"Oy Yiddish"
by Emily Chudnovsky, 2005 MWS graduate

When my Bubbie Goldie was in the hospital, my family and I went to visit her. Worried and a little emotional, my Dad and I went to the waiting room and sat down beside two elderly men and a woman. The woman was crying and the men were saying something comforting to her in Yiddish. I got such a strange feeling when I heard them speaking Yiddish. I didn't know them but it felt like we were family. The language spoke to me even though I couldn't speak the language; there was something familiar. I felt connected. This made me want to learn more about the language and to explore my relationship with it. And now I want to share with you what I've discovered.

When I hear Yiddish I think of my history.

Yiddish has developed since about the year 1,100 and is made up of mostly German and Hebrew. It has words from Slavic countries, and has some Greek, Dutch, and Scandinavian in it. Why does Yiddish have so many root languages? Because it grew out of the Diaspora – the period of time after the destruction of the temple in Israel when Jews dispersed all over Europe, into Russia, Poland, Romania, England, France and other countries. Yiddish has 18 different dialects because the language evolved so much over the years, and was built in so many different places. Yiddish is the glue that unites these communities.

When I hear Yiddish I think of my identity.

The word Yiddish, in High German, means Jewish, and that is exactly how I feel about Yiddish. Even if it didn't translate as Jewish, Yiddish to me would still mean Jewish. When I hear Yiddish, I realize that I use it all the time. You may be hearing about Yiddish for the first time today or you may have heard of it but think you don't know anything about it. You know more Yiddish than you think. Here are some Yiddish words you might use everyday: Shmear; Nosh; Shtick; Kindergarten; Shmo; Klutz; and one of the most common ones is Oy vey!

You might be using words all the time and not even know that you were speaking Yiddish. There are about 500 other words that are originally Yiddish words used in everyday English. Most are found in dictionaries.

When I hear Yiddish I think of Jewish culture.

I think of the books and plays written in Yiddish. Writers such as Sholem Aleichem, I.L. Peretz, Sholem Ash, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Morris Winchevsky, and other well known intellectuals were Yiddish thinkers and activists.

When I hear Yiddish I think of family.

I think of my Bubbies, and the warmth in their voices when they speak the language. When my Bubbie Eileen speaks Yiddish, I can tell that she enjoys it. I think maybe part of that is because it takes her back to her old life in Poland. My Bubbie Goldie had a Jewish school in her parents' basement when she was young, and now goes to a Yiddish club in her building. They are both beautiful Yiddish speakers and are very connected to Yiddish culture.

When my Dad was younger and his parents didn't want him to hear what they were talking about, they would speak in Yiddish so he couldn't understand. He too is glued, in his own way, to the Yiddish language.

My grandparents' generation are the last generation for whom Yiddish is their first language. Before the Holocaust, three quarters of the world's Jews spoke Yiddish as their first or only language. Over half the world?s Yiddish speakers died in the Holocaust. We are unsure of how many Yiddish speakers remain today.

We have to save this strong language that holds the keys to our history! We have such an important part of our heritage in Yiddish and although it may seem like just a language, it is more than that. It tells its own story. In the 'old country' the Jews spoke it through their hardships. Through the Holocaust it was there with the people trying to hold on to hope. Now, when we are so fortunate and have so much, to just take it for granted is unfair to our ancestors and to the few records we have of our history. We must hold on to our identity, culture, language, books, and family. Even if we don?t speak Yiddish we must make it known and remembered.

There are things that are happening today that make me hopeful that Yiddish will survive. The National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts is dedicated to rescuing Yiddish books and celebrating Yiddish culture. Thanks to the National Yiddish Book Center, 12,000 Yiddish titles are now available online, as well as books that have been out of print for over 50 years. The Center has collected 1.5 million books, and continues to receive an additional 500 books a week. The Yiddish Scientific Institute, also known as the YIVO library, gave me a lot of useful information for my speech. So did the Toronto Jewish Library. People all over the world, in organizations and clubs, are trying to keep Yiddish alive.

Just hearing two elderly men and a woman talk in Yiddish inspired me, and I hope that from what I have told you, I have inspired you to learn more about Yiddish, or at least reminded you of an important element of your history that you may want to learn more about.

We have struggled to survive for so many years. We are now building a strong society that can only get stronger! We must not let Yiddish die. We have such a beautiful religion and culture, and if Yiddish was not a part of that, Judaism would lose its rich, precious and delicious flavour!