Last week I started the second year of a beginner's Yiddish language course. It's a small class of enthusiasts who are all connected in at least one thing: a love for the Yiddish language, a language full of character, a language which unmistakably exudes the Jewish, Ashkenazy culture. Unbeknown to my fellow talmidim (students) it was an emotional moment for me when last year I wrote down my first Yiddish words. It was the feeling of suddenly being connected to the past, writing in the language and script of Aunty Betty and my Lithuanian Jewish ancestors. However, besides the emotional connotations there are also practical reasons for me studying what is arguably, the Chassidim aside, a dying language. Aunty Betty and her sweetheart, Joe Frank, corresponded with each other in their mother tongue, Yiddish. My Yiddish teacher has been very helpful in translating theirs and other postcards which have recently come to light amongst the possessions of recently deceased family members.
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| Joe Frank, South West Africa, 1930's (collection Diana Epstein) |
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| Back of postcard shown above (apologies for the poor quality) |
Kalahari Desert S.W. Africa.
Transcription in Yiddish:
Tsum ondenkung far mayn
no’enter un tayerer frayndine
fun der vayter Afrika
fun dayn gutn
fraynd Dzshoh
English translation:
A memento for my close and dear friend from far-off Africa.
From your good friend Joe.
(My sincere thanks go to Ruben Verhasselt for this translation)
By learning the language myself, though, I want to be able to decipher these kinds of documents myself. This will be useful for my further research, particularly in Vilnius, where for example many exhibits in the holocaust museum, The Green House, have only explanatory captions in Yiddish and Russian and sometimes in Hebrew.
So I'm looking forward to a new scholastic year and learning this wonderful language.
