• 16 Friday, December 25, 1981 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Yiddish Enjoying Small Resurgence in Campus Curricula dish has settled into an un- likely home, the college campus. While not a groundswell movement, Yiddish is an accredited course in 40 universities By DAVID MAKOVSKY (Copyright 1981, JTA, Inc.) NEW YORK — The lan- guage of the shtetl has found a new haven. Far from Eastern Europe, Yid- FELCH ['PAUL You're A Wonderful Husband & Father HAPPY 38th BIRTHDAY All Our Love Millie, Jillian & Samantha (woof-woof) 001•101.... .eallats ammo Mil MOM MN. Iniff/E0Min 00100mlimmem. MEM 41101411 .40MA. MEM. 44.44... 11041mA.--rg 044•M M10014M2MAS MM. .4mnice M040 MIMMI•10004404 MM. 10042•MMEIMMIS = = across North America, and taught in an added 20 Hillel campus organizations. This total is double the academic attention that the "mamaloshen" (mother tongue) received 10 years ago, according to the figures of YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. The spectrum of those in- volved in Yiddish is a wide one. Most are curious stu- dents just beginning intro- ductory courses, while others are persuing ad- vanced degrees on the sub- IIMOMMMONI 2Mmos. MIMMEM AVM/0 Nsawr ••••• ■••■ IMMO. .1011004 IMMO 4110/400•4•10•M ■■■•■ •••■ •••• Audrey Lorber 585-7223 or 559-6022 04440•11401MMOM 0■0 IMPM. •••■■ AAA.. -4004•••• user Zs.; A memory you will have forever . • VIDEO TAPING SERVICES Legal Taping Business Meetings Weddings Advertising Social Events Bar Mitzvahs FREEDOM CLEANERS 24681 Coolidge Hwy 1/2 block S. of 10 Mile 545011300 tip In fgn MP . 1 1 : . E an SMI an an ini int la ea es Er am Ern MP MN OM MI = SLACKS SKIRTS an nI ng MN 39 LAIN 84 REG. PRICE S1.95 Cash & Carry Only, Limit 10 Freedom Cleaners Coupon Good thru December 31, 1981 fra g via so tzs at an In ISIR an ass aim ass so In an = na an an MB 1111111 111111 9 1111 MO INE ass as us irs me eas sin as Ira iss as um or EN as us um an ow so on so PLAIN CLOTH MINTER COATS 2 9 REG. PRICE 54.50 Must be presented with incoming orders Cash & Carry Only, Limit 2 Freedom Cleaners Coupon Good thru December 31, eisig 04 as an gni na iii ors tis nu us ass tsin R4A NI an In on dia In In In an IMP in Pa 4951 47th ARE YOUR CLOSETS FULL? FREE Summer or Winter Garment Storage taa sacs ASK FOR DETAILS in ail an En Ea da na In On MO MT ea na IN 1111 11111 110 an a& *I SAVE OVER 25% WITH THESE CASH & CARRY COUPONS Repair & Alterations at additional charge Same Day Dry Cleaning on request WE CLEAN ON SATURDA during the year and lead- ing a summer Yiddish program at Columbia University, Schaechter confers doctoral degrees upon learned Yiddishist students, and has pupils teaching in such places as Haifa University, Uni- versity of London and UCLA. . Schaechter is also one of the founders of Yugntruf ("A- Call to Youth"), a stu- dent Yiddish movement started in 1964. He is pleased by what he terms "the strong and revived stu- dent interest in Yiddish." He traces the language's newly discovered popular- ity on campus to a few causes among which is "a childish rebellion against one's own parents, hoping to figure out what they've said behind his back all these years. Interestingly, 80 per- cent of all my students are third generation Ameri- cans." Yugntruf includes among its activities a Yid- dish quarterly newsletter with a readership of 2,000, regular literary reading sessions, and a variety of parties with Yiddish as the main social course. Schaechter's daughter, Eydil, one of the planners of Yugntruf s recent conference, discussed the main item on their agenda, "Creating a Yid- dish speaking commu- nity." She explained: "I grew up in the Bronx with- a secular Yiddish community. My parents provided this positive attitude, where Yiddish was spoken to us. Some friends would like to see the same, a place, prob-' ably in New York, where kids can have a love for the language." David Fishman, a graduate student at Har- vard and an instructor of Yiddish at Brandeis Unver- sity, spoke eagerly about Yiddish in the Boston area. "At Brandeis, we are plan- ning. a Yiddish arts festival with speakers, films, con- certs, and Yiddish readings. Now, we have a weekly Yiddish table at lunch, just so students can talk to each other." Fishman acknowledged that for students, Yiddish no longer has the socialist attachment that it had dur- ing the Bundist peak. "In- terestingly, while the two socialist Yiddish summer camps closed recently, there has been a switch," he noted. "Yiddish may be weaker organizationally, but it is stronger on cam- pus." For now, the proponents of Yiddish do not set high goals. As Dr. Schaechter said, "We just want to keep it alive." Presently, student Yiddishists in North America, according to op- timistic estimates, number only 3,500. The more advanced of the enthusiasts enjoy reading the works of Sholom Aleichem and Isaac Bashevis Singer in its original language. The movement of the few does grow, along with a re- vived student interest in Holocaust and amid the whole phenomenon of rediscovering ethnic roots. Eydil Schaechter said it simplest: "Students want to get back to grandfather, and that means returning to Yiddish." Peruvian Newspaper Demands Expulsion of PLO Representative Must be presented with incoming orders esia ject. It is hard to believe, however, that there is more than one Laibel Botwinik of Montreal, who, at the age of 22, has already written his first Yiddish science fiction thriller. Numbering over 100 pages and published last October, "The Secret Mission" is about a young engineer in Vilna, Po- land, who was saved from the Holocaust by a time machine and taken to 1983, only to hear about the horrors that have befallen his people. Botwinik, who is a son of a Holocaust survivor from Vilna and grew up speaking Yiddish at home, said he had no trouble writing the manuscript. A book is no particular feat for this talented undergrad from Concordia College in Montreal. He also has begun an an- nual Yiddish magazine, produced 15 quarter-hour Yiddish television seg- ments for a Canadian cable channel, and is collaborat- ing with adults in organiz- ing a world Yiddish confer- ence in Montreal in two years. His favorite project seems to be the magazine, as the writer - editor - producer elaborated, "The magazine contains literature, poetry, humor, a children's section, a beginner's page, and a Yiddish comic strip. I don't know of any other paper in the world that has a Yiddish cartoon page." One teacher leading the Yiddish rejuvenation is Dr. Mordkhe Schaech- ter, who has devoted his career to propagating the Yiddish language. Be- sides teaching the course s NEW YORK — A Peru- with "terrorism, violence vian newspaper has rejected and death" and commented economic blackmail efforts on PLO representative by the Palestine Liberation ISsam Beseisso's offer of Organization and has called Arab loans and petrodollar for the expulsion of the PLO grants to Peru if the country representative in Lima. • would "assume a favorable According to the Latin position vis-a-vis the.Pales- American Affairs depart- tinian cause . . . as in the ment of the Anti- case of Brazil." Defamation League of Bnai The PLO official said in Brith, the Lima daily, Ex- reply to the editorial that preso, reacted sharply to a .according • to an Arab statement by the PLO League summit in Novem- representative making ber 1979 "all economic • Arab economic aid to Peru cooperation. with any coun- conditional on diplomatic try is conditional upon that support for the PLO. country's recognition and Rabbi Morton M. Rosent- diplomatic support of the hal, head of the Latin Palestinian people." Expreso, in calling for the American Affairs depart- ment who has just returned expulsion of Beseisso, said it from a visit to the Peru and was "incredible" that Peru's other Latin American .na- previous military govern- tions, said the newspaper's . ment had granted the -PLO stand reflected "not only official the status of a "dip- nationalistic sentiments, lomatic agent." but profound concern with Peruvian Foreign the more than 1,000 ter- Minister Arias Stella has rorist acts counted in Peru said publicly, however, this year." that the PLO representa- Among the targets of tive does not have dip- terrorist bombers have lomatic status and there been the American Em- are no plans to give it to bassy and a Jewish day him. He noted that the school in Lima. PLO office had not been In an editorial (dated Dec. authorized by the present 5) Expreso linked the PLO government, but by the former military regime. The present democratic government came to power in July 1980. Rabbi Rosenthal, who discussed the status of the PLO in Peru with govern- ment officials there, said its presence is "causing grow- ing concern among all seg- ments of the Peruvian popu- lation as violence esca- lates." He added that the government had imposed harsh penalties for those suspected of terrorism. Sadat Assessed American Policy TEL AVIV (ZINS) — Dis- cussing American strategic thinking, as far as the Mid- dle East is - concerned ; former Israeli Ambassador to Egypt Eliahu Ben- Elissar said in a radio inter- view that Sadat had once confessed to him: "I simply do not under- stand the Americans. Why do they have to crawl to the Saudis? Is the mighty United States of America dependent on the Saudis or are the Saudis dependent on the U.S,? Why does America dwarf itself before Saudi Arabia?"