Strange Tongue / Mistame-Loshn is a collection of traditional Yiddish songs, reimagined and expanded in English by Ira, where queer, trans songwriting meets the urgent, living breath of Yiddish culture. From Transylvanian dance music to protest poetry from the lost Jewish capitals of Europe, these songs hold grief, joy, and radical defiance.

Ira says: “These songs we’ve inherited—about heartbreak, about rebellion—they’re not meant to sit behind glass. They need us. They need to be sung.”

A singer and tradition-bearer in the modern Yiddish revival, Ira brings us into a soundscape where language and legacy breathe again, not just as nostalgia, but as cultural survival.

Ira’s first single is available to stream now: a reimagined version of the Yiddish square dance “Hot Zikh Mir Di Zip Tsezipt,” updated to reflect the joyful chaos of queer Jewish weddings today.

Featuring members of NYC’s rad-trad klezmer scene including violinist Zoe Aqua, bassist Zoe Guigueno, vocalist Eleonore Weill, drummer David Licht of The Klezmatics and Bongwater, trombonist Dan Blacksberg, and vocal production by Lorin Sklamberg of the Klezmatics.

Strange Tongue / Mistame-Loshn is available now for pre-order and will be released on Borscht Beat Records on October 6!