Zillenial Yiddishkeit

By Tom Carlson

What is Yiddish and Who Speaks It? 

Yiddish was once the common language of the Ashkenazi Jews of the Alte-Haym (old-home), now a century later the culture surrounding the language looks very different in practice. The late 1800s’ and early 1920s’ saw huge Ashkenazi immigration to Canada and the U.S. through both New York and Halifax. A smaller wave appeared after the Second World War. Yiddish was dying as people tried to assimilate into their new culture; and in Europe Yiddish nearly died to genocide. 

Yiddish survived in America through Hassidic (highly religious) communities that established Yiddishe Shules. Whereas “Alte-Haym” and pre-war Yiddish was associated with women and uneducated men who didn’t speak Hebrew, male Shule members now intensely study both Yiddish and Hebrew and treat Yiddish as a holy and intellectual language. Boys are expected and kept track of their Yiddish usage and this informs the masculine image; however, female Hasidic Jews are not expected to do the same. (Fader 2009)

Hasidic communities have some of the only native-speakers of Yiddish left in the world — and they’re mostly all in New York. However they’re far from the only Yiddish speakers. So who else is speaking Yiddish today? 

As it turns out, a lot of Yiddish speakers are young, largely LGBTQIA+, Anti-fascist, Anti-Zionist, and often not even that religious. Scrolling through posts on several social media platforms you’ll find pages and posts like “Yiddihistke,” a project of two feminist Yiddish speakers, art saying “Yiddishists Against Prisons” or “Anti-Fascist Action” (written in Yiddish). You’ll find covers of Yiddish revolutionary anthems, and virtual meetups to discuss Yiddish anarchism and political theory. Yiddish has also made its way onto TikTok showing a surprising 149,000 views, (a number that’s not big for dance videos, but huge for Yiddish speaking youth). 

Yiddish and it’s Queer/Leftist Intersections

Announcement for talk on Anarchism and Yiddishkayt, Moscow, 1918. (Museum of the Jewish History in Russia)

As it turns out Yiddish has always gone hand in hand with Queerness, Anti-Fascism, Revolution, and the Left, and is still doing so now.  Through history you’ll find LGBTQIA+ writers, like Dropkin, Irena Klepfisz, film makers, like Diane Nerwen, and musicians like “Isle of Klezbos” (Shandler, 2006).  

Yiddish has such a strong connection to Anti-Fascism because it is Fascism that has been hurting Ashkenazi communities for so long (Pogroms, Holocaust). Evidence lies in the Yiddish folk songs and anthems, "Nitsokhn Lid” (Victory Song), “Arbetlose Marsch” (march of the unemployed), and my personal favorite “Daloy Politsei" (Down with the Police), a song written in the late 1800’s against the police state formed by Czar Nikolai. This song has become an anthem of America today for many in this community. Musician,“Geoff Berner” has even adapted the anthem into English as a Klezmer-Punk tale of police brutality in America. 

Speaking with The Speakers

I decided to get in contact with several young Yiddish speakers to see what kind of diversity could be found in intersections, why they speak yiddish, and how they think Yiddish and Judaism connects to being LGBTQIA+ and on the political left. 

Q1: By which intersections do you identify yourself? 

Responses included: Trans Woman, Non-binary, Genderqueer, Femme, Bxtch/Butch, Gay, Lesbian, Dyke, Faygela, Queer, Leftist, Anarchist, Anarcho-Yiddishist, Anarcho-Communist, Disabled, Autistic, Ashkenazi, Secular, and of course… Jewish.  

Q2: Why do you/how did you learn Yiddish? 

A: "it happened because of a conversation with my grandad who is quite old - he said he felt sad that he hadn't taught his kids Yiddish. For me it was a desire to understand myself better, where I came from but also where I could be going.”

A: “My grandparents spoke Yiddish so I happened to pick it up as a kid, as an adult I’m realizing how important it is for us to know Yiddish so I’m actively studying to fill in the gaps.” 

A: "Yiddish feels like a way to connect with my culture and heritage without being more observant, which isn't something I feel able to do at this stage in my life. It's a way to connect with other Jews, and my own Jewishness, that doesn't directly interact with the things I avoid in mainstream Judaism that remind me of my more observant youth.”

Q3: What can you tell me about Yiddish/Jewish culture and lgbtqia+ culture/Leftist-Anarchist culture? 

In relation to queerness and Judaism, anonymous respondents answered, "I do know a number of queer people who are either converting or reconnecting with their Jewish roots, which seems like a semi-recent trend” and “Judaism is a religion like any other but it also has a heritage and cultural side with a deep and proud history. If you’re queer and happen to also be Jewish you might share the same feeling about being marginalized by your Jewishness like you might feel with your queer intersections.”

Non-anonymous participant, “Hava," responded, “there's a big crossover with jewishness and queerness. A sense of being an outsider, for (especially white ashki) jews of being similar yet different from the hegemonic culture. Often, because of trauma, Jews are separated from their elders or their history and this is also true of a trans and queer culture still reeling from the devastation of AIDs and queer-phobic governments. I think often a sense of coming home to Jewishness is also coming home to one's queerness.” 

Hava is a trans woman who’s mother’s family have historically been jewish communists and anarchists. Hava’s dad was also a communist student organizer. When asked about an anarchist/leftist Yiddishkeit she responded, "I feel there's an ethical sense in Talmud, in the Jewish culture of argument, of Tikkun Olam, in the idea of the we not the I, which moves one to a revolutionary position."

An anonymous respondent answered that "there's a long history of leftism in Yiddish-speaking communities, and part of my motivation for learning Yiddish is to get that knowledge more directly from the source. I don't think learning Yiddish is an inherently radical act, but that's a personal application I want to use it for.” 

Zeit Gesund un Shtark (Stay well!) 

The Yiddishist movement is alive and growing. Once thought a dying language, it is good to know that Yiddish is back to fight the global rise of anti-Semitism. For resources on Yiddish culture and media, Hava recommends “the Yiddish blessings and prayers done by women, of writers like Salomea Perl” and I recommend a visit to the The Yiddish Book Center in Massachusetts and their collaboration with the Wexler Oral History Project.

Tom is a culture writer for La Tonique.