Published: 15 October 2020
Last updated: 18 March 2024
THE YEAR 2020 MIGHT be a new dawn for Yiddish. The hit Netflix series Unorthodox has beamed the language into millions of loungerooms for the first time. Video conferencing platforms have connected Yiddish speakers – from beginner to fluent – living in lockdown. A Yiddish translation of Harry Potter sold out in days. American Pickle, a Hollywood film starring Seth Rogan and featuring Yiddish, was released in September.
But in Sydney – the city that hosted Australia’s first ever Yiddish theatrical performances and was once home to the much-loved Yiddish Entertainment Group – the language has been on a long, slow decline.
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According to the 2016 Australian Census, less than 150 Sydney Jews speak Yiddish at home (0.3% of the total Jewish population). That represents a 36% drop since 2006. The University of Sydney, which once hosted Yiddish courses and a Yiddish teacher, cancelled its program several years ago. There is no accredited Yiddish teacher left in the city.
And for those looking to practice their Yiddish language skills, only a handful of Yiddish conversation groups remain – mostly hosted in private homes. The language’s future in Sydney appears bleak.
In a two-part podcast, Yiddish in Sydney, The Jewish Independent (in partnership with the Jewish Museum of Australia) investigates why.
In the first part, we meet three women (Carla, Rosa and Rosita) who grew up in vibrant post-war Jewish Sydney, among a community of Yiddish speakers, Bundists and performers. The women recall a time when the Folk Centre, a small club house for Yiddish speakers located in Bondi Junction, bustled with newly arrived refugees and migrants.
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Central to this period was Salo Sperling – the “Singing Barber of Bondi”. Born in the Yiddish-speaking heartland of Chernowitz (then Romania, today Ukraine), Sperling survived the Holocaust and arrived in Sydney in 1948. A talented tenor and actor with an emerging performance career in pre-war Europe, he began organising Yiddish concerts with a number of famous actors and singers.
Over many decades Sperling and his group performed to capacity audiences at venues across the Sydney. Despite his best efforts, the language never grew beyond the fringes of the Jewish community. And when Sperling passed away at the age of 102, the Yiddish music died with him.
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In episode two (published Friday 23 October), we meet Sydney’s last remaining formalised Yiddish group – the Sunday group – who meet once a month for a schmooze and bagel. Numbering around 30, these babyboomer women (and a small number of men) are passionate about the language’s survival. For them, Yiddish evokes childhood memories; speaking it is a tribute parent’s generation and a commitment to keep their memory alive.
But when they too pass on, who will be left to foster Yiddish? Do streaming services, language apps, streaming services and Zoom meetings hold the key to Yiddish’s future in the 21st century?
Yiddish language researcher and teacher, Professor Rebecca Margolis of the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, shares her vision for Yiddish-speaking communities in Sydney and beyond.
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Part two will published Friday 23 October.
If you live in Sydney and wish to join the Sunday Yiddish speakers monthly meet-up, contact Helen Berger on 0409241588 or helen@stoveconnection.com.a
Click here to listen to part one and part two.
