Last night I watched the equivalent of Lithuania’s Got Talent. I’m beginning to like the incomprehensible din of words. I was upset to see a contestant dressed in mock Hassidic garb singing (nicely) from Fiddler on the Roof. But I saw the same outfit in today’s movie worn in a Yiddish theater in Israel.

I left Ber-Ber’s (aka dove bar, ber squared) class today. I will tackle level 2 for one class, level 1 for another. I want to hear more words and don’t care as much about writing. I can cope with level 2 but just barely.
Lunch with Fran and Susan, my Lantsladies, and les dames agreeables. (Thanks, Robert!)

We saw another poignant move, this one actually good. It was about the effects of de- Yiddishizing Israel after the war. Good reasons on each side. The movie was biased. Israel had been in existence as Jewish “Palestine” for 60 years; and as a Hebrew speaking one, thanks to Ben Yehuda resurrecting the language, and the intrepid pioneers. Israeli leaders didn’t want a continuing Shetl culture. The refugees from WWII had Yiddish and devastation in common. Israel wanted to build an assertive/aggressive new land. Hebrew, the sacred language, offended the orthodox, but created a new culture. Acrimony on the part of Yiddishists who were asked not to speak in Yiddish, and whose children grew up without. A cultural annihilation when language is denied? Other than a small cultural revival (including female rap artists whose art benefits from the intense rhyming scheme of the language, it is the “Mama Loshen,” mother tongue, only for orthodox Jews. So many interviews! Humor, not humor, racy, not racy, curses, elegant. One amazing bit of consensus – Humor. A great line, “If Hamlet had said ‘to be or not to be’ in Yiddish, someone would have answered him “Be, don’t be, don’t “hak mir in kopf” (beat me over the head with it’”

Then to the first session of our week long songfest. An emaciated, small Rasputin-look alike singer belted out cabaret-style Yiddish songs, including a few racy ones, and a few drinking songs from what I could tell. (After lunch I began to understand!!!)

Our ranks were increased for dinner, eight of us, in a superb Italian restaurant. The garden is in a fabulous courtyard adjacent to the Italian cultural center. We are German, Argentinean, American. The Americans lagging in their Yiddish, but for dinner Yiddish briefly becomes an international language again.

Continuing Education

I forgot how life is without the incessant drone of the weather report. I have a pictogram on my computer, I otherwise consult my skylight. It is cold, sunny and humid here, so one can get cold or warm depending on shade, indoor/outdoor, and the ever threatening drizzle. I'm enjoying the intensity of the work, and the very interesting people. These three days have seemed very long -- my only life, and very distant from "real life." Hard to know what will result from this extended visit.

I try, mostly in vain, to find English language TV that is not dubbed over by the sole voice of TV, a loud guy who drowns out men and women with his voice over. Interesting are the American series dubbed in Russian and voiced over in Lithuanian. How mangled!

I have two teachers, one is Dov-Ber, who, thanks to Meredith I think of as Bear-Bear. He's a burly, grizzly fifty-something Russian Jew who looks like the man who is always in Jewish/Israeli tourist art. He's a little full of himself. He's written a text with a number of errors, which, ever the editor - even when I don't understand - I correct publicly. I think he feels the book was his heavy lifting and that he can coast. He spends too much time telling jokes and speaking Yiddish in an Italian accent so as to flirt with 20-something Martina from Italy. Our other teacher is Anna, an Estonian Jew, stick thin, 30-40, almost Abigail - like in her waifishness. Her intensity and didactic forward march are tremendous motivation.