jews d

in
the

Yiddish

As Yiddish
Book Center
chair, Eugene
Driker helped
preserve the
language.

ROCHEL BURSTYN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I

t’s been four years since
Eugene Driker became board
chair at one of the country’s
l largest Jewish cultural organiza-
t tions, the Yiddish Book Center
( (YBC). Although he stepped
d
down in November 2016, the
J JN caught up with him to hear
a about the organization’s accom-
p
plishments under his direction.
“I joined because I saw the
o
organization’s vital work,” said
D
Driker, whose parents were
Y
Yiddish-speaking immigrants
f from what is now the Ukraine
a and whose first language was
Y
Yiddish. “To learn what people
w
were thinking in a certain time
period, you need to read books,
plays, periodicals, poems writ-
ten in the language used at

that time. Yiddish is the key
neighborhood and was stunned
to Ashkenazic Jewry. Without
when, within two days, he’d
understanding Yiddish, it’s
received 75 books along with
impossible to know what 19th-
letters asking him to pick up
century Jews were thinking.
more. He realized that books
“People seem to think
were out there, on
that Fiddler on the Roof is
bookshelves of Jewish
the pinnacle of life back
seniors around the
then, but it was only one
country, whose
story. There was a whole
descendants didn’t
complicated, fascinating
understand the lan-
life in the cities beyond
guage. Lansky saw a
the shtetls and milk carts.”
need to rescue those
The YBC was founded
Yiddish books from
Aaron Lansky
in 1980 by Aaron Lansky,
potential oblivion and
a student of Yiddish
was not dissuaded
literature who had a
when people insisted
hard time finding the required
that Yiddish had died in the
Yiddish reading material. He
Holocaust.
posted “Yiddish books wanted”
It was estimated there were
signs around an old Jewish
75,000 copies of Yiddish litera-

JOHN HARDWICK

Hero

ture left in the world; although
to date, more than 1.5 mil-
lion books have been rescued
through YBC’s efforts.
The physical preservation is
relatively simple: The books are
kept in an underground climate-
controlled storage facility at the
YBC in Amherst, Mass. These
days, the YBC is more con-
cerned with sharing the Yiddish
culture with the world and has
partnered with the National
Library of Israel to digitalize the
books and make them available
at no cost online for anyone
worldwide.
The books are also translated,
a process that can take an entire
team up to a year’s work per
book.

continued on page 10

F

or folks wanting to learn
conversational Yiddish, the
best bet is to pick up a copy
of Moshe Sherizen’s book The
Easy-Shmeezy Guide to Yiddish, a
pocket-sized guide, complemented
with songs, jokes, expressions and
useful sayings for practically any
Jewish occasion.
Sherizen, 33, of Southfield, did
not grow up speaking Yiddish; and,
based on his Hebrew grades at
school, he assumed he was not
adept at learning languages.
At 18, Sherizen found himself
in Mea She’arim in Jerusalem,
where the streets are teeming
ROCHEL BURSTYN with Yiddish-speaking Chasidim.
CONTRIBUTING WRITER Fascinated and wanting to delve
into the local culture, he asked a
friend how to say, “What’s up?” in
Yiddish. He tried the line on the first
unsuspecting local he saw and,
though the man gave him a funny
look in response, that, Sherizen
said, is when he became hooked.

The Easy-
Shmeezy
Guide To
Yiddish

Local author
shares his love
of languages.

8

June 22 • 2017

jn

history of the State of
“I had spoken
Israel; rather, it teaches
Yiddish! Sure, it was
common phrases
just one expression, but
that would be said in
that’s what language is
Jewish bookstores, in
— many expressions,”
shul or to a child (like,
he explained.
“Who do you love more,
He promptly pur-
Mommy or Daddy?!”).
chased a notebook and
“My goal was to con-
began keeping track of
nect to our heritage,
the everyday Yiddish
encapsulate it and give
phrases he was asking Author Moshe Sherizen
it over in a fun way,”
to be taught by anyone with his book
he said.
he came across.
Immediately after the book’s
Within a year, he was fluent.
release, Sherizen was inundated
“Today, Yiddish is my best lan-
with positive feedback and received
guage!” he said. He was so thrilled
many requests to write a similar
he decided to bring his new-found
book for Hebrew learners.
knowledge to whomever else
“Hebrew is sort of the new
wanted to learn. He started with
Yiddish, the common language of
his well-worn notebook, added
Jews today,” said Sherizen, who set
to it and worked on it for another
to work and published The Easy-
six months; it was published by
Menucha Publishers in 2012. Unlike Shmeezy Guide to Hebrew in 2014.
most Yiddish books, The Easy-
Motivated by his success and
Shmeezy Guide to Yiddish does
wanting to branch out, he pub-
not discuss Yiddish culture or the
lished The Easy-Shmeezy Guide

to Spanish in 2016. Sherizen said
he finds it especially meaningful to
enable people to understand the
language of religious texts.
With the support of his wife,
Batya, and his five kids — Azriel,
11, Shevy, 9, Rochel Leah, 7,
Chananya, 5, and Kayla, 2 —
Sherizen keeps busy running his
website FluencyFreedom.com,
where he offers online classes
and support for language learners
worldwide.
He insists anyone can learn any
language if motivated enough.
Sherizen calls his easy-shmeezy
method JET: Jumping in and
immersing in the language,
Educating yourself and Talking it.
“The one who’s talking is learn-
ing,” explained Sherizen, who says
his program is like Weight Watchers
for those serious about learning a
language.
But here the goal isn’t losing; it’s
gaining. •

