Thursdays, 4pm
Kadimah Yiddish Show, presented by Alex Dafner, consists Jewish and Yiddish-related current events from Australia and the world, Yiddish songs, cultural, literary, theatrical and comedy segments and events related to the Jewish calendar, such as holidays, celebrations, commemorations and anniversaries. Occasionally, the program features interviews with local and overseas Yiddishists and, of course announcements, of Kadimah and Yiddish-related events.
Alex was born in Lodz, Poland, to a Yiddish-speaking family and attended the local I. L. Perets Jewish school, before migrating to Australia in 1959 at the age of 10. He has presented the Kadimah Yiddish Show and co-presented Shlepping and Shmoozing, with Leon Gettler on J-AIR, almost from its inception. He joined J-AIR after a 33-year career as executive producer and presenter of the Yiddish-language radio program and trainer of journalists at SBS Radio Melbourne.
He was also the instigator, curriculum writer and teacher of VCE Yiddish in Victoria at Mount Scopus College and the King David School and was a long-serving president of the Jewish Cultural Centre and National Library Kadimah.
Listen On Demand
27 Dec 2024, 10am Kadimah Yiddish Show, 27 December, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we celebrate Chanukah the Festival of Lights, hear a little about its history and a happy short story of its celebration in Sholem Aleichem’s time.
20 Dec 2024, 11am Kadimah Yiddish Show, 20th December, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we remember the wonderful Yiddish poet and playwright H Leyvik e”h on the occasion of his upcoming death and birth anniversaries. A Happy Hanukah!!
13 Dec 2024, 11am Kadimah Yiddish Show, 13th December, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we recall the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Literature to the Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer e”h in December 1978 hear a little of that ceremony and a little about him and his reading of two of his humorous short stories.
6 Dec 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 6th December, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we recall the “grandfather” of modern Yiddish literature, Mendele Moykher Sforim e”h, on the occasion of his yortsayt-death anniversary, which falls on this Sunday the 8th December and hear a couple of his fine short stories.
29 Nov 2024, 10am Kadimah Yiddish Show, 29th November, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia, we remember the anniversary of the Partition Plan of Palestine of 1947 and the yortzayt, death anniversary of the chief architect of the Jewish State, Israel, Dovid Ben Gurion e”h, and hear him reminisce in Yiddish.
22 Nov 2024, 9am Kadimah Yiddish Show, 22nd November, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we remember the American Yiddish poet and writer Yankev Glatshtein e”h whose yortzayt-death anniversary fell this week.
14 Nov 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 14th November, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and after weeks of serious themes, holidays, commemorations and death anniversaries, we entertain ourselves with the always relevant and sharpwitted humour of the great Yiddish comedians Dzigan and Szumacher.
7 Nov 2024, 7pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 7th November, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we commemorate the anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom of the 9th November 1938 and recall the Yiddish ethnographer, poet, writer, polemicist and playwright S Ansky.
31 Oct 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 31st October, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we remember two Yiddish poets and writers on the occasion of their yortzaytn-death anniversaries this week, the Soviet era poet Moishe Kulbak and the Australian Yiddish poet and writer Jacob Rosenberg.
24 Oct 2024, 7pm Kadimah Yiddish Show 24 October, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and as we’re on the eve of the joyous Simkhes Toyre festival, we accompany the festive spirit with songs and words and a short story. A happy Simkhes Toyre!!
17 Oct 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show,17the October, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and as we’re at the beginning of the 8 day Sukkot – Tabernacles Jewish festival, we accompany the festive spirit with songs and words and a beloved Sholem Aleichem short story.
10 Oct 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show 10th October, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we reflect on the Yomim Neroyim Days of Awe pre Yom Kippur with readings and Yiddish and liturgical songs. A Gmar Khsime Toyve!
4 Oct 2024, 9am Kadimah Yiddish Show 3rd October. 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and in this Rosh Hashana program we accompany the Jewish New Year with readings and Yiddish and liturgical songs. Shana Tova!
26 Sep 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show 26th September, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia, we remember the slaughter of more than 33 thousand Ukrainian Jews at Babi Yar outside Kiev on the 29th and 30th September 1941 and as we approach the time of Slichos, repentance before Rosh Hashona the Jewish New Year, we usher in the holiday spirit with a beloved short story, music and song. Shana Tova to everyone.
19 Sep 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 19th September, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we hear the Melbourne “Bashevis Singers” band’s Yiddish album “Gezangen Tzum Eyn Sof – Songs to Infinity”, poems by Hillel Tzaytlin that they set to music and which has been nominated for the Australian Folk Album of the year award.
12 Sep 2024, 6pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 12 September, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we recall the Yiddish writer, satirist A Lutzky, e”h on the occasion of his death anniversary and hear a few of his popular sketches performed by Hertz Grosbard.
5 Sep 2024, 7pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 5th September, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia, we mark the 80th anniversary of the tragic end of the Lodz Ghetto and recall the the historic inaugural Czernovits conference on Yiddish language and culture.
11 Jul 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 11th July, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we remember the great and at times controversial Yiddish writer Sholem Asch, e”h. And we'll be on a break until September 2024.
4 Jul 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 4th July, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we remember the great Yiddish and Hebrew National Poet Chaim Nahman Bialik, e”h on the occasion of his 90th death anniversary.
27 Jun 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 27th June 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we remember the great Yiddish poet and writer Chaim Grade e”h on the occasion of his death anniversary and we chat in English with the muso and teacher Adam Starr about his new Klezmer school and the concert to mark its opening at the Kadimah.
20 Jun 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 20th June, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we recall the poet and writer Kalman Segal e”h and hear three of his evocative short stories.
13 Jun 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 13th June, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we celebrate the second day of the Shavuot festival and we recall the great musician and founder of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Bronislaw Huberman e”h.
6 Jun 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 6th June, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we commemorate two combat dates, the 5th of June, start of the 6 Day war of 1967 and the 6th June, 80th anniversary of D-day, the opening of the second front by the Allies against Nazi Germany in WWII
30 May 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 30th May, 2024 In this different Kadimah Yiddish Show Alex Dafner and Leon Gettler present a new Podcast related to Jewish History about the great classicist writer and inspirational figure I L Perets and we hear about his life, activism, creativity and some excerpts of his famous stories.
23 May 2024, 6pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 23rd May, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we remember the great actress Ida Kaminska and master comedian Yisroel Shumacher.
16 May 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 16th May, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we mark the anniversaries of Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut, Israel’s Remembrance Day and Independence Day, as well as the yortzayt-death anniversary of the great Yiddish classisist and humourist Sholem Aleichem, e”h.
9 May 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 9th May, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we recall the Bundist martyr Shmuel Zygelbojm and the anniversary of V-E Day, victory over Nazi Germany.
2 May 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 2nd May, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia, we reflect on Jews involvement in the 1st of May and we remember Itzhak Katzenelson e”h, known as the Yiddish and Hebrew poet of the Shoah, whose 80th yortzayt death anniversary fell on the 1st of May.
25 Apr 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 25th April, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and as we’re in the middle days of the Passover festival and ANZAC Day, the day of remembrance of Australian combatants in the many wars and conflicts of the C20th and C21st centuries, we reflect on these important dates in today’s program.
19 Apr 2024, 6am Kadimah Yiddish Show, 18th April, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we commemorate the anniversary of the heroic Warsaw Ghetto uprising and celebrate the start of the Passover festival.
11 Apr 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 11th April, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we remember the great Yiddish comedian Shimon Dzigan e”h and his comedic partner Yisroel Shumacher e”h and hear about them and one of their popular sketches that is still so very relevant today.
4 Apr 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 4th April, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we remember the so called Father of Yiddish Literature, the great Yitskhok Leybush Peretz e”h, on the occasion of his yortzayt-death anniversary and hear some of his wonderful literary creations.
28 Mar 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 28th March, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we honour two great Yiddishists, the world renown painter Mark Chagal and the poet and writer Avrom Reisen e”h and hear a little about them and about their marvellous creativity.
28 Mar 2024, 11am And the Rest Is Jewish History 26.03.2024 Alex Dafner and Leon Gettler present the first Podcast related to Jewish History, beginning with the festival of Purim and the history around its origin in ancient Persia and subsequent historical developments in Persia and later Iran.
21 Mar 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 21st March, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we usher-in the coming joyous Purim festival and hear about it’s fascinating history and the Sholem Aleichem Purim Story “Esther”.
14 Mar 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 14th March, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we entertain ourselves with the lively sounds of Yiddish Klezmer music composed and played by contemporary Australian and international klezmorim and musicians.
29 Feb 2024, 9pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 29th February, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we remember and hear the much loved and respected Melbourne Yiddishist and community cultural activist Danielle Charak OAM e”h, on the occasion of her first yortzayt-death anniversary, which fell this week.
22 Feb 2024, 5pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 22nd February, 2024 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we remember the Yiddish poet, writer and journalist Zusman Segalovitch e”h. on the occasion of his yortzayt-death anniversary.
