At first, Ray Davidson wasn’t exactly sure why he wanted to start the Yiddish Circle. He had been influenced by the resurgence of interest in Yiddish in America and in Israel, but had no idea if there would be any interest in Johnson County.
He was also fascinated with the story of Aaron Lansky who, in 1980, at age 25, saved 70,000 Yiddish books from destruction, not by anti-Semites, but by Jews who simply could not read the language of their parents and grandparents.
“After I started (the Yiddish class), I realized it was a memorial to my parents,” he now says.
Both of Davidson’s parents came to America from Poland and, while his father could speak fluently in five languages, including English, he and Davidson’s mother spoke only Yiddish in the home — to each other and to their three sons. The two older sons, 13 and 10 years older than Davidson, had no interest. When they came here with their parents, they believed they should speak only English.
Davidson was born in the United States on March 17, 1923, and, being the youngest, bore the brunt of the language brought here from Eastern Europe, while his brothers were at school perfecting their English.
“I’m the only member of my entire family who really remembers hearing Yiddish,” he said. “I’ve quoted Yiddish all my life.”
Of course, as he grew up, went off to war, got married and raised five children, he used Yiddish less and less, and much of it was forgotten. At least, that’s what he thought. But the class he began last June at Congregation Beth Torah has brought back many words and phrases. He said he’s even beginning to think in Yiddish.
And now, when he hears the familiar Yiddish words he grew up with, he has “a visual picture of my father and mother that I didn’t have for many years.”
The Yiddish Circle
A group of anywhere from eight to 15 people meet at noon on Friday in the Bride’s Room at Congregation Beth Torah. Davidson provides lunch (for a nominal fee), then study begins at 12:30 p.m. For an hour, the group studies from the book “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Learning Yiddish,” discussing how certain words were pronounced in their own homes growing up, depending on where their parents were from. Some speak Yiddish fairly fluently, others are in the beginning stages of learning this rich language.
But for everyone, the words have memories. Davidson and others frequently relate anecdotes of favorite sayings of their father, mother, grandfather or grandmother. Even for those not fortunate enough to have parents or grandparents who spoke Yiddish, many words have become so much a part of the English language that for them, too, the words bring back memories.
As a member of the adult education committee at Beth Torah, Davidson had the opportunity to give a history of Yiddish one Sunday morning. So many people were interested in the session that they had to double the number of chairs already set up before the class even began. It was at this point that Davidson decided to start an adult education class on Yiddish.
“You know, things have legs and they grow legs and they move, and this just did that,” he said. “It generated an idea to do something that perhaps there was a seed there for many, many years, but it germinated. I thought why not try? And it has been a success.
“The group we have now is genuinely interested in it … and I think over a period of years, it will grow and foster beyond my life — it will go on.”
Davidson also teaches a class at The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah from 3 to 4 p.m. Mondays on the “Rise and Fall of Yiddish Theatre.” He said he has not seen the interest in this class that he has in his Yiddish class. Right now there are just two students.
“But they come every week and diligently take notes,” he said.
A way of life
Davidson, a widower of 13 years, said he couldn’t be more pleased at the nationwide interest in Yiddish.
“To be part of a movement that I didn’t realize was so full-blown … I thought I was kind of out in the wilderness by myself. I had found out that there was a resurgence in Israel; I had found out about the saving of the books; and I found out about one other group in Omaha, but I didn’t know how far-reaching this thing had gone,” he said.
Two of his grandchildren, who have never expressed any interest in Yiddish or their heritage, came to him separately and said they wanted to know more about the Yiddish class he was teaching.
“I think everything is cyclical,” Davidson said, “and you have to skip a generation or two before you start to think, ‘Where did I really come from?’ People are more interested in their ancestry than they were during the Depression because they were so caught up with earning a living, they couldn’t worry about it. The older they’ve gotten, and especially now, my children’s generation are more interested to a certain extent.”
Davidson said he feels it’s important that Yiddish be revived because “any culture that is allowed to die only to be revived some day with bones is a terrible thing. Bones don’t talk.”
“We lost 6 million, but we salvaged 5 million at the same time and they’ve grown bigger,” he went on. “Maybe it’s approaching that 11 million again, I don’t know. That whole culture from which we arise (Ashkenazi), to say, alright that’s it, we’re going to let it die, that doesn’t sit well with me, and evidently a lot of other people. So it looks like there’s more and more revival going on, and there should be while there’s still people who can tell you a little bit more than they can 20 years from now.
“These trips that are going on that are being attended, ones to Poland, Romania and places like that, that’s part of the culture, to see where their ancestors came from and to feel the grittiness in the ground; that’s actually their bones ground to pieces.”
Yiddish, Davidson said, is more than just a language; it’s a way of life.
“We start with the language to work back to the way of life. This (Yiddish) group is constantly talking about the way of life along with the Yiddish. I hope that is what can really survive — not only the language, we need the language, but we also need that way of life to at least be known to everyone.”