While many may only associate Yiddish culture with short
catchphrases such as “putz” and “chutzpah,”
a weeklong event starting next Friday, “The Art of Yiddish
““ A Tour de Force,” hopes to shed more light on the
often forgotten culture and its history.
The California Institute for Yiddish Language and Culture
returns to UCLA with its third annual winter series ““
providing people of all ages the chance to explore Yiddish culture
over the eight days of its intensive studies program.
With language classes, workshops, performances and films, the
event is geared toward anyone who desires to learn more about
Yiddish culture ““ whether or not they are of Jewish
descent.
According to Miriam Koral, founder and director of the Yiddish
Institute, three quarters of all Jews in the world spoke Yiddish
before World War II, although now use of the language has
dwindled.
“For a thousand years, it served as one of the unifying
factors beyond religion,” Koral said. “It was a common
language and culture for what we call Ashkenazi (European ancestry)
Jews.”
Although relatively few American Jews speak the language
fluently today, Yiddish has slowly assimilated itself into the
English language without most people even realizing it. Words like
“putz,” “schlep” and “maven”
are all taken directly from Yiddish.
“The level of not knowing, even among Jews, even to me is
so surprising when I realize how little people understand and
appreciate Yiddish,” Koral said. “We know it from
English because it’s gotten into our language “¦ like
“˜shtick,’ but what we don’t realize usually is
that its not only a very rich language, but it also leads to this
extraordinary rich literature as well.”
According to Sabell Bender, a member of the Yiddish
Institute’s board, many Yiddish literary works that have been
translated into English, such as “Fiddler on the Roof,”
are just the tip of the iceberg. In addition to theatre and
literature, Yiddish culture also consists of a vast amount of
poetry, song and dance ““ all of which will be taught and
explained during the culture series next week.
As an authority on Yiddish theatre, Bender has led many of the
lectures on Yiddish theatre history in past years’ festivals.
This year, however, Bender will instead be directing a staged
reading of “Mentshn” (“Folks”), written by
Sholom Aleichem, a writer well-known for his stories that developed
into the musical, “Fiddler on the Roof.”
According to Bender, the play is described as a
“downstairs/upstairs comedy” which tells the tale of
servants who live in the basement of a Nuevo-riche home and their
relationship with the aristocrats upstairs.
Ed Asner, who is recognized for his work in film and television,
and as the former president of the Screen Actors Guild, will be
providing the English narration for the production of
“Mentshn” at UCLA.
As the youngest of five children, Asner spoke a combination of
both Yiddish and English at home as a child. Like many first
generation children growing up in the United States, Asner was not
fully immersed in Yiddish culture and language until much later in
life.
“I’m a very fond advocate of Yiddish, and when I
found that their demands were simple enough, I was eager to jump
aboard (the production),” Asner said.
In addition to the stage production on closing night, other
program highlights include daily morning language classes for all
levels, Yiddish Dance workshops, and a one-day “Yiddish
experience” during which attendees will be able to
participate in a day-long immersion in Yiddish culture.
For more information, visit the Web site at
www.yiddishinstitute.org. The student admission price to individual
cultural events will be $10 a person, but for those who wish to
register for the full weeklong institute, the fee will be $345 per
student.