members and invited guests, the study
of poetry, Yiddish culture and Yiddish
writers. The next meeting, on Thursday,
Aug. 12, will focus on "the Yiddish-
Jewish writers killed by the KGB during
the time of Stalin," says Latinskaya.
The monthly meetings may be
inconvenient for young Yiddish speakers
to attend, Rozenthal says, because they
are held on weekday afternoons.
Latinskaya says younger people do
come when the club offers Yiddish con-
certs, attracted by the music and oppor-
tunity to share in tradition.
Most of the estimated 2,500 Yiddish
speakers in Michigan learned the lan-
guage as Izzy Youngworth and Rivka
Latinskaya did — from their parents.
But there is much more opportunity
now for those who want to learn the
language. Many universities and agen-
cies offer Yiddish classes, including
Southfield's Midrasha at the Agency for
Jewish Education of Metropolitan
Detroit, and Wayne State University
The universities of Michigan and
Pennsylvania and Ohio State University
are among those offering degree pro-
grams, including master's and doctoral
degrees in Yiddish and Ashkenazic
Studies.
Martin Liebman, 43, of Martin
Liebman Music/Media Power in
Farmington Hills, became interested in
learning Yiddish from talks with his
grandmother as a teenager. He sought a

For information on the Yiddish
Culture Club, call (248) 968-0510.
For names of social Yiddish
clubs, call the Sholem Aleichem
Institute, (248) 352-6852. To sub-
scribe to Fishl Kutner's Der Bay, a
national Yiddish newsletter, call
(650) 349-6946.
Mendele is a Web site offering
an exchange of views, information
and news relating to Yiddish lan-
guage and literature. To access it, go
to:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/yid-
dishimendele.html
The Klezmer Fusion Band per-
forms at the 21st annual Yiddish
Concert in the Park, sponsored by
Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring,
Sholom Aleichem Institute, Rosen-
Gold Philanthropic Fund and the
Jewish News 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 1.
The free event takes place at
Rothstein Park in Oak Park, locat-
ed behind the JPM Jewish
Community Center on 10 Mile
Road, between Coolidge and
Greenfield.

7/30

1999

32 Detroit Jewish News

connection with "our grandparents' and
speakers exist in the Detroit area. Alva
Zeltzer said he feels that the future
great-grandparents' language — where
Dworkin, co-president with May
of Yiddish is in our Orthodox commu-
everything they did was in Yiddish." He
Moskowitz of the Sholem Aleichem
nities, where many Chasidim speak the
says the study of Yiddish gives him "a
Institute, is a member of the Freilicha
language in their homes and schools,
better understanding" of Jewish history
Freindt, a women's group that gets
and where it's also spoken "in the aca-
and his heritage.
together once a month "just for the sake
demic and cultural community —
In 1976, during his senior year of
of speaking Yiddish," Dworkin says.
existing, for most, as a nostalgic feeling
college, Liebman enrolled in the
Sholem Aleichem is a Southfield-
of going back to Eastern Europe."
Summer Yiddish Program at Columbia
based cultural institute that provides sec-
Committed to the perpetuation of
University, which was offered in con-
ular programming on Jewish topics. For
Yiddish, Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring
junction with YIVO Institute for Jewish
those interested, it can provide names of
in Oak Park continues to include
other local social clubs.
Research in
Yiddish classes for all of the kindergarten
The institute, which
New York. The
through seventh-grade students enrolled
holds regular High
program is still
in its Sunday school. Workmen's Circle
in existence, he
Holiday services that
is part of a national secular humanistic
include Yiddish readings
organization founded by Eastern
says, but has
become much
and songs, has an older
European Yiddish speakers. Jan Adler,
larger.
but involved member-
director of the Sunday school, said the
ship, Dworkin says.
Liebman
curriculum includes some conversational
says after com-
The institute's school
usage, letter recognition, music and
closed v,rhen enrollment
pleting the
poetry.
course, he
fell but some former stu-
Workmen's Circle offers adult
dents continue the tradi-
Yiddish classes periodically according to
began collecting
tions learned there. Judy
interest. The organization's annual High
Yiddish books.
Lenin, once a student in
Holiday services include Yiddish songs
It's now a
Dworkin's Sholem
transliterated into English for non-
library of
Aleichem classroom, is
Yiddish speakers. Students perform
between 800-
Yiddish songs for residents at the
married to Martin
1,000 volumes,
Liebman. Their daughter
Fleischman Residence in West
including "col-
read the same Yiddish
Bloomfield and Prentis Apartments in
lections of
poem
at
her
bat
mitzvah
Oak
Park.
works by
Yiddish speakers George and Pearl
B'nai mitzvah services offered through
as Lenin read at her
Yiddish authors Zeltzer of West Bloomfield.
Workmen's Circle include a component
brother's bar mitzvah.
like Sholem
in Yiddish, which might include poetry,
Fluent in Yiddish,
Aleichem, Peretz
George (Mike) Zeltzer, past president of
quotes about the topic the student is
(Yizchok Leib) and Mendele (Mendele
speaking on or a greeting.
Sholem Aleichem and former chairman
Moycher Sforim.)"
Older students attend all the Unai
of the Yiddish Cultural Commission of
Liebman reads well-known Yiddish
mitzvah ceremonies, singing Yiddish
the Jewish Community Council of
authors like Isaac Bashevis Singer, but
songs. Adler says the kids receive "a
Metropolitan Detroit, and his wife,
also Ibsen translated from Norwegian
heartwarming reaction from older mem-
Pearl, former editor of the Sholem
into Yiddish, Jules Verne and
bers," who may not have realized how
Aleichem Institute journal, have been
Dostoevski, as well as biology, astrono-
much of our community still has a con-
involved for many years in the Yiddish
my and art history textbooks in Yiddish.
nection to Yiddish. E
community
Liebman has subscribed for many years
to both the English Forward and
Yiddish Forverts newspapers.
Another advantage to having this
facility is that he's been able to read
information recorded in Yiddish in trac-
ing his family history.
A musician, Liebman says studying
Yiddish led to his interest in performing
klezmer music, the folksy, bluesy instru-
ett, a
f 11d
mental music of East European Jews.
of original poetry.
(The word ldezmer stems from the
orverts
poems are meant to
Yiddish pronunciation of the Hebrew
1gemeiner
or congratulate, explore
word kley-zemer, meaning musical
Ourna , as well as various
Jewish customs and holi-
instruments.) According to Cantor
publications in Russia,
days and better understand
Stephen Dubov of Temple Beth El in
Haim Rozenthal
Ukraine, Poland and
mourning and sadness.
Bloomfield Township, there's been a
Israel.
Yiddish Culture Club
resurgence of klezmer music by kids in
Rozenthal is editor of the Yiddish
member Leizer Selektor of Southfield
their 20s and 30s, who have embraced it
pages of Bais Chabad of North
says, "Unfortunately, the language is
and brought it to a different level with a
Oak Park/FREE synagogue's
disappearing, taking along an entire
jazz influence and New Orleans sound."
monthly newspaper, Return, and a
layer of human culture. However,
Although Rozenthal says the Yiddish
member of the Michigan
while poets such as Haim Rozenthal
Culture Club is, to his knowledge, the
Association of Jewish World War
live and create, our Yiddish language
only local one of its type, he acknowl-
II Veterans.
continues to bloom."
edges that several social clubs for Yiddish

((