hen her
ground, other chapter mem-
mother
bers put their names on a
died 10
waiting list. Each time the
years ago,
list grew, another Yiddish
Emily
club was added. Now there
Arnold was
are a total of five, made up
afraid she
exclusively of Morgenthau
would never
members (except for the
find someone
newest, a couples group).
else with
"Besides enjoying and lov-
whom she could speak Yid-
ing Yiddish, our goal is to per-
dish.
petuate it," Ms. Arnold said.
But because the language
"Women today have not
was so important to her, she
taught it to their children,
decided to start a search for
and that includes my own
other Yiddish speakers. Ms.
children. We are concerned
Arnold, of West Bloomfield,
our children will not speak it
wanted to start an informal
because it's not spoken in the
Yiddish club.
home."
What began with six or
Gertrude Gordon of South-
seven women meeting to ex-
field shares their concerns.
change jokes and speak in
She grew up speaking Eng-
Yiddish evolved into a formal
lish and Yiddish, she raised
club of about 30 women over
her own children speaking
the age of 60. They call them-
only English. Now, Ms. Gor-
selves fraylicha friendt, hap-
don regrets it.
py friends.
"Parents should speak Yid-
Although Yiddish words
dish to their children," she
and expressions have made
said. "I didn't teach it to my
their way into the main-
children because it was easi-
stream, many Jews see it as
er to talk in English."
a dead language. The num-
Chances are their children
ber of native Yiddish speak-
know Yiddish words like oy
ers is dwindling, yet there is
vey, kvetsh, chutzpah or
a resurgence in the language
meshuga because these words
in university and academic
are spoken and understood as
settings, and it is still spoken
if they are part of the English
on a daily basis among some
language.
members of the Orthodox
Outside the homes of local
community.
residents, Yiddish is also
Ms. Arnold's club was so
making a comeback in the
successful that she became
courtrooms across the coun-
the inspiration for another
try. A Yale Law Journal ar-
club, started by Sema Shaw-
ticle concludes that Yiddish
Yarost of West Bloomfield for
may be replacing Latin
members of Morgenthau, a
phrases in America's courts.
local B'nai Brith Women's
Authors Alex Kozinski, a
chapter.
federal appeals court judge in
Once the club was off the
California, and Eugene
Unrnonth2ll
members redst Yiddish (speak Yiddish).
Ha pp eni ng
Volokh, a clerk for Supreme
Court Justice Sandra Day
O'Connor, counted Yiddish
words in court decisions.
Chutzpah was the most pop-
ular word, appearing in 123
opinions.
Yiddish, a language com-
posed of German, He-
brew, Aramaic and to
a lesser extent Greek
and Latin, has been
spoken by Ashkenazi
Jews for more than
1,000 years. Although
the number of Yid-
dish speakers at any
given time in history
has been difficult to
calculate, the Holo-
caust drastically re-
duced those numbers.
Yiddish scholars
maintain the lan-
guage is alive in acad-
emia because
students see it as es-
sential to studying
history that was only
recorded in Yiddish.
Aliza Shevrin of
Ann Arbor is a native
Yiddish speaker and
translator of the
works of Sholom Ale-
ichem. She is one of
only a handful of Yid-
dish translators in
the country.
"You really have to
know the language in your
gut, that's the best way to
translate it," she said.
When Ms. Shevrin con-
verts a book from Yiddish to
English, it's like solving a
puzzle, she said. "It's difficult
to find an English translation
that's not too dated or con-
temporary. All these things
have to be thought about so
the reader doesn't know it
was translated."
Ms. Shevrin agrees the lan-
guage is not dying, but she is
skeptical about the future of
Yiddish literature because
there are no present-day
renowned Yiddish writers.
"People have been lament-
ing the death of Yiddish for
100 years," said Anita Norich,
an associate professor of Eng-
lish and Yiddish at the Uni-
versity of Michigan. "I don't
think it will ever again be the
One of those Yiddish stu-
dents, 24-year-old Daniella
HarPaz, a Huntington Woods
native, studied with Dr. Nor-
rich. Last year she received
her master's degree in Near
Eastern studies and modern
Hebrew at the University of
Michigan. Now she teaches
the same Yiddish
class she took as a
U-M student.
"I had a very
strong Jewish up-
bringing," Ms.
HarPaz said. "It
wasn't until college
when I began study-
ing Yiddish that I
realized there was
this whole culture I
had access to. When
I went to Hillel Day
School, I read some
of the Yiddish sto-
ries that were trans-
lated into Hebrew.
But it wasn't until I
actually read them
in Yiddish that they
took on a whole new
life."
While Yiddish is
alive on college cam-
puses, it has only a
faint heart beat in
local religious day
JENNIFER FINER JEWISH NEWS INTERN
schools.
The Lubavitch
Education Center in
Farmington Hills is
central spoken language of
the only school locally to use
Jewish people. Instead, its fu-
Yiddish as a language of in-
ture is more in the universi-
struction. Rabbi Yitschak Ka-
ties than on the streets.
gan, associate director of the
"Yiddish looks a lot better
Lubavitch Foundation, said
than the rumors make it out
the school teaches in Yiddish
to be. It's like when Mark
because "it's the language of
Twain said, 'The rumors of
choice for conveying Jewish
my death have been greatly
tradition and living."
exaggerated.' The same holds
This school year is the first
true for Yiddish."
time ninth-grade students at
Dr. Norrich, who has been
the Sally Allan Alexander
teaching at U-M for a decade,
Beth Jacob School for Girls
said only recently have Yid-
are required to take a Yiddish
dish language classes fulfilled
course.
the university's language re-
"We're trying it out to see
quirement.
how it goes," said Florene
The number
of speakers
is declining and
the language has
been eulogized
for years, but
many claim it's still
very much alive.
To . Viticlisb?
E/