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
23 May 2025, 9am Kadimah Yiddish Show, 23rd May, 2025 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia, we speak with Yiddish Australia’s visiting guest speaker Dr Miriam Trinh, lecturer at the Hebrew University’s Yiddish course in Jerusalem and editor of the excellent Yiddish Literary Journal “Afn Shvel”, and we mark the yortsayt – death anniversary of the great Yiddish actress and Oscar winner Ida Kaminska e”h.
16 May 2025, 10am Kadimah Yiddish Show, 16th May, 2025 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we mark the yortsayt – death anniversary of the greatest Yiddish humourist Sholem Aleichem e”h and hear some his wonderful creations, accompanied by songs from Fiddler On The Roof.
9 May 2025, 10am Kadimah Yiddish Show, 9th May, 2025 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of the bloody Second World War and hear about two decisive battles that led to the defeat of Nazi Germany.
2 May 2025, 11am Kadimah Yiddish Show, 2nd May, 2025 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we commemorate Yom HaZikaron – Israel’s Memorial Day and celebrate Yom Ha'atzmaut – Israel’s Independence Day.
25 Apr 2025, 10am Kadimah Yiddish Show, 25th April, 2025 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we commemorate Yom Hashoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day and today’s ANZAC Day, in honour of Australian and New Zealand combatants and hear a little about the Jewish combatants who fought and led in those ranks.
18 Apr 2025, 10am Kadimah Yiddish Show, 18th April, 2025 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we hear another Sholem Aleichem Passover story and how Passover is closely associated with the heroic Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of the 19th of April, 1943.
11 Apr 2025, 3pm Kadimah Yiddish Show, 11th April, 2025 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we usher in the happy festival of Passover, with a cheeky Passover story by Sholem Aleichem and then hear a little about the history, traditions, rituals and Yiddish songs associated with the Passover festival. Happy Passover everyone!
4 Apr 2025, 11am Kadimah Yiddish Show, 4th April, 2025 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we mark the 110th yortzayt – death anniversary of the “father of modern Yiddish literature”, I L Perets e”h, and hear a little about him and a few of his wonderful creations.
28 Mar 2025, 10am Kadimah Yiddish Show, 28th March, 2025 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we speak with the visiting guest Prof Jack Yankl Jacobs and we remember the wonderful artist Marc Chagall, e”h’ whose yortsayt-death anniversary falls on the 28th of March.
21 Mar 2025, 10am Kadimah Yiddish Show, 21st March, 2025 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we recall the master of the Yiddish parables Eliezer Shteinbarg e”h, on the occasion of his upcoming yortzayt – death anniversary and we hear a few of his wonderful creations.
14 Mar 2025, 10am Kadimah Yiddish Show, 14th March, 2025 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and as we are in the midst of the joyous festival of Purim, the happiest day on the Jewish calendar, we’ll entertain ourselves with some rousing Purim Songs and Purim stories.
6 Mar 2025, 9am Kadimah Yiddish Show 28th February, 2025 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we recall the wonderful Yiddish actor Yosef Buloff e”h, on the occasion of his yortzayt-death anniversary yesterday and we hear a little about him and some of his wonderful performances.
21 Feb 2025, 11am Kadimah Yiddish Show, 21st February, 2025 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we recall the popular Polish Yiddish writer and poet Zusman Segalovitch e”h, on the occasion of his yortzayt – death anniversary on the 20th February.
14 Feb 2025, 10am Kadimah Yiddish Show, 14th February, 2025 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we recall the so called “Prince of Yiddish Poetry and Prose” Itzik Manger e”h, and we hear a little about him and some of his wonderful creations.
7 Feb 2025, 10am Kadimah Yiddish Show, 7th February, 2025 Alex Dafner presents current events reports from Australia and we recall the wonderful author Y Y Singer e”h and hear the first chapter of his monumental novel “The Brothers Ashkenazi”.
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.