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A Romance with Yiddish: from Birobidzhan to New York

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A Romance with Yiddish: from Birobidzhan to New York the 48th and 49th parallels north lati- In 1936, as the clouds of Nazism the war, Birobidzhan might prove tude. A 1929 commission compared darkened over Europe and Jews to be “the logical Palestine of this it, topographically, to Ontario and sought sanctuary wherever they unhappy era. In this new potential Michigan. Indeed, the commission could find it, Edward E. Grusd, the haven, the Jewish people are free was headed by Franklin S. Harris, editor of B ’nai B ’rith Magazine, to develop their inherent spiritual an agronomist who had lived in Al- remarked that those Jews “who still and intellectual gifts as well as their berta, where, he said, “the climate believe in the value of prayer should industrial and agricultural aptitudes, and conditions were similar to Bi- thank God that in today’s mad world” and enjoy freedom and abundance in robidzhan.” there is a Birobidzhan, “a great land ever increasing measure.” Unlike the parched Middle East, beckoning to them, challenging Grusd and Weber were wrong, there’s no shortage of water: The their best energies and talents.” In of course. Birobidzhan never came Amur River, separating Birobidzhan such days of distress for the Jewish even close to rivaling the Zionist from Chinese Manchuria to its south, people, he concluded, Birobidzhan yishuv in Eretz Israel. Today the connects the region to the Pacific “may well turn out to be their one Jewish population of the JAR is Ocean. Other rivers include the Bira, sure haven.” about six thousand, according to the Bidzhan, Birakan, Urmi and Ikura. In 1943, in the middle of the Ho- Jewish community, which survives The Trans-Siberian Railway links locaust, the Polish-born American as a living footnote to history and the region with Russia, East Asia, Jewish artist Max Weber, a protege another far-flung outpost of the Jew- and the Pacific. of Pablo Picasso, hoped that, after ish world. ® A Romance with Yiddish: From Birobidzhan to New York N ik o l a i B o r o d u l in “The louder the Yiddish, the farther you’ll get.” — Bernard Choseed t I HE INCIDENT WILL b e in my memory forever, and I recollect it as if At the time, I was 28. I knew that I it happened yesterday. On a warm, sunny September day in 1989, was Jewish, yes — the stamp on my I was strolling along Sholem Aleichem Street, the major thorough- passport, “Yevrey” (Jew), didn’t grant fare of Birobidzhan, capital city of ______________________________ me the chance to forget. I was even the Jewish Autonomous Region in weirdly proud to be Jewish because Birobidzhan, I had never Karl Marx, Yakov Sverdlov (the first ״' the Far East of Russia, and I met Llvjn9 an acquaintance who wished me a heard the words, “ Hashone.” president of Soviet Russia) and many happy holiday. I looked at him as if --------------------------------------------- world chess champions were Jewish. I he were daydreaming and naively another planet. “Don’t you know that was also a decently educated person: asked, “What holiday are you talk- today is a Jewish holiday?” I knew Russian, English and German, ing about? We have a long way to “What Jewish holiday?” worked as an assistant principal of a go before October Revolution Day” “Don’t you know that today is high school, and had begun to study (celebrated by all Soviet people on ?” and simultaneously teach Yiddish November 7th). My next question astonished him: to adults and children. Still, I didn’t He looked at me as if I were from “What’s Rosh ?” know about the simplest, most com- mon traditions of Jewish life. Living N ikolai Borodulin, a member of our Editorial Board, is Assistant Direc- in Birobidzhan — described by the 10- tor of the Center for Cultural Jewish Life at The Workmen’s Circle. He was cal writer Boris Miller as “a factory to bom and raised in Birobidzhan and came to the U.S. in 1992. He worked for assimilate Jews” — I had never heard eight years as a librarian and cataloguer at YIVO. the words, “Rosh Hashone.” 18 Jewish Currents דאם ערשטע יאר פון דער אידישער אױטאנאמע ר The Jewish Autonomous Territory in טעױטאױע - א רעקארד פון גרױםע דעתרײמנגעןBiro-Bidjan is Making Great Strides פעדעץ טאײדש — עם גײט, טייגא, צו דיר איצט יונג װעח א פאלק r #למאו#? דוד בע-נעלטא: ראובן בריינץ כדוך גלאזטאז בעד גדין י. ט. ומבטאן ליובע װאבע־טאז ט. c. באווקין ט״צה כ*ו 6ד*ז טאדליש גיגא טעדעב .... איציל פעפע־ א. יעדעלטאו ד-. ל. •טאצאוו - לאדדאנטלי I had never heard of “Purim,” read to myself amazing stories about occasion I can, although he is al- “Sukesfi or “bar mitsve, ” either. The young Volodya Ulyanov (Lenin’s ready twelve years oyf yener velt only Jewish holiday I was somewhat real name), how honest and brave he (in another world). The late Bernard familiar with was Peysekh, for which was. In the first grade, almost every Choseed, a professor of Russian Lan- my bobe used to bake matse. She student became an Oktyabryonok, guage and literature at Georgetown never said why and I never asked a member of an all-Soviet school University, a passionate lover of Yid- even one question, forget about fir children’s organization, and received dish language and an expert on Soviet kashes (Four Questions). a pin with the image of Lenin as a Yiddish literature, had wanted to visit Like almost every person of my child of 6 or 7. In the third and fourth Birobidzhan since Stalin’s death. He generation, I was a product of the grades, we became Young Pioneers had always been refused a visa, but national policy of the Communist and wore the red tie along with a didn’t give up. In the 1970s, he even Party, whose ultimate goal was to pin with the portrait of 10-year-old took a train from Moscow to Vladi- force all people of the Soviet Union Lenin. At 14, we joined the Young vostok, with a twenty-minute stop in to believe in the new and only God Communist League and proudly the city he had read so much about. — the Communist Party and its chief wore a pin with the portrait of a teen- But the real opportunity to spend deputy, Khaver (Comrade) Lenin. (In age Volodya Ulyanov. time in Birobidzhan arrived with my time, Stalin was not spoken of How many songs about Lenin we perestroika, Mikhail Gorbachev’s any more). The brainwashing really sang! How many poems about Lenin policy of “restructuring,” which be- worked, and how! No matter what we recited! gan in 1985 but eventually reached time of day or night, if you woke the Soviet Zion in the late 1980s. me and asked when and where V.I. I mention Lenin 9s birthday intention- Professor Choseed was fascinated Lenin was bom, I, along with most ally, because on that date in 1989 I by what he saw in Birobidzhan. of my generation, could answer met in Birobidzhan a person who Most of the Jewish/Yiddish enthu- without thinking: April 22nd, 1870, became my mentor, taught me how siasts (including non-Jews) were in Simbirsk. Throughout my early to be a good teacher and a mentsh, just beginning the process of Jewish childhood, I would listen and then and whom I thank sincerely every revival, and he was as happy as a July-A u gust, 2006 19 child to see this renaissance: to hear residents. Little of this interested me, Heymland (Soviet Homeland). There Yiddish songs and cultural programs however. I actually found it slightly I was privileged to study with, and on the radio; to buy gefilte fish in embarrassing to see old Jews sitting shep enormous nakhes from, Shimen delis; to see little kids studying Yid- on benches and speaking this strange- Sandler, a legendary Yiddish teacher dish in kindergartens, and students sounding Yiddish. If anybody had who taught Yiddish on the pages of at Teachers College (most of whom, suggested that not only would I some Sovetish Heymland. like the kindergarteners, were not day speak the language but actually Seminar participants soon learned Jews) studying to become Yiddish- become a professional in the field about another Yiddish seminar in language instructors. I was truly im- of Yiddish culture, I would have Moscow run by former refuseniks pressed by Choseed’s methodology laughed. What caused my transfor- and taught by Israeli Yiddish pro- of teaching language through culture. mation from an almost-perfect So- fessors. We had to tants oyf tsvey He used contemporary, innovative viet person with an appropriate set khasenes (dance at two weddings), studying officially from 9 to 1 with Sandler and Chaim Beider, and semi- By the third day of my Yiddish immersion, I felt as if all the people officially from 2 to 6 with Gershon surrounding me on the Moscow Metro were speaking Yiddish . Weiner, Dov Noy, and Rivka Reich. By the third day of this immersion, approaches, which he demonstrated of values into an ardent Yiddishist? I felt as if all the people surround- z a lange ing me on the Moscow Metro were־ for many language instructors and As they say in Yiddish: 57 students at the Teachers Training mayse (it’s a long story). speaking Yiddish . Institute and Teachers College in Birobidzhan, and also in Khabarovsk My interest in Yiddish arose when When I returned from Moscow, the Teachers College. Anatolii Surnin, a dean at the newly editor of the Birobidzhaner Shtern Professor Choseed became a major established Teachers College in gave Anatolii Surnin a letter from promoter of Birobidzhan abroad.
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