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September 6, 2002
Yiddish into the 21st century
Bar-Ilan University's Rena Costa Centre will soon offer online
learning.
SHARON KANON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Opening up the world of Yiddish writing is like opening a treasure
chest, and students inevitably get caught up in the excitement of
discovery," said Dr. Aviva Tal, lecturer on the History of
Yiddish Drama Set to Music and Theatre at Bar-Ilan University (BIU).
More than 200 students, ranging in age from 20 to 80, attended classes
at the Yiddish department of Bar-Ilan University last year, where
the percolating revival of Yiddish as a language flies in the face
of demographic and sociological changes in the Jewish world.
The Rena Costa Centre for Yiddish Studies, founded in 1983 by Rena
Costa of New York, is the largest university centre for Yiddish
language instruction in the world. The centre, which has a hamishe
(homey) atmosphere, also has its own library with more than 30,000
books (including children's books), newspapers and journals, and
a large video film collection. Its yizkor collection, listing names
of members of congregations in small villages, is a prime resource
for tracing individual family members.
"There is a growing interest in the Yiddish language. It is
a phenomenon of post-modernism, a return to old origins, roots,"
according to Prof. Avidov Lipsker, who heads the centre. Lipsker
cited the popularity of the Yiddish theatre in Israel, which draws
full houses to its performances. In fact, two talented actresses,
one from Argentina and one from the former Soviet Union, studied
Yiddish at Bar-Ilan before joining the cast of the Yiddishpiel troupe.
Lipsker has plans to open a dramatic workshop in a joint Yiddishpiel/BIU
Yiddish Centre initiative.
But can this Yiddish revival survive demographic and sociological
changes in the Jewish world? With approximately one out of every
two Yiddish-speaking Jews killed during the Holocaust, Rena Costa
eloquently expressed her vision of the challenge in founding the
Yiddish centre: "If Yiddish dies, Hitler will have won, and
that is one victory we must make sure he does not have."
Yiddish was spurned by the young Zionists who felt it represented
the life and hardships of the ghetto. They pressed for the use of
Hebrew to unify Jews from diverse cultural backgrounds.
A ban on Yiddish shortly after the establishment of the state of
Israel was so effective that the editor of a daily newspaper had
to change its name several times a week, because a Yiddish daily
was prohibited. Nevertheless, the yearning for Yiddish entertainment
grew in the 1960s and 1970s, when the formal prohibitions against
Yiddish were removed and Yiddish theatre flourished in Tel-Aviv.
Categorized as folklore in Israel until 1996, Yiddish finally got
a boost when the Knesset passed a law establishing a National Authority
for Yiddish (as well as Ladino) and allocated public funds for the
first time.
Lipsker is happy that young people are interested in learning Yiddish,
but he would like to entice more scholars.
"We need more people to undertake academic research,"
he said. He has good reason to be proud of his top-notch staff,
several of whom are doing research abroad. Thirteen students are
in the master's and doctoral program.
"You cannot disconnect from Yiddish," said doctoral student
Shulamit Piura, who is exploring the influences of kabbalah, Chassidism,
popular folklore and Sigmund Freud on the work of Isaac Bashevis
Singer. "Yiddish is so rich and it is part of the Jewish heritage.
It had a deep influence on Zionist ideals. It is not just a language,
it is a culture, a whole world."
Yiddish, the vernacular language of more than 11 million Jews until
the Second World War, arose as early as the year 1100 out of a blend
of German dialects. It has also drawn on Hebrew and Slavic languages.
Yiddish was especially important in the life of women during the
Middle Ages, who used it not only in their daily lives, but for
prayer in separate prayer groups. When the printing press was invented
in the 15th century, most of the books in Yiddish were directed
to women.
One of the most successful symposiums sponsored by the Rena Costa
Centre focused on women in Yiddish literature.
"There were more than 70 Yiddish poetesses during the 1920s,"
said Tal. "No other literature could boast such active involvement
by women at the time. They were bold and modern."
Aliyah from the former Soviet Union has helped spark the Yiddish
revival in Israel.
"For 15 to 20 per cent of Soviet Jews, Yiddish was there mother
tongue," said Velevel Chernin, one of the two Russians who
have completed doctorates at BIU and are now on staff. "Most
Jews in the former Soviet Union age 60-plus spoke Yiddish. It was
the language of the working people," said Moscow-born Chernin,
43. Although Hebrew language study was prohibited during the Communist
regime, Yiddish was taught in schools.
Chernin learned Yiddish from his grandparents. He earned his MA
in Russian and Yiddish literature at Moscow University. While studying
at the Gorky Literary Institute in Moscow in 1981, he established
a literary salon for Yiddish speakers. Before coming on aliyah in
1990, Chernin wrote texts for the Kiev Yiddish Theatre and worked
for the Yiddish literary magazine Sovietish Heimland.
"Without the heritage of Yiddish, you remove the memory of
the Jewish culture," said Chernin.
James Parkes, in A History of the Jewish People, made a similar
point, referring to Hebrew as "the language of national renaissance"
and Yiddish as that of "national memories."
"Yiddish is part of the Jewish collective memory and identity,"
said Dr. Boris Kotlerman, who came to Israel in 1991 from Birabijan.
"Our summer Yiddish program brings together students from South
America and the U.S."
A glance at the 22 course offerings of the Yiddish department is
like taking a tasty appetizer. Among the intriguing choices: The
Generation Gap as Reflected in Yiddish Literature; The Letter and
its Contribution to Yiddish Literature; History of Yiddish Drama
Set to Music and Theatre; Expressionism in Yiddish Literature; Yiddish
Culture in the Middle Ages; and the Development of Yiddish Poetry
by Women in the 20th Century.
"The uniqueness of the Bar-Ilan Yiddish Centre is that it goes
beyond the study of linguistics. A student learns to understand
the culture as a whole – literature, drama, folklore, music
and journalism," said Lipsker.
In the coming year, the centre will be offering distance learning
on the Internet as part of its effort to ensure the survival and
vitality of Yiddish in the 21st century. If you're looking for a
Jewish New Year's resolution, how about signing up for a Yiddish
course? Not only will you be part of Rena Costa's effort to keep
mamaloshen (the mother tongue) alive for another century,
you will also be dipping into a treasure chest of incomparable riches.
Sharon Kanon is with the Israel Press Service.
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