They used to say that with Yiddish ken men oysforn a velt -
you can get around the world with Yiddish, because it's spoken everywhere.
Who knows, that might still be true!
אונדזערע נײַעס
Az ikh vel aykh zogn "Gut-morgn", darft ir entfern "a gutinke nakht" -
if I greet you with a "Good morning", you'lll have to wish me a good night, because these regards come to you from the land down under.
The Congress for Jewish Culture has worked hand in hand with the Melbourne Kadimah and some generous private donors to present a show commemorating Sholem Aleichem's 100th yortsayt: Not Dead Yet!, with original material by Arnold Zable and scenes and monologues by Sholem Aleichem. Three performances in two days brought Yiddish culture to over 600 attendees!
In fact, 2016 has been a miraculous year for the Congress for Jewish Culture, bringing Yiddish culture to venues the world over.
In March we helped bring Vartn af Godo, the Yiddish Waiting for Godot, to Paris as part of the international Commençez! Beckett Festival there.
In April we filled the house with a Sholem Aleichem program at the Celeste Auditorium of the New York Public Library's Schwarzman Building at 42nd and Fifth.
In May CJC director Shane Baker and other actors from New York worked with Beit Sholem Aleichem in Tel Aviv to present a Sholem Aleichem program there with Chava Alberstein on the bill and over 800 attendees.
In June we partnered with the California Institue for Yiddish Culture and Language to present two Yiddish performances for the Los Angeles Public Library system.
And August through November, we pulled out all the stops, presenting Sholem Aleichem classes and programming in venues from Circle Lodge to KlezKanada, the South African Broadcasting Corportation in Cape Town, the Little Theatre on the Square in Johannesburg, the Jewish Public Library in Montreal, the Workmen's Circle of Toronto, and now, most recently in Melbourne with a side visit to the
Yidisher Folks-tsenter in Sydney.
You're still reading? Then before we get to Show and Tell, how about some
Ibergevaremte chremslach and farshimlte knaidlach [sic]
Under "not-really-news" but "unfinished-business-relevant-to-our-pursuit," 2016 has once again demonstrated that Yiddish is much more than a mere hobby horse. Exhibit A, Jairam Hathwar of Painted Post, NY won the Scripps National Spelling Bee last May after spelling chremslach (his actual winning word was Feldenkrais, (oykh mir a Yid!). And it's not the first time Yiddish has popped up in the competition. In 2013 Arvind V. Mahankali won the whole shmir on the word knaidel, and boy did that lead to a tsimes. You think Arvind Mahankali and Jairam Hathwar ever ate a knaidel or a chremsl? Nope, but they were good children and learned themselves some Yiddish, so they got about 70K in cash and prizes. Some chremslach and a lonely lousy knaidel for 70 grand? Has there ever been a clearer demonstration of the principle im eyn kemakh, eyn toyre?
Other Yiddishisms that have popped up in recent years include hesped, kichel, and hechsher. Maybe the OU is behind all this. If your kichel doesn't have a hechsher, then you won't get a hesped? More to be revealed.
And now, here's a couple of shots of Yiddish in South Africa and Australia!
*FAKE FACT: Yiddish is written left to right in Australia, South Africa, and other countries in the Southern Hemisphere.
*TRUE FACT: South Africans like to abbreviate things just as much as Australians, so when Cape Town and Joburg Jews - even younger Jews who speak little to no Yididsh - say "Goodbye", they say Zayges!