New film celebrates global Yiddish resurgence

Growing up, Ros Horin wasn’t encouraged to learn Yiddish.

Her parents were part of the post-war generation that believed speaking the language on the streets would provoke antisemitism.

“They were ashamed of Yiddish,” Horin told The Jewish Independent. “My parents felt like it was the language of the old world, of victims, so they only used it to tell secrets with my grandmother.”

When – much to her surprise – Horin began to notice a growing trend amongst young people to reclaim Yiddish, she felt compelled to investigate.

The result is Welcome to Yiddishland, Horin’s third documentary, which exposes an international community of creatives devoted to the Yiddish language and culture.

“There’s a line in the film from musician Daniel Kahn which really stays with me. He says, ‘I always knew I was Jewish, but I didn’t have Jewish’. That’s how I felt a lot of the time growing up,” said Horin, who is based in Sydney.

“Some people identify their Jewishness through religion or by unconditionally supporting Israel, but I quickly became aware that Yiddish was a different way of identifying as a Jew.

“The Yiddish language is the key that unlocks the rich treasure trove of Yiddish and Jewish culture.”

Traversing Australia, Germany, Israel and America, Horin’s ‘Yiddishland’ – not a homeland but a heartland – introduces audiences to a global collective of artists who have been drawn to Yiddish as a source of inspiration and belonging, reigniting its use in music, theatre, opera and literature.

It’s a rare opportunity to see the process of creating art in Yiddish from the perspective of the artists themselves – from native Yiddish speakers to those who learnt the language as adults, and others who work with it via translation. Most are secular Jews with progressive values of inclusiveness and diversity, contrasting the ultra-Orthodox Hassidic Jewish communities that account for most of the world’s Yiddish speakers today.

“I wanted to show the pivotal role that artists play in helping to restore a dying language in a culture,” Horin said.

With 30 years’ experience as a theatre director, Horin didn’t want Welcome to Yiddishland to showcase amateur projects, and so she travelled the world to find “truly stunning performers” creating provocative and progressive new work in Yiddish.

While some projects may be familiar to viewers, such as Kadimah’s adaptation of Yentl in Melbourne or the long-running annual Yiddish Summer Weimar festival, others are more unique.

For example, Pleytem Tsuzamen (Refugees Together) is an entirely original song-cycle written in Yiddish about progressive issues including racism and abuse; The Caravan Orchestra and Choir project brings together Jewish, Arab and German musicians as a gateway to understanding, connection and respect; and Barrie Kosky’s All-Singing, All-Dancing Yiddish Revue, a trailblazing vaudeville production, is self-described as a cross between Franz Kafka and The Muppet Show.

“Seeing the contemporary relevance of Yiddish work really excited me,” Horin explained. “I was just thrilled to see that Yiddish was speaking to the issues of our time.”

For Horin, a particular surprise was the “natural connection” between Yiddish and the LGBTQ+ community.

“A lot of queer Jewish people who felt rejected by mainstream Judaism, felt accepted in the Yiddish community. They were a minority on the edge and Yiddish has always been a kind of language on the edge,” Horin said.

The documentary very much acts as “a shot of joy and celebration”, perhaps due to its filming ending before October 7, and for that reason, it demonstrates an optimism that is hard to imagine today. In saying that, Horin does touch on some heavier themes, including the threat posed by the rise of the far-right AfD party in Germany to local productions.

If there’s one takeaway from Horin’s Welcome to Yiddishland – which took four years to produce – it’s that Yiddish is no longer confined to weddings or b'nai mitzvahs. It’s a progressive, inclusive and empowering Jewish subculture that is widely being accepted by the mainstream, including by non-Jewish audiences.

It’s for this reason that Horin ultimately concludes that the Yiddish resurgence is here to stay.

“I don't think it's a fad, I think it really is growing,” Horin said.

“Language is such an important expression of who you are, and unless you're in Israel, you likely don't speak Hebrew. It's not a vernacular language for Jewish people in the diaspora.

“Yiddish isn’t a language of one nation state. It’s inclusive, it’s about Jewish culture, and it's giving people a sense of belonging. The development of Yiddish is going to keep going.”

Welcome to Yiddishland is screening as part of the Jewish International Film Festival (JIFF). Book tickets online.

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