Rukhl Schaechter (born 1957) is the editor of the Yiddish Forverts, one of the two remaining Yiddish newspapers outside the Hasidic Jewish world (the other being Birobidzhaner Shtern in Russia, which contains 2-4 weekly printed pages in Yiddish, while the Forverts is a daily online only publication). She is the first woman, the first person born in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, and likely the first Sabbath observant Jew to hold that position.

Early life and education

Schaechter comes from a long line of Yiddishists as part of the Schaechter-Gottesman family: her father,

Mordkhe Schaechter Itsye Mordkhe Schaechter (; December 1, 1927 – February 15, 2007) was a leading Yiddish language, Yiddish linguist, writer, and educator who spent a lifetime studying, standardizing and teaching the language.Saxon, Wolfgang (February 16, 2007). ...

, was a

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

linguist who devoted his life to studying and teaching the language in the United States, while her aunt was Yiddish poet and songwriter Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman. She was raised in

The Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

. She completed a bachelor's degree in psychology at

Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...

in 1979,, and then studied at Jewish Teachers Seminary in Herzliya and

Bank Street College of Education Bank Street College of Education is a private school and graduate school in New York City. It consists of a graduate-only teacher training college and an independent nursery-through-8th-grade school. In 2020 the graduate school had about 65 ful ...

. She became an

Orthodox Jew Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tran ...

as an adult.

Career

Schaechter was working as a Yiddish teacher at a Jewish school in New York—and a prizewinning writer of Yiddish short stories and songs—when she was recruited to join Forverts as reporter in 1998. In 2016, she was named editor of the paper. During her time at Forverts, the newspaper has increased its online presence and its outreach to people whose ancestors spoke Yiddish but are not fluent in the language themselves, including cooking videos in Yiddish and videos with English subtitles. It has also increased outreach to

Hasidic Jewish Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those aff ...

readers and writers, who use different spelling of Yiddish than the

YIVO YIVO (, , short for ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. Estab ...

standard generally used by the paper. She has brought new Yiddish writers to the paper, including women from both secular and Hasidic backgrounds.

References

External links

Rukhl (Sore-Rukhl) Schaechter's Oral History, from The Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schaechter, Rukhl Living people Yiddish-speaking people 21st-century American women journalists 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American women writers American columnists American women non-fiction writers Jewish American journalists Jewish American non-fiction writers Jewish women writers 1957 births 21st-century American Jews