Jake Schneider

Translations

I have been working as a freelance translator since 2012, mostly from German to English.

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Projects

As a passionate Yiddishist, I organize many projects related to Yiddish culture and history.

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Events

I organize and participate in a wide range of literary and cultural events.

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Writing

I write poems, articles, and short fiction in Yiddish and narrative essays in English.

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Upcoming Dates

31 January: Tour of Yiddish and Jewish identity at the Jewish Museum Berlin
On 31 January at 3 pm, I will be giving a tour of the core exhibition at the Jewish Museum Berlin titled "Yiddish & Jewish Identity: Journey of a Language in Germany." Spaces are limited – reserve your ticket online.
Info and reserve your ticket

Yiddish & Kids: Links, Resources, and an Interview with Sarah Schulman

As a supplement to my recent Forverts  article (in Yiddish) about parents raising their children in Yiddish, I have compiled a list of useful links and resources for parents along with an exclusive interview with Sarah Sore Schulman, the founding director of “Dos Nisele” (Yiddish for “the Little Nut”), a publishing house and cultural organization based in Sweden. 

Current Projects

Shmues un Vayn
A Yiddish social club that meets twice per month at bars, parks, and other venues around the city to speak exclusively Yiddish.
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A.N. Stencl
I am translating a volume of gritty interwar memoirs by Berlin's most prolific Yiddish poet, the insider-outsider finally getting the attention he deserves.
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Visit Berlin's Yiddishland walking tour
An immersive guided tour of Berlin’s historically Eastern European Jewish neighborhood.
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Yiddish Hoyz at Yiddish Summer Weimar
An immersive Yiddish-speaking space where conversational speakers live in the language for one or two weeks during the annual festival.
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Nu? Yiddish in All Art Forms
An open mic for Berlin’s Yiddish community to show each other and our friends what we’ve got up our sleeves: our works in progress, side projects, secret talents.
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Queer Yiddish
A multimedia presentation about the intersection of queerness and Yiddish from 1877 to the present.
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Yiddish in Berlin, Past and Present
Workshops, tours, and presentations on the history of Yiddish-speaking immigrants to Berlin and the current outpouring of Yiddish culture in our city.
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Yiddish & Jewish Identity: Journey of a Language in Germany
I developed a walking tour of the Jewish Museum Berlin's core exhibition that tells the story of Yiddish in Germany since the Middle Ages. What is the role of language in identity? Offered four times a year.
More info

Recent Publications

Forverts: “It takes a village to raise a child in Yiddish”
How parents outside Hassidic enclaves are raising their children in this minoritized language.
Read article (in Yiddish)
Short film from residency at Manchester Poetry Library
In November 2024, I was part of a weeklong residency at the Manchester Poetry Library where a group of Yiddish-speakers reread issues of the London literary journal Loshn un Lebn, which A.N. Stencl published for four decades. The resulting video from our discussions is in Yiddish with English subtitles.
Watch on the A.N. Stencl website
Forverts: "captcha committee"
A mysterious committee interrogates a suspected “robot-revolutionary.”
Read poem (in Yiddish)
Forverts: Jewish Coexistence in Vienna
How Hassidim, Yiddishists, and Bukharan Jews get along in Vienna's small Jewish community. An article for the world's oldest Yiddish newspaper.
Read article (in Yiddish)
Yiddish Branzhe: "In 2025"
Two poems about the year 2025 in Yiddish Branzhe. “which do I prefer: to be run over / by a car with no driver, or by a car with a driver: a murderer?”
Read the poems (in Yiddish)
Forverts: "Cockney Yiddish"
A podcast, a language and a way of life: two London historians revive the old Jewish East End in our imaginations. An article about the past and present of Yiddish in London.
Read article (in Yiddish)
Forverts: Yiddish is Alive in Texas
In the linguistically diverse US state of Texas, Yiddish has much deeper history and a more vibrant present than one might expect. A Yiddish article I wrote, now available in English.
Read the English version
Parabolis Viritualis 4: Anthology of Queer Poetry
German translations of three of my Yiddish poems were featured in Quer Verlag's anthology of queer poetry in Germany with a focus on immigrant writers, edited by Kevin Junk. I read the originals at the launch at Haus für Poesie on 10 April.
Order a copy
In Geveb: "The Hideaway" by A.N. Stencl
The poet A.N. Stencl (1897–1983) was an insider-outsider during his 15 years in Berlin. I am now translating his gritty memoirs of the Weimar Republic, Gerangl (Hustle), as a 2025 Translation Fellow of the Yiddish Book Center.
Read an excerpt
Di Goldene Pawe: Two Poems
Two poems in issue 2 of Amsterdam's Yiddish journal, Di Goldene Pawe, with Dovid Omar Cohen's Dutch translations. Their website also features a recorded reading of my poem "Zeitzone (Tempelhof)" (the second audio clip), which is also included in their PDF sample of the issue.
Magazine website (in Dutch)
Forverts: Language Revitalization Activists Come Together
An article in the Forverts, the longest-running Yiddish newspaper, about collaborations between language reclamation activists from different language communities and the role of Yiddish in these efforts.
Read the article (in Yiddish)
Glitter 7: “a pebble from the fountain of youth”
A poem of mine in Yiddish original, transliteration, and Horst Bernhardt's wonderful German translation was included in the 7th annual edition of Glitter, an all-queer, mostly German-language literary magazine based in Berlin.
Order a copy
Hamburg's Queer Poem Walk
A poem of mine in Arndt Beck's German translation has been featured in the Queer Poem Walk in Hamburg, a project of the city's one-of-a-kind queer book club.
More info

Keep in Touch

Feel free to contact me via the contact form and I will reply as soon as possible via email.

I have postponed my ambitions to create a personal newsletter. If you are interested in Yiddish cultural events in Berlin, I recommend the Shtetl Berlin newsletter, which also announces events by other individuals and groups in our community such as Yiddish.Berlin.

Follow me on Instagram @jakeausdemschneider to see my latest Shmues un Vayn collages and other personal announcements.