Connecticut Jewish Ledger

NEW HAVEN — Everything is zayer gutt’ Wednesdays at noon at Yale University’s Slifka Center.

A dedicated group of mamaloshen lovers, a.k.a. “The Yale Hillel Yiddish Reading Circle,” sit around a long, board room-like table for an hour and a half of reading, serious discussion and friendly bantering exclusively in Yiddish of works by a range of classic and contemporary Yiddish writers.

“Right now we are reading things written in Poland and Australia,” notes Marvin Weiss of Branford, a former volunteer crew member on the Medinat Yisrael, one of ten American ships that ran the British blockade of Palestine in the year before Israel’s War of Independence. “Some prefer to stick to the classics and want more Sholom Aleichem or Peretz though those are more difficult due to the many Hebrew and Russian words.”

Members are proud to point out that this is the “chai” (18th) year of the group, started by Ethel Himberg.

“I took over as chair 16 years ago,” reports a distinguished looking Sid Resnick, clad in tie and black sweater. “While people come and go, our numbers are fairly constant.”

“We have a number of snow birds who winter in Florida,” reports Weiss. “Our ranks tend to get a little depleted about now. But enough remain to keep us going.” The group tends to attract between 15-18 to its fall and spring sessions, while approximately ten attend during the winter months.

At the last session of the year, traditionally the last Wednesday in June, participants enjoy a special Yiddish picnic, songs and poetry at a member’s home in Clinton.

“Last year, we did the first act of King Lear, in Yiddish, in costume,” points out Weiss.

The members clearly enjoy each others’ company and have quite a history together. Resnick affectionately recalls a young man who came to the group five years ago: “He was schooled in a Brooklyn Chasidic yeshiva and didn’t know there was such a thing as Yiddish poetry or literature.” Another group member proudly tells the story of Kalmen Weiser who came to Yale as an undergraduate and was part of the group for three years. “He spoke Galician Germanic, but we straightened him out on his Yiddish.” Last the members heard, Weiser was an instructor of Judaic Studies and Yiddish at the University of Toronto. [In general, undergraduates tend not to join the group; they often have classes at noon. In addition, they have an undergraduate Yiddish course at Yale as well as their own Yiddish study group on Mondays.]

Eclectic Group
While most members grew up in Yiddish speaking homes and went to Yiddish schools as children, the group is rather eclectic. Weiss warmly recounts his ten years in Yiddish school, followed by 55 years of never speaking a word of Yiddish until joining the group.

“I sat quietly for the first one or two sessions. Then it came back to me. I was on a 10-year-old level. Now I’m on an 11-year-old level.” His friends smile and laugh knowingly.

Fred Richman fondly recalls attending Yiddish schools in the 1940s. “We felt a little superior to the cheder kids. They were studying a dead language (Hebrew) while we were speaking Yiddish. Even in the subways, Yiddish was the Lingua Franca.”

Resnick is described as the group member who went to Yiddish school the longest (he attended a Yiddish high school). For that reason, he selects most of the readings. He proceeds to rattle off names of such Yiddish writers as Dovid Bergelson, Avrom Reisin, Isaac Metzker, Kadya Moladovski, and I.L. Peretz. One member chimes in that the group has read almost the complete writings of I.B. Singer, “Though some of us consider his brother to be a better writer than the Nobel Prize winner!” The group has also read Yiddish writers from such unlikely places as Mexico, Cuba, Argentina and South Africa.

A few group members attended Talmud Torahs and are therefore able to help with difficult Hebraisims which appear in some Yiddish literature. And members represent the major dialects Polish, Ukrainian, Litvak and Galicia,

reports Richman. “And we have Yefim to help us with Russian phrases.” They report proudly that Yefim, who came to the United States eight years ago from the former Soviet Union, was a former artillery officer and “is probably responsible for killing more Germans than any other Jew in history.”

In addition to their weekly readings and discussions, the group hosts a film series, has a singing group and sometimes attends Yiddish performances together. During this reporter’s recent visit, the group playfully discussed the parking problem near the Slifka Center, a chesed opportunity to read Yiddish with the elderly in a nursing home, the recent arrival of a new member, here with her husband on sabbatical from Israel, and lunch at the Slifka Center at the conclusion of the session.

“It’s okay to just come and listen. And we are tolerant of slow readers,” notes Sid Resnick. “We will even tutor you!”

For more information, call Marvin Weiss at 203-488-5930 or email him at m.weiss@comcast.net — or come to the Slifka Center on Wednesdays from 12-1:30pm Lunch is available at the Slifka Center Kosher Dining Room.