How Evgeny Kissin Became a One-Man Yiddish Pride Movement

• By Allan M. Jalon
• The Forward
• December 14, 2015

In a poem Evgeny Kissin wrote in Yiddish, he looks forward to the Jewish program he’s set to perform on December 16 at Carnegie Hall: In Kenedi-Tsenter af yidish hob ikh shoyn geshalt, / un opgeshatst hobm es hoykh i a yid, i a goy / Kh’vel es ton in kumendikn yor oykh in Karnegi Hol…For the uninitiated, it says: “I’ve spoken in Yiddish at Kennedy Center already. And it was highly praised by both a Jew and a Gentile. I’ll do the same next year in Carnegie Hall.”