off the ship manifests," or some such. Have you been able to find those? That would maybe make more sense for the Polish spelling. Also, I love "... the yontiff!" 😆

I wanted an octopus 😭
So freakin’ cute.

Also, we deserve more than the few mentioned here!

Surely you’re just holding those for someone else!

I hope your self care this week is better than mine… which amounts to red wine, matzah, and calorie-burning anxiety. Damn, I had high hopes this week. 💜

We always make a huge bowl of apples, walnuts, cinnamon, Manischewitz, and we NEVER have leftovers so I have no context for how long apples in wine take to go bad. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I have 2 ketubot. One I consider kosher because it has my Yiddish name, the other the rabbi considers kosher because he insisted I spell my Yiddish name “correctly”… in Hebrew.

Is Litvish Hebrew: Shabbat vs Shabbos? I grew up hearing the latter but since adulthood only hear the former.

“He enjoys complex and nuanced crimes.” 😋Thanks!

Just wanted to say how much I’m enjoying Laurent and the Beast. This is the bonkers bad boy/MC/paranormal/time travel/quasi-historical I didn’t know I needed!😍

Thank you!

I’ll take recs! I want to read flawed, dark heroes but not abusive ones!

Also #romancelandia, Mr Measured suggested a clinch so please enjoy this unintentionally HILARIOUS picture with a horrified Calcifer in the background. I’m submitting it to the Louvre, obviously