Young Eastern Europeans Flock to Tel Aviv's 'Yiddish Summer Camp'
Source: Haaretz
Over 100 students and teachers spent a month of intensive study and cultural immersion this summer at The Goldrich/Goldreich – Beth Shalom Aleichem International Yiddish Summer Program at Tel Aviv University.
The program, now in its third year, provides language classes and workshops at five different levels of accomplishment from beginners to advanced learners. The participants, from around the world, also see Yiddish films, plays and concerts and enjoy Jewish food and storytelling.
Most of the participants in the program came to deepen their understanding of Yiddish, to help them in their research in Jewish studies, history and related subjects. Many of them have come from Eastern Europe. Some are rank beginners, while others are already analyzing Yiddish literary texts.
Professor Hana Wirth Nesher, the director of the Goldreich Family Institute for Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture, who is, with Prof. Avraham Novershtern, co-director of the summer program's academic program says that its aim is not to revive Yiddish as a spoken language, but rather to give the language its due place in academia as part of the heritage of Jewish culture, even after the last generation of native Yiddish-speakers is gone.