Welcome to Yiddishland (Film Screening)

For over 1,000 years, Yiddish was the vernacular language of Eastern European Jews and was the repository of extraordinarily rich Jewish literature and culture.  It operated as a Jewish vernacular for speakers who operated across different languages, including the languages of study and prayer such as Hebrew and Aramaic and the national languages of Europe.  When they emigrated to new homes, Jews brought Yiddish with them, resulting in a vibrant global culture spanning theatre, literature, cinema, education, and politics.  The tragic impact of the Holocaust, and the post-Holocaust diaspora led to a devastating break in the transmission of Yiddish.

But in the last decades, young people across the globe have been discovering Yiddish for the first time. From Buenos Aires, Mexico, Melbourne, to New York, Berlin, Paris, and London, young people are learning Yiddish and applying it to artistic works that extend the use and expression of this vibrant ancient language.  Welcome to Yiddishland gives us a glimpse of this vibrant world, filled with joyous music and performers from around the globe and reframes our understanding of Jewish culture and identity.  If Fiddler on the Roof is all you know of Yiddish culture, you are in for a surprise! 

This program kicks off our year-long celebration of Yiddish literature and culture along with book discussions of literature in translation and other programs on Jewish life.  It is presented as part of the Yiddish Book Center's Public Libraries Program, a partnership with the American Library Association, and made possible by the Lilly Endowment, Inc.