A bisel Yiddish

December 5, 2009 - 6:32 PM by Jessica

My sister and brother-in-law are taking a Yiddish class, which, given the fact that they live in the very Yemenite Rosh Haayin, is somewhat ironic. Then again, the world that is Israel in 2009 is one that is expanding and changing all the time.

In fact, according to Hebrew University, Yiddish is blossoming and is certainly not a language of the past or “confined to the ultra Orthodox neighborhoods.” An international conference being held next week at Hebrew U. shows that Yiddish is in fact becoming more widespread.

The four-day conference, “A Century of Yiddish: 1908-2008,” will bring together 40 experts from Israel and overseas who will speak in 16 sessions.

“Until recently, Yiddish was thought of as a channel for jokes,” says Prof. Yechiel Szeintuch, the Joseph and Ida Berman Professor of Yiddish at the Hebrew University and one of the organizers of the conference. “But in the last decade, we have witnessed a renewed interest in Yiddish language and culture among young people and adults who are not ultra-orthodox, and the demand for courses teaching the language has increased.”

“Yiddish was at its height about a hundred years ago. Between the two world wars, 1,700 national and local Yiddish newspapers were published in Poland alone,” Prof. Szeintuch points out. “The Holocaust dealt a severe blow to Yiddish after millions of Yiddish speakers were murdered. But Yiddish didn’t die with them.” It is estimated that in the world today there are about two to three million Yiddish speakers.

Sessions at the conference include: Yiddish on the Electronic Jewish Street; Teaching Yiddish to Israeli Defense Force Veterans; and Elie Wiesel’s Yiddish. The conference will conclude with a theatrical performance in Yiddish, and will take place Monday, Dec. 7, to Thursday, Dec. 10, at the Wise Auditorium, Edmond J. Safra Campus of the Hebrew University. The conference is open to the public and will be conducted in Hebrew, English and Yiddish.

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