namm'IRT

Yiddish
Spoken Here

Detroit Jews still communicate through the vigor
of the 1,000-year-old language.

Martin Liebman in his
library of Yiddish books

Standing: Emily Warren, 13, Cantor Stephen Dubov, Alan Posner, 13,
Justin Wedes, 13, Avi Davidoff 12.
Seated: David Silver, 13, Aaron Zupmore, 13, and Josh Garvin, 12.
In front of piano: Charles Williams, 11, Ariel Dubov, 11, and Jeremy Posner, 11.

SHELLI DORFMAN
Editorial Assistant

A

nyone who thinks they don't speak Yiddish has never
deemed anyone a chazer or a mentsch or a kvetch.
Everyone who knows a nebish or a nudnik knows some
Yiddish. We buy chaserai and have chutzpa. We go to
shul where we may wear a yarmulke. We want gelt, we nosh, we get
shpilkes, we kibitz and we shlep to the shvitz.
Those who still say no one speaks the 1,000-year-old language
of Yiddish anymore don't know 80-year-old Haim Rozenthal.
The Royal Oak Township resident joined the Yiddish Culture
Club of the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit
in 1992. He reorganized the then 20-year-old group when it was
revitalized by an influx of Yiddish speakers from the former Soviet
Union. He's now its president.
Rozenthal, who moved to the United States from Ukraine
eight years ago, speaks through Oak Parker Izzy Young,worth,
whom he met at the Russian Bais Chabad of North Oak
Park/FREE synagogue, of which Youngworth is a founder.
Rozenthal says the Yiddish Culture Club acts as a bridge
for the nearly 100 members, whom he describes as "two-
thirds Russian Yiddish-speakers and one-third American
Yiddish-speakers."
Rivka Latinskaya, Russian Acculturation Department director
of the Jewish Community Center's Jimmy Prentis Morris
Building in Oak Park, says although anyone can join the club,
"unfortunately, the members are all older — over 65 and 70."
Rozenthal describes the club, co-sponsored by the JCC's JPM
Building and the Charles and Frances Driker Fund for Yiddish
Culture, as a literary and music club. Meetings include music by

At The Core

Jews of all ages have lots of local opportunities to
speak or learn the age-old language of Yiddish.

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Detroit Jewish News 3]