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, Yisroel Bass, Director of the Yiddish Farm located in – I kid you not - Goshen New York, as we switch to the language we both hold dear. Welcome, our honored guest, please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your personal history. Where are you from? Where is your Yiddish from?
Yisroel: I’m called Yisroel Bass, I grew up in long Island, I studied at City College, I am the director of the Yiddish Farm. In the winters I am an English teacher at a Chassidic elementary school. I heard a lot of Yiddish as a child, particularly from songs my mother sang – Rozingkes mit mandlen, and Ofn Pripetchik. I studied it more formally later on, around the time of my bar mitzvah, I studied with a Rebbe and I took a few courses, and slowly but surely I studied at the Arbeter Ring (Workmen’s Circle), more than a few classes, and I studied under Yaakov Bassner, A’H (may he rest in peace) in California, and under Yankl Peretz here in New York.
Eitan: What is your main work? Can you talk a little bit about your profession? Is the Yiddish language or culture connected to your profession? Or do you feel that Yiddish and your work occupy separate channels in your mind and life?
Yisroel: My main work is for the Farm, I’m the director, I oversee the property and keep it up, cut the grass, I host people, I create programming, I earn money. I cut and saw. The language has a strong connection to my work, both on the Farm and also in my English teacher job. Most of the people who come to the Farm speak Yiddish, the lecturers, the workers speak Yiddish, we do everything in Yiddish. And in cheder (traditional Jewish school for children), I teach third grade and it’s their first year learning English, so I speak Yiddish to the children, they do not yet speak any English. We need to teach them ABCs, math, simple things like that.
Eitan: What other languages do you speak, and where did you learn them? How are the various languages you speak woven together?
Yisroel: I also speak English, it’s my first language, in the home I speak only Yiddish with the children. My wife speaks mainly English with the children but not entirely, and they are woven together like that, and with the grandparents they speak mostly English. In the house normally we speak Yiddish, the very small children mainly just speak Yiddish, and they start going to a playgroup and then elementary school where they start to learn English.
Eitan: Even though I’m not Chassidic it’s very interesting to hear about other children who were raised similar to me in that they learned Yidish first and English afterwards. What is Yiddish for you today? As an adult, why is it important to you?
Yisroel: Yiddish is the language of my family, it’s the language of my work, it’s the language, so why is it important? Because I committed that it be important, I like it, I like to speak it, it’s connected to the past, between the past and the present.
Eitan: Yes, and my position is that Yiddish also has a connection to the future. In today’s day, do you enjoy Yiddish? Why and hen? Do you have a favorite word or phrase?
Yisroel: I very much enjoy Yiddish, I like to do as many activities as possible in Yiddish, for example now when I read science to my son, I find old Yiddish study books and I sit and read them with him about all these topics mainly in Yiddish. Whatever one can do in Yiddish we try to do in Yiddish because I love it.
My favorite word is pimpernoter,
Eitan: Ok pimpernoter, meaning a dragon or a type of mythological creature, truly a good word and fun to say. Speaking of dreams and fantasy, how did you think to start the Yiddish farm? Why did you choose that specific project?
I wanted to create a farm where Yiddish would be a means to an end, not an afterthought. For Yiddishists where Yiddish must be spoken, and we must speak about Yiddish, for Yiddish, in honor of Yiddish, and if you do Avodah Zara (idol worship) and drag Yiddish through the mud and Yiddish ceases to be a means and is just an end, then what use does it have, one does not need it at that point. It needs to be used and be a means.
The Farm is not just fields, it’s also a home, it’s also a kitchen, it’s also a Beit Midrash (study house) many things happen on the farm. Even a tech startup or something like that doesn’t have as many components to speak of or to do.
Eitan: I can imagine because it’s a lot of physical work and separately also a lot to organize and direct. Do you have a favorite thing about the farm?
Yisroel: My favorite part of the farm is simply that I very much love to drive the tractor, I like to drive the children around the fields, it’s probably my favorite part of the farm.
Eitan: I am very excited about getting my driver’s license soon. I don’t know if one needs a license to drive a tractor also but I would try that if I get the opportunity! But can you describe the work that you’ve done in order to build up the farm, and what you goal was with it?
Yisroel: It was a lot of work to build up the farm, I haven’t yet finished and I don’t know if I will ever finish, it’s a very large plot of land, and one needs to repair the buildings in order to host guests and in order to run programs. The goal, as I said before, is to use Yiddish as a means, which is in the name of Jews and not in the name of Yiddish the language.
Eitan: How does the Yiddish farm fit into today’s efforts to proliferate Yiddish? Do you think the general interest in Yiddish is growing or shrinking lately?
Yisroel: I can’t speak too much about today’s strategies to proliferate Yiddish, I don’t have any idea what people are doing today, when I moved to the farm I more or less detached from the world, and the Farm in many ways became my new world with the Jewish street upstate which is very Chassidic became my Daled Amos (considered to be my home). I don’t know what’s going on in today’s day, what people are doing, if people are making videos and things, clips, I have no idea what the street is doing and what the general interest is, whether it’s smaller or whether it’s larger, I know – I have heard - that people use Yiddish at protests to spread their message but whether people speak Yiddish or not I have no idea, or if they use it just as a means for their goals, probably, I don’t know.
Eitan: Yes, there’s a lot of energy going into passing Yiddish on trough the internet for example, and other ways. So back to the farm which is your main world as you said, who comes to visit the farm? Are its users different than whom you imagined or intended when you started the farm
Yisroel: Who comes on the farm? Many Chassidim from upstate, families, preschools, yeshivas, field trips come to enjoy planting and watch how things grow, and learn Halachot (Jewish laws) that pertain to farming. The people who come are definitely different from what I imagined when I started the farm, I didn’t even believe that mainstream Chassidim would have any connection to this land, but the minute we moved there, the main people who came were Chassidim, even during the summers. The majority of the people who came were always chassidim, and why not? They live there in the neighborhood, so if there is a farm where Yiddish is spoken, and one can learn a little bit about the world God created, then very good, and good for them. There do not exist many places that are appropriate for Chassidim to visit in general, and when you have a lot children, the need is great, one cannot simply go to any place – either it’s inappropriate or there isn’t kosher food there, there are many reasons. So to have a farm is very important for them. And the moment we arrived there, they started looking for ways to come visit.
Eitan: Good thing they have a beautiful place to enjoy, and good that you found a niche target clientele for your business. Speaking of business, what does the farm produce in order to sustain itself?
Yisroel: The farm produces wheat and spelt, Shmurah Matza, among other things, such as blueberries, tomatoes, potatoes, squash.
Eitan: In your opinion, what’s the connection between the Yiddish language and working the land?
Yisroel: What is the connection between the Yiddish language and working the land? The Yiddish language is a means, and if Jews work the land using the Yiddish language as means to work the land. That’s the only connection that I see.
Eitan: It’s interesting because I think that Jewish tradition and laws have a strong connection to the earth. My sister, the one who brought us to the Yiddish farm to plant blueberries, told me that there it’s known that if someone is holding a sapling that he’s in the middle of planting, and he gets the news that Moshiach (the messiah) has arrived, he must first finish planting the sapling, and afterwards run to greet the Mochiach. Imagine the respect we are required to show for the earth, I was very surprised about this story. The truth is you do holy work. So what do you want people to know about you and about your work with Yiddish?
Yisroel: I hope only good things, and no Lashon hara (malicious gossip).
Eitan: Of course only good things, and do you have an image – a vision – about how Yiddish can develop further in the coming generations of this century?
Yisroel: Yes I mean I see how it’s developing mainly on the Chassidic street and how the preschools have an important role to play in the development of Yiddish, whether that’s recognized, whether effort will be put into the particulars of punctuation and grammar, and writing Yiddish in elementary schools. It depends on the preschools and whether they will do it. But they definitely have a role to play, the essence of the role will be there.
Eitan: Very interesting to hear from you the importance of learning Yiddish in childhood, I mostly talk about technology but that is more relevant to older than elementary school age. I think it’s an important point to remember that Yiddish will hold on stronger in those who learn it as young children. Thank you for reminding us that. Do you have a final thought or two?
Yisroel: You should come back! Come back to the farm, visit the farm, I know it’s not so close to the city, we used to have more people coming form the city, now most people come from upstate, but it’s not closed, anyone can still come, enjoy a day or two on the farm and plant and help, we are always looking for volunteers and free laborers to come help with the fields, clean up the plots, we need a lot of help, simply to sustain it and keep it clean. At the beginning we hired laborers to keep the place up but now we have the lot and we need to keep it up, it takes a lot of work, it’s not as appealing as ----, but it’s important to maintain upkeep on what one has, and the work also goes into the language itself – we must keep that up – and now the children speak it and if we can send the children to schools and preschools that use the language they should have a reason to use it – with friends, for their studies, and so on. Blessings to you.
Eitan: Thank you very much! I have good memories of the farm from when I visited as a young kid to plant and later to pick blueberries, I hope the blueberries are growing in good health. I look forward to seeing you soon, hopefully on the farm!