On October 9th, PhD Candidate Damon Berry appeared as a guest on an OSU Yiddish radio program broadcast via the web. Damon reports, "My appearance was on October 9th on the topic of 'Yinglish' music in America—'Yinglish American Style.' We began the show with jazz and swing music from the 1930’s to show the presence of Yiddish words and vernacular (Yiddishkeit) in certain forms of American popular culture, and then discussed how cultural references changed to become less apparent. To explore this, we played 'My Yiddishe Mame' preformed by Neil Sedaka (1966)—a melancholic performance of an old classic of Yiddish classic that perhaps demonstrates nostalgia for a language and culture lost or compromised through assimilation into Anglo-American norms in the 1950’s and 60’s. Then, among other things, we played 'Dovid Crockett' by Mickey Katz to talk about the role of 'Yinglish' in comedy songs as well as the different of opinions held by Jewish American and non-Jewish American listeners about Katz’s performances. And of course, some of the selections were just plain entertaining." 

You can listen to his broadcast here. And tune in to listen to other OSU Yiddish radio broadcasts here.