Dr. Tsirl Kuznits Translation, Episode 6:

Eitan: Welcome to the MetaShtetl, this is Eitan Binstock. I inherited the Yiddish language and culture from my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, and I am interested in exploring the way it’s been flourishing in the 21st century. Specifically, how technology is being used to spread and proliferate Yiddish worldwide. Before I welcome my next guest, please note the full translations of the podcast can be viewed on my blog themetashtetl.com, feel free to follow along, and thank you for coming along on this adventure with me. And now for my next guest, Dr. Tsirl Kuznits, Professor at Bard College of environmental studies, Gender and sexuality studies, historical studes, Jewish studies, and Russian and Eurasian studies. Our honored guest, please introduce yourself and tell a little about yourself.

Tsirl: Sholem Aleichem, I’m called Tsirl Esther Kuznits, or in English, Cecile Kuznits, I would like to congratulate Eitan upon his podcast this is such a nice project, and even though I’m not a Yiddish speaker from birth I will speak in Yiddish because I feel it is so nice to have such an opportunity.

Eitan: Thank you very much, it’s truly a pleasure to invite you to speak with us, Let’s begin with your personal history. Where are you from and where did you study? 

Tsirl: I was born and raised in New York, in Queens, and studied through graduate school in Harvard University. Then I studied for a doctorate in Jewish history in Stanford University, and now I’m a professor in Bard College which is in the Hudson Valley which is two hours north of New York City. 

Eitan: Did Yiddish play a role in your childhood years? 

Tsirl: As a child I did not hear Yiddish at home between my mother and father, but my father, may he rest in peace, was a Yiddish speaker from birth, both his parents were born in Eastern Europe and they spoke Yiddish to each other. My mother, may she rest in peace, also heard a lot of Yiddish around her, her father was a Yiddish speaker from birth from Galicia (a region of Europe corresponding to Poland and some surrounding areas). So as a child when I would travel to visit my grandparents, I would hear that they spoke Yiddish, but that was not an everyday thing and I understood that this was another language, I heard various Yiddish words which my parents would also use, but did not really know the language.

Eitan: So where does your fluency in Yiddish come from? 

Tsirl: When I was a student in middle school in Manhattan in Hunter College high school, we had to choose a foreign language to study and I studied French for many years and I fell in love with the language and with French literature. And that was my first real experience learning a foreign language. Before that I had learned some Hebrew in a type of Talmid Torah (Jewish school) where I studied for a few years and I knew the alphabet but I understood very little of the Hebrew language. So when I became a student at Harvard I studied history, a little French literature, and also a little American history, I was interested in the history of immigrants and also American Jewish history, and I became curious about the Yiddish language. A the time there weren’t any real classes in University but in the Harvard Hillel they taught Yiddish once a week, not for any credits but as a supplemental thing, and that’s where I started learning Yiddish truly as a supplement in the Havard Hillel. After I finished, I got a job at the archive in the Yivo in New York, and I working there in the Yivo Archive I used my Yiddish and needed to improve my Yiddish because on  daily basis I had to work with texts in Yiddish an that was both a “shtys foroys” that I had an actual reason to improve my Yiddish because of my job, and also I met the Yivo people and Yivo gatherings, and I learned even more about the history of Jews in eastern Europe and about the Jewish culture and that’s where I truly immersed myself in Yiddish culture and fell in love with Yiddish. 

Eitan: So does Yiddish have a connection to your work these days, or is your professional work completely separate from your Yiddish knowledge? 

Tsirl: So now as I said afterwards I studied for a doctorate and I got my doctorate, and now I am a professor in Modern Jewish History, and I use a lot of Yiddish sources in my body of work and when I teach I do so using translations but I use many Yiddish texts in my teaching, and I teach about Yiddish culture and the history of Jews in Eastern Europe and the immigrant communities here in America, and sometimes I also teach Yiddish language even though I don’t consider myself a language teacher, as they say – where there isn’t a person, a herring is also a fish, right? So where there isn’t a Yiddish teacher, I am also prepared to teach the language because it’s a pleasure to have students who are eager to learn the Yiddish language. 

Eitan: Where there is no person, a herring is also a fish. It’s a good expression and I like Yiddish expressions in general. Sometimes when there’s something missing and you can achieve it, fill the void, one should do so. In school we learned a Hebrew phrase from Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers): If not now, when? Meaning, if we find ourselves in a position to help do good, we should do it. You were placed into a position like that, whether or not you meant for it to happen or whether it just worked out that way, that you are a Yiddish teacher. What do you think about today’s approach to Yiddish? Do you think the interest in Yiddish is growing or getting smaller? 

Tsirl: They say that every few years they talk of a rebirth or renewed survival of Yiddish, meaning a Yiddish revival, ad that has already became a joke: that Yiddish is forever on the path of reviving itself. The Yiddish revival is always happening. But I think that there really is a greater interest in today’s day between young people for the Yiddish language and culture. When I studied Yiddish intensively in the Yivo summer program when I worked in the Yivo archive, as I said I had to improve my Yiddish and at the same time I was a student in the summer program, so at the time there were many graduate students, musicians, singers, people with pensions, but through the years I think younger and younger students began coming, including graduate students who were taking their studies seriously of the Yiddish language and in today’s day I think it’s even more and more spread out. It probably has to do with modern technology, through the internet, with online classes, with websites people in various smaller places where they don’t have face to face Yiddish classes where they can be in a room with a teacher, this has always been a drawback that’s why the summer programs were so important because students would come from all over to be in a classroom with other students and with the teacher, and that is of course very important. But for a lot of people who live in anywhere around the world and in smaller cities, not they have the opportunity through the technology to register for Yiddish classes online or to learn Yiddish through Duolingo or learn Yiddish in various websites and productions on the internet, so I think that has helped a lot to spread Yiddish and to give the opportunity to a larger audience to learn Yiddish.

Eitan: Yes, because not everyone lives near Yiddisg surroundings or even Jewish communities, and almost no one lives in a place where one can hear Yiddish in the streets like it used to be in Europe. Who signs up to study Yiddish with you? 

Tsirl: Today’s day we see a lot of truly talented dedicated young people who create all sorts of new projects with Yiddish and in Yiddish: theater, conferences, songs – writing and singing new songs – and I think that today’s Yiddish culture is becoming more varied, meaning including all sorts of perspectives, styles, themes, and that is very nice to see. On the other hand, I think that it can also be a drawback that unfortunately it is becoming more and more difficult to have contact with born Yiddish speakers who can  speak Yiddish from their home, people who have a true knowledge of the Yiddish language and culture, and for young people who want to truly  immerse themselves in Yiddish, it is harder than it used to be to be in an actual environment where they can have the opportunity to actually learn the language on a high level for example. And I think that those are the two sides of todays Yiddish culture according to my opinion: on one side the interest is actually growing and pulling in a lot of talented young people, and on the other side, the young people need the opportunity to immerse themselves in the culture if they want to pull it forward – if they want to pull forward what we call the golden chain of Yiddish culture.

Eitan: A very inetesrting approach which we have not yet heard on this podcast. So the interest is growing but the overall character of Yiddish culture and study is changing completely. How else can we proliferate Yiddish with technology? 

I think that a podcast is a good model of the sheferishkayt and using the most modern technology to spread Yiddish and develop Yiddish so I wish you a yesher koyach for this work, and it’s a pleasure to share a few of my thoughts with this audience. Thank you.

Eitan: Dr. Tsirl Kuznits, thank you very much for giving up your time so we could hear your ideas about Yiddish in today’s modern world. I also wish you congratulations on all your work and achievement and wish you a lot of luck in the future.