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Long Ago
And Far Away

Yiddish Yes! brings to life an integral part of Jewish history.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

Finding Heritage

AppleTree Editor

While many of the guests were indeed seniors, plenty
of younger faces could be found at the event as well,
including Ellen Bates-Brackett, director of the metro
Detroit Workmen's Circle, and Arlene Frank, chairman
of the Michigan District of Workmen's Circle.
Frank did not come from a Yiddish-speaking home,
and now, like many others who are part of what she
describes as a "definite resurgence in Yiddish culture
around this country and around the world," she longs
for what she never had.
Frank's parents were Holocaust survivors, immersed
in a Yiddish culture that was almost completely obliter-
ated by the Nazis. When her parents came to the
United States, they hoped their children would not be
different; they wanted their family to fit in, and so they
as similated.
"Now, I feel like I lost part of my family heritage,"
Frank says. "And I want that heritage, and I want to
connect to the Jewish people of the past."
But connections are difficult when they are limited
to the pages of a book or worn photographs, which is
why Frank helped organize Yiddish Yes! "I want to
help make it come alive," she said.
This is the first year for Yiddish Yes! In metro
Detroit, she said, but it is slated to become an annual
event. Like Abraham Lorber, Aaron Eagen was born
long after Yiddish helped define the Jewish communi-
ty. He's planning to attend the University of Michigan
next year; but this night he was working as a waiter for
Yiddish Yes! -
These were no ordinary waiters,
though. "Is the soup all right?"
"So what do you think of
the chicken?" "Do you
have everything you
need" — patrons were
treated to a loving
Jewish grandfather
come to life.
Garbed in the very
pants his grandfather
once wore, a towel
around his waist (as
his grandfather had
done when he helped
serve meals at home),
Eagen has worked at
the Renaissance
Festival in Oakland
County and in dinner
theater — but this
performance was espe-
cially close to his heart.
,,
"It's a fun language,

l

is as though Abraham Lorber has jumped into
history and brought back with him a culture — a
language many believed was long dead.
Lorber, 21, is passionate about 'Yiddish — from his
days at the Workmen's Circle, where, as a teen, he
taught Jewish history and Yiddish; to the University of
Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he is now a senior and
continues to study the language:
"It's a vital part of Ashkenazi Jewish tradition," he
said. A Yiddish education is "as important as a Hebrew
education." Lorber wants to help "keep the tradition
alive by remembering and participating in the culture
of our ancestors."
One way he participated was by attending this past

-

Sunday's "Yiddish Yes! A Day of Yiddish Culture" at
the Jewish Community Center in Oak Park. The event
was presented by the Workmen's Circle-Arbeter Ring
— The Circle of Jewish Culture, and the JCC. It was
made possible with a donation by the Norman Joseff
family and the Rosen-Gold Family Philanthropic Fund
of the Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan
Detroit.
The day began with various workshops, including
Yiddish holiday songs and art projects using the
Yiddish alphabet, a history of Hungarian Yiddish folk-
lore, a dance presentation and an introduction to new
Yiddish melodies from throughout the world. At 5:30,
the program concluded with "Dinner at Bubbie's —
It's Sunday Night!" featuring a traditional chicken din-
ner and entertainment by Live from Moldova.

10/29
2004

62

Eagen said of his interest in Yiddish. "I loved learning
it at Sunday school and I look forward to studying it at
the University of Michigan."
Dinner guests also enjoyed a music performance and
sing-along of Yiddish tunes (a favorite, first made pop-
ular by Yiddish theater legend Molly Picon, reminded,
"If you have your health, you have everything"), and "I
Love Yiddish" buttons were free to take.
Between the music, the jokes, the joy it was much
like stepping right back in history. The only obvious
reminder of the present: Large bottles of Coke on each
table. ❑

Above: Yiddish composer Yefim Chorny sings in his
native language.

Left: Beverly Fine of West Bloomfield drums along with
the Yiddish music.

Below: Cindy Frenkel of Huntington Woods learns
Yiddish dance steps at the hands of Festival Dancer
Marci Fine of Farmington Hills.

