Bite From The Past

Sunday, September 02, 2023

On a whim, I’m going to do something that feels special. I’ve enrolled in a Zoom class to try and learn to speak Yiddish. It was the language of my grandparents, of my father, and a secondary language for my mother and her siblings. As a child hearing it spoken, I never tried learning it. In my very early years, public notions didn’t think anything good about being an immigrant. I wasn’t encouraged to learn to speak like a Jew.

Through the years since my early days, Yiddish has become much less spoken and also less read. I’ve been aware of this, gradually understanding that I missed a grand opportunity. Learning Yiddish also would have been an opportunity to learn more about my grandparents’ early lives.

My maternal grandparents immigrated with their small children from Odessa, Russia. I’ve always been interested in what their “early Odesa” might have been like; I’ve always wished to visit contemporary Odesa (pre-Ukraine war). The current war especially has put these feelings more on my mind.

Maybe it was no whim that motivated me to enroll in the Yiddish class. Maybe it was more about trying to realize some long-held wishes. It’s a complicated mix of past and present.

I can’t think more about that now, for Gustavo is arriving soon. He will finish repairing my horse fencing, and I must help him. But stay tuned, for soon the learning will begin.

Dear Friends: A challenge for a “no other languages” type who speaks only English. Diana