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<CENTER><B><FONT SIZE=+1>Yiddish City, Yiddishists, and Yiddishism: Chernowitz
Yiddish Language Conference of 1908</FONT></B></CENTER>
<CENTER><I><FONT SIZE=+1>Inna Barmash</FONT></I></CENTER>
<CENTER><I><FONT SIZE=+1> </FONT></I></CENTER>
Places, people, ideals – history is a embroiled mélange of minute
elements and trivialities. We are often tempted to ask ‘what if?’ Our imagination
allows the past to become malleable, susceptible to radical change by altering
minor details. Yet the meaning, significance, and impact of historical
events lie in those details. The where and the who in a war may be more
important than the outcome of the battle, and the location and participants
may be more important in formation, proceedings, and consequences of a
conference than its most important pronouncements.
<P>The exhibition <I>Yiddish City, Yiddishists, and Yiddishism: Chernowitz
Yiddish Language Conference of 1908 </I>aims at tracing that balance between
places, people, and ideals in formation of a historical event. Yiddishists,
as the architects of the Conference came to be known, had one main goal:
to elevate Yiddish from centuries of neglect, contempt, and illegitimacy
as a language. The Chernowitz Conference was the first international gathering
to discuss and legitimize the role of Yiddish in Jewish life. It was held
for a little less than a week in Chernowitz, the capital of Bukovina, a
region then under Austrian rule and now divided between Rumania and Ukraine.
At the first glance, the choice of the location seems odd; although Chernowitz
was a city with a significant Jewish population <FONT FACE="Symbol">¾</FONT>
21,500 Jews out of a total population of 68,400 <FONT FACE="Symbol">¾</FONT>
surely, there were many other more significant centers of Jewish activity,
such as Vilna, Odessa, and Warsaw. However, the anti-Semitic atmosphere
in Czarist Russia at the time could not provide a setting for the unimpeded
discourse desired by the Conference’s organizers. Chernowitz, on the other
hand, was at the time in the midst of the Austrian Empire’s debate on languages
and nationalities’ rights. It was the city’s multi-ethnic and liberal nature
and the viable Yiddishist organizations active there that made Chernowitz
an ideal location for the Conference. Thus to gain a meaningful appreciation
of the Conference, a visitor to the exhibition must become immersed in
the multifarious city, get acquainted with the temperaments of the conference’s
guests, and gain a sense of the various ideas these delegates brought to
the Conference about the meaning and future of Yiddish. The visitor must
become more than an apathetic observer. Through visual and narrative techniques,
he/she will become a delegate to the conference, with a full appreciation
of the meaning, urgency, and significance of the situation. This paper
will outline the basic design of the exhibition and will survey the setting
and proceedings of the conference<I> (See Figure 1</I>). Much of the text,
quotations and pictures included here can be used to narrate the story
line in a series of enlarged photographed scenes, collages, and narrative
signs.
<P>The greatest challenge of an exhibition is to capture the visitor’s
attention from the very beginning – in essence, to turn an apathetic museum-goer
into an active participant in a historical episode. I hope to achieve that
partially by designing admission tickets as an invitation to the Conference,
with the text from the original letter. This accomplishes more than just
drawing the visitor into the past. Since the exhibition will probably attract
visitors of various age groups and different levels of historical expertise,
it is important to involve every visitor in the experience – those for
whom Yiddish is an important part of their lives, those who view it as
nothing but a curious linguistic treasure, and those for whom Yiddish vaguely
reminds of the words ‘farklempt,’ ‘latkes,’ and ‘mazl tov.’ The invitation
visitors receive briefly recounts the history of the struggle for Yiddish
and introduces the visitor to the problem at hand: survival and flourishing
of the language. It is a call to action:
<P><FONT SIZE=-1>Honored Sir/Madam!</FONT>
<DIR>
<DIR><FONT SIZE=-1>In the past several decades the Yiddish language has
made great progress. Its literature has achieved a level of which no one
had imagined it capable. Yiddish newspapers are distributed in hundreds
of thousands of copies daily and weekly. Yiddish poets write songs which
are sung by the people, stories which are read by the people, plays which
the people eagerly flock to see. Every day the language itself becomes
more refined and richer. </FONT>
<P><FONT SIZE=-1>But it continues to lack one thing which older tongues
possess. The latter are not permitted to roam about freely and wildly in
the linguistic world to attract all sorts of diseases, defects and perhaps
even death. They are guarded as a precious child is guarded. No one, however,
pays heed to the Yiddish language. Thousands of Yiddish words are replaced
by German, Russian and English words which are completely unnecessary.
The live rules of the language which are born and develop with it in the
mouths of the people go unrecorded and it appears not to possess any such
rules. Each person writes it in another way with his own spelling because
no standard authoritative Yiddish orthography has thus far been established.</FONT>
<P><FONT SIZE=-1>True, the disgrace attached to Yiddish in the past has
diminished. People are less and less ashamed of the contemporary language
of our people. It is gradually coming to be reckoned with and respected.
It is coming to be understood that in Yiddish the Jewish spirit is reflected
and its value for the survival of our nation is beginning to be comprehended.
But it is still an object of ridicule and contempt. People are still ashamed
of it. And is this not because of the faults noted above?</FONT>
<P><FONT SIZE=-1>If this be true, a stop must be put to these things. Fence
needs to be established, some sort of protection for our precious mother-tongue
so that it is not to wander about aimlessly as until now, so that it not
become chaotic, tattered and divided. All who are involved with the language,
writers, poets, linguists, and those who simply love it – must confer and
find appropriate means and methods of establishing an authority to which
all will have to and want to defer. </FONT>
<P><FONT SIZE=-1>Honored Sir! If you share the views herein expressed,
you are invited to attend the Conference which we are calling on behalf
of the Yiddish language. </FONT>
<P><FONT SIZE=-1>The conference will be held on…………………………….in Czernowitz
(Bukovina, Austria) and will deal with the following items: 1) Yiddish
orthography, 2) Yiddish grammar, 3) Foreign and new words, 4) a Yiddish
dictionary, 5) Jewish youth and the Yiddish language, 6) the Yiddish press
and the Yiddish language, 7) the Yiddish stage and Yiddish actors, 8) the
economic situation of the Yiddish writer, 9) the economic situation of
Yiddish actors, 10) the recognition of the Yiddish language. </FONT></DIR>
</DIR>
<FONT SIZE=-1>Nisan 5668 – April 1908.</FONT>
<P>Enthusiasm and unbending spirit shine through the text. The letter is
forward, decisive, and informative. With the invitation in hand, we are
now ready to partake in the conference.
<P>A large map at the entrance helps to orient us geographically (<I>See
Figure 2). A</I>n excerpt from great Yiddish writer Y.L. Peretz’s opening
speech at the conference, written in large lettering, greets us at the
entrance:
<DIR>
<DIR><FONT SIZE=-1>. . . The best place for our gathering was here in Bukovina,
especially its capital Czernowitz. Here where people of various nationalities,
speaking many languages, live side-by-side, it is easier to do our work
in our language. We stroll in the evening in the streets and from various
windows stream out the sounds of different languages, all kinds of folk-music.
We want our own windows! Our own distinct motif in the folk symphony. </FONT>
<P><I><FONT SIZE=-1>Y.L. Peretz, Opening speech at the Chernowitz Conference
of Yiddish Language, 1908. </FONT></I></DIR>
</DIR>
This quotation is particularly powerful because before making this speech,
Peretz – one of the most famous and vocal delegates to the Conference –
himself walked the streets of Chernowitz, feeling its multi-ethnic rhythm
and absorbing its sights and sounds. As we enter "Chernowitz," the first
section of the exhibition, we cannot help but search for "our window" among
the hundreds of vibrant voices and exciting sights.
<P>The Chernowitz section of the exhibition aims to convey the atmosphere
of European gentle elegance and introduce the multi-ethnic gathering of
the city inhabitants. Elegance and grandeur surround us as soon as we step
into the first setting of the exhibition, the Ringplatz, the central square
in Chernowitz. "Chestnut and white acacia trees lined the streets of Chernowitz.
Its parks and squares brimmed with kaleidoscopic flowerbeds," writes Ruth
Gold of pre-war Chernowitz in her memoirs. "The architecture, elegance,
culture, and language evoked of Gemutlichkeit, of coziness. It was a little
replica of classical Austrian culture – a sort of small Vienna." The Ringplatz,
a small semi-circular pavilion, submerges us right into the pulsing heart
of the city. An enlarged photograph of the scene stretches half the circumference
of the room (<I>See Figure 3-5)</I>. On Ringplatz, <I>Magistrat, </I>the
city hall of "imposing" proportions with a square clock tower looked over
the square. Its massive stone structure reminded Pearl Fichman of "Vienna
and Budapest – just scaled down." Light music by Viennese composer Schubert
playing in the pavilion further conveys the feeling of Austrian elegance
and refinement. The square and its adjacent streets was the social hub
of the city, the place to meet friends and acquaintances or stroll gracefully
amidst the elegant people.
<P>In the exhibition, the Ringplatz room opens the view on Herrengasse,
the most elegant street of the city, with its lavish mansions, fashionable
boutiques, and cozy coffee shops.(<I>See Figure 6)</I> Enlarged photographs,
coffee shop enclaves, and life-sized shop signs and windows represent the
street in the exhibit. Naturally, the passageway in the museum is narrower
than the actual street, but the museum’s representation only adds to the
ever-present feeling of coziness in the city.
<P>As we step onto Herrengasse, the Schubert gives way to city sounds.
At this point, we get closer acquainted with inhabitants of the city. Light
piano music is coming out of a coffee shop, hopelessly drowned out by noisy
conversations in German, Yiddish, Ukrainian, Russian, and thousands dialects
of each. These sounds are designed to represent the actual clamor of the
city life. People often gathered on Herrengasse for afternoon promenades.
Young ladies, mothers with children, businessmen, and university students
crowded the cafés and sidewalks. In the exhibition, we can look
into the window of "Hamburg," one of the most popular cafés and
see Chernowitzers sip coffee and discuss world news. Keeping with the latest
fashion was crucial in these cultivated middle-class circles. "The women
are so well dressed," marveled American tourist Sacheverell Sitwell in
his account of pre-World War II Chernowitz.
<P>The scene is more complex than an ordinary Austrian city picture, however.
Jews, who comprised less than a third of the population, made up its cultural,
social, and economic elite. Jews were craftsmen, businessmen, lawyers,
doctors, bankers, tailors, barbers – they dominated in any profession and
occupation. "There is not a shop that has not a Jewish name painted above
its windows," complains Sitwell. "The entire commerce of the place is in
the hands of the Jews." Sitwell concedes, however, that "the benefit of
this Jewish hegemony is a noticeable quickness of brains. Shopping takes
up a tenth of the time that it consumes in other towns." Naturally, this
hegemony elicited some anti-Semitic remarks from tourists. Elizaveta DeVitte,
who toured Bukovina in 1903, blamed the Jews for the destitute condition
of the Russian people in the area. She saw Jewish infiltration everywhere:
"Out of the 600 students in the Chernowitz University, only 50 are Russian!"
she wrote. "It is true that admission to the University is open to everyone,
but the actual enrollment happens in the following way: on a set day, Jews
block the doors of the University, and until every Jew enrolls, policemen
– who choose to help the Jews – do not let anyone else in." Perhaps DeVitte’s
story is slightly exaggerated, but Jews certainly enjoyed a great degree
of religious, social, and cultural freedom in Chernowitz at that time.
<P>While many ethnic groups in the city – Romanians, Ukrainians, Russians,
and many others – held on to their native tongues, affluent middle class
Jews, a majority in the Jewish population at the time, adapted German as
their lingua franca. As late as 1939, two decades after Chernowitz came
under Romanian rule, German was still the predominant language of the population,
and bookshops, owned primarily by Jews, carried the latest books from Vienna,
Berlin, and Leipzig. The sound of High German was not a novelty on Herrengasse;
Bukovinian Jews strove to imitate their Viennese co-religionists in every
way possible.
<P>In the exhibition, Herrengasse leads to the representation of the Tempel,
the largest synagogue in Chernowitz <I>(See Figure 7-9)</I>. The temple
was built in a Moorish style, much like many Austrian temples, with minaret-like
towers and imposing structure. The interior was beautifully done in wood.
Pearl Fichman remembers that the congregation was very modern and "most
people were shaven," meaning they did not have beards. The temple had an
organ and a young boy chorus in the tradition of Austrian and German reform
temples. An enlarged photograph of the temple will give an idea of the
grandeur of the building<I>. </I>Chernowitz Jews had a peculiar relationship
with Judaism, balancing religiosity with the latest fashions from Vienna.
"People were religious in Chernowitz," remembers Pearl Fichman, "but it
was not extreme." This degree of piety did not suffice for the Hassidim
from the nearby villages, who "pretty much considered Chernowitzers ‘goyim,’"
as Eddie Rabinovitch recalls. Nevertheless, Chernowitz encompassed a remarkable
tolerance for ethnic, cultural, and lingual diversity, and open-mindedness
was much needed for the budding Yiddishist movement.
<P>The fact that the Conference was held in Chernowitz determined the nature
of the delegates and guests and streamlined the course of the proceedings.
Language was a hot issue at that time since in the upcoming 1910 census,
authorities wanted Bukovinian Jews to claim German as mother tongue as
a counterbalance to Ukrainians and Rumanians’ claims for language privileges
and parliamentary representation. Even though claiming a language not recognized
by Austrian authorities was a punishable offense, Jews were rallying support
to claim Hebrew or Yiddish as their native tongue. Because of this controversy,
the Conference attracted more attention from the general public of the
city than a serious linguistic convention normally would anywhere else.
Because of the current political sentiments in Bukovina, there were more
Zionist representatives and fewer Bundists than there would be in a Bundist
center like Vilna. Furthermore, the Conference made a great impression
on the attendees and local newspapers – more so than in more sophisticated
Jewish centers – because Yiddish as a legitimate language was still a very
novel idea in Chernowitz. "Come and you will hear how one speaks pure Yiddish
at a meeting," said one guest to his wife.
<P>In the next major section of the exhibition, we are introduced to some
of the delegates to the Conference. The entrance to the "Delegates" room
is right across the Tempel. This room serves as the lounge area before
the entrance to the conference hall. With dimmed chandeliers, soothing
colors, leather couches, and wooden desks, this room conveys the sense
of respectability and significance the Conference’s organizers wanted to
portray. A large portrait of the delegates in a golden frame dominates
one of the walls (<I>See Illustration 10-11)</I>. A section of the wall
or a stand in the room is devoted to each of the featured delegates. We
are able to leisurely walk around the room, getting to know the delegates.
The following are some of the delegates featured in the exhibition, with
summaries of their ideologies and accomplishments in the Yiddish world.
Information about these people can be represented in collages of photographs,
letters, caricatures, and narrative placards.
<P>Nathan Birnbaum can rightly be called the father of Yiddishism as one
of the movement’s earliest and most active proponents (<I>See Figure 12)</I>.
A Viennese Jew, he disapproved of the assimilationist tendencies of his
Austrian brethren. Instead, he idealized the Eastern European Jewry, believing
it to carry the true soul of Jewish people. He believed that a flourishing
Jewish culture in large European cities will eventually lead to the recognition
of Jews as a nationality. Yiddish was to serve as the vehicle for this
cultural and political recognition: "One may say without exaggeration that
the Yiddish language places East European Jewry and with it the entire
Jewish people before a turning point in its national destiny," he wrote.
"Only in the light of this despised Golus [diaspora] dialect can the people’s
full independence ripen and Jews win their second, higher national emancipation."
To further this idea, Birnbaum organized Yiddish evenings, translated the
writings of Sholom Aleychem, Y.L. Peretz, and Sholem Asch into German,
gave lectures on Yiddish and Yiddish writers, and founded a youth organization
for the advancement of Yiddish culture. In 1908, Birnbaum traveled to the
United States to gain support for his ideas from American Jewish writers
and activists. After lengthy discussions, he and Jewish dramatists David
Pinski and Jacob Gordin, the publisher A. M. Evalenko, and the philosopher
Chaim Zhitlovsky formed an organizing committee for the Chernowitz Conference.
<P>Socialist journalist and activist Chaim Zhitlovsky, who drafted the
invitation, believed that Yiddish should serve as the primary vehicle of
socialist propaganda among Jews (<I>See Figure 13)</I>. "The socialists
do not speak to the people in a language that it had long forgotten," Zhitlovsky
wrote. "They also do not go to their neighbors to borrow a language. They
speak the mother-tongue and convey thoughts which every mother might well
learn by heart and teach to her children every day – thoughts which teach
us how the poor, oppressed and exploited section of our society may free
itself from its unfortunate condition." Zhitlovsky believed that the socialist
literature for Jews that was written in Hebrew or Russian was ineffective
because it did not reach out to the uneducated proletariat masses. He urged
Jewish intellectuals to "return to Yiddish . . . and reunite [themselves]
with the masses." After a propagandist visit to the United States on behalf
of a Russian socialist party, Zhitlovsky settled in the country, continuing
to lecture extensively and publish articles to further the cause of Yiddishism.
<P>Yitzkhok Leybush Peretz’s contribution to the Conference stemmed less
from his political convictions than from his sincere love and faith in
the language’s power to educate Jewish people, and especially the women
(<I>See Figure 14)</I>. Already a leading Yiddish writer at the time, Peretz
was concerned about the linguistic limitations of Yiddish. He wanted to
enrich, revive, standardize, and modernize the largely colloquial tongue.
Above all, he wanted to "create a Yiddish literature to speak and write
to the people in its own language." A major advocate for education, Peretz
believed fostering the growth of Yiddish is the only way to appeal to Jewish
masses. "If we want to educate these three million Jews," he wrote in his
influential essay <I>Education</I>, "We cannot wait until they acquire
a thorough knowledge of other tongues." He approached the Chernowitz Conference
with caution, however, because he opposed any political pronouncements
and was only interested in the linguistic legitimization and standardization
of the language.
<P>Matisyohu Mieses, a young linguist from Galicia, provided the technical
background to pronounce Yiddish as a mature and sophisticated language
(<I>See Figure 15)</I>. In his numerous articles, he rejected the view
that Yiddish is illegitimate because it is a jargon, a corruption and hodgepodge
of Slavic, German, and Hebrew. Yiddish is just as legitimate as any other
language, Mieses argued, since most human languages are derivatives of
one another, but no one considers English, or German, or French more or
less legitimate than the other. Furthermore, Mieses maintained that Yiddish
was the sole method of maintaining national identity in the face of Slavic
and German overlords and the diverse mix of other nationalities. "If Yiddish
is abandoned, its true adversary, the language of the country, will be
victorious and complete assimilation, the destruction of our nation, which
our traitors anticipate, will come about," he wrote in 1907. Mieses was
invited to conference to speak on "The Recognition of Yiddish."
<P>Besides these four major Yiddishist figures, the exhibition will also
feature other guests to show the ideological, geographical, and cultural
diversity of the delegates. L. Khazanovitch, a Poaley Zion party representative,
advocated Yiddish as the national language in Jewish settlements: "Yiddish
is a national language of the Jewish people and we demand complete political
and social equity for it in the lands of compact mass settlement by Jews,"
he proposed at the Conference. Esther Frumkin, a Bundist representative,
held some of the most radical views at the Conference, advocating Yiddish
as the sole language of the Jewish people. She also helped defeat Peretz’s
proposal to create a central organization for advancement and spread of
Yiddish because she believed the struggle should be carried along local
class lines. Some of the other delegates included, from the Czarist Empire:
Sholem Ash, who was to become a well-known American Yiddish novelist and
dramatist; Avrom Reyzin, already a popular poet; D. Nomberg, writer and
journalist, who later founded a small political party Y<I>iddishe Folkistishe
Partey</I>, which promoted Yiddish and Diaspora culture; N. Prilutski,
a linguist, folklorist, and journalist; from Rumania: Slotek, an advocate
for latinization of Yiddish; from Galicia and Bukovina: eight minor literary
figures and 47 students, merchants, bookkeepers, craftsmen, etc.
<P>This motley collection of ideologues, politicians, writers, philosophers,
linguists, and a whole bunch of curious on-lookers had an intimidating
goal in front of them: to decide on the future of Yiddish in a constructive
and orderly manner. Of course, with such a great number of Jews with diverging
and often conflicting views, the conference was everything but orderly
and constructive. The last pavilion of the exhibition aims to show the
chaos, wavering convictions, confused speeches and ineffectual decisions
that preoccupied much of the Conference’s proceedings. Collages of photographs,
documents, and newspaper articles occupy the walls of the square conference
room. Large narrative signs around the room trace and elucidate the course
of the Conference. A dramatized recording of the speeches plays to help
bring the viewer into the action.
<P>Nathan Birnbaum’s opening speech set the tone for the Conference. He
reiterated the already standard Yiddishist ideas about the power of Yiddish
as an educating tool for the masses and the need to elevate the status
of Yiddish from pidgin to an official language. Reading from his notes
in broken Galician Yiddish – he only started learning the language several
years before the Conference <FONT FACE="Symbol">-</FONT> Birnbaum called
the delegates "to remove opprobrium from our language and permit a new
Jewish beauty to come forth from our midst and illuminate our lives." Peretz’s
opening speech traced Yiddish’s developing importance in communication
of the masses; he also proposed translation of the Bible into Yiddish to
include tradition in the blossoming language. Peretz emphasized Yiddish’s
significance as the unifying language of the Jewish national identity:
"We no longer want to be fragmented, and to render to every Moloch nation-state
its tribute: There is one people – Jews, and its language is – Yiddish."
Peretz’s speech, the second one of the evening, made a great impression
on the delegates and guests and was repeatedly interrupted by enthusiastic
ovation. "Peretz’s appearance on the platform," one Chernowitz reporter
wrote, "evoked tremendous applause and indescribable joy."
<P>On the third day of the conference, Mieses delivered a linguistic paper
describing Yiddish as a unique linguistic structure and examining the history
and sociology of the language from that prospective. The speech was revolutionary
in scope and objective evidence and was used as the scientific basis for
many of the Conference’s resolutions. Mieses was later criticized for masking
pseudo-linguistics with convincing rhetoric, but at the time of the Conference,
many of the delegates were overwhelmed by the scientific evidence for their
ideology. However, Mieses’ perceived anti-Hebraist views caused much agitated
debate on the Conference floor. Denouncing Hebrew as a dead, ineffective,
and decaying language, he elicited many angry repartees from delegates
and guests. One newspaper reported that after the speech, "the Hebraists
began to whistle loudly and the Jargonists [Yiddishists] were ready to
defend Herr Mieses’s address with their fists . . . One of the shouting
Hebraists sat down in the corner, began to cry terribly and was unable
to calm himself."
<P>This extreme response illuminated one of the most controversial issues
of the Conference, that of the dichotomy of Hebrew and Yiddish as Jewish
national languages. Both Hebraists (proponents of Hebrew as the Jewish
national language) and Yiddishists agreed that the power of the religious
aspect of Judaism has declined, so language and culture should serve as
the primary bond of the people. However, Hebraists believed that Hebrew
should be the language because of its Biblical and Talmudic origins, whereas
Yiddishists, as shown earlier, believed Yiddish should be promoted because
of its current widespread use among the masses. "For us, Hebrew is the
holy tongue," Birnbaum wrote in 1919. "Yiddish is loved and cherished by
us because it is the language of our fathers and mothers, the language
that the Jews of Eastern Europe have spoken for hundreds of years and into
which they have permeated with their Jewishness." (<I>See Figure 16-18)</I>
<P>Because of the tensions between radical Yiddishists and more moderate
Yiddish supporters, debate over the last item on the original agenda projected
in the invitation, "the recognition of the Yiddish language," took up a
large portion of the Conference. The formulation of the final resolution
stumbled upon every word. Frumkin, the Bundist delegate, demanded the formulation
of Yiddish as "the national language" of the Jewish people, thus expunging
Hebrew as an alternative Jewish language. The majority, however, agreed
on the following resolution, substituting "a" for "the": "The first conference
for the Yiddish language recognizes Yiddish as <B>a</B> national language
of the Jewish people and demands for its political, communal and cultural
equality. In this connection the conference deems it necessary to declare
that each participant in the conference, as well as each member of the
future organization, retains the freedom to relate to the Hebrew language
according to his personal convictions." The Conference also resolved to
form an official organization to promote the acceptance the equal rights
of Yiddish in linguistics, education, literature, and theater.
<P>For various reasons – such as the lack of funds, impending war, and
ineffective leadership – the resolutions of the Conference never materialized
in any tangible way. However, the exhibition does not seek to examine the
direct effects of the Conference or evaluate its success. It is my hope
that the visitor will leave with a good understanding of the climate, people,
and issues of the Conference. The Conference Hall leads back to Ringplatz
room, so the visitor gets a sense of accomplishing a mini-odyssey of the
Yiddish struggle. If sufficient funds and space are obtained for the exhibition,
I propose an ideal closing segment for the exhibition. After exiting the
exhibit, the visitor will be able to shop and look around in an "Yiddish
Culture Room" or "YIVO room." YIVO, whose creation was strongly influenced
by the Chernowitz Conference’s ideas, is one of the world’s leading proponents
of Yiddish culture and education. Many argue that the Conference was an
organizational disappointment, too chaotic to resolve any significant issues
and unable to carry out its own resolutions. Descriptions of the YIVO and
other Yiddishist groups’ ongoing projects, concerts and lectures, shelves
stacked with Yiddish books and recordings should serve as a silent, but
very suggestive, indication of the Conference’s indirect success (<I>See
Figures 19-21)</I>. Because school groups will probably comprise a large
portion of the exhibit’s visitors, it is very important that children learn
something from the exhibition (besides the fact that adults can sometimes
argue about incomprehensible things). I would like to design an "Alef-Beys"
room, where through several hands-on activities, children can be exposed
to Yiddish language and culture. Ideally, before going through the exhibition,
children would get a lesson in Yiddish alphabet and learn a short Yiddish
song, with emphasis placed on the richness of Yiddish language and cultural
tradition. The exhibition is also easily adaptable as a virtual gallery,
a project I may work on with Professor Iosif Vaisman, the creator of the
Virtual Shtetl website. Photographs could be used as backgrounds for text,
with links to more pictures, descriptions, and musical clips. It is my
hope that visitors will leave the exhibit with a feeling for the city of
Chernowitz, having understood the Conference’s architects and the Conference
itself. Hopefully, they will go on to carry the spirit of the Chernowitz
Conference of 1908 to further their studies in the rich world of Yiddishkayt.
<P><B><I>Epilogue</I></B>
<P>A Jewish city with no Jews . . .
<P>I remember the last time I visited Chernowitz. In 1991, when we were
packing to leave for US, my mother wanted to say good-bye to the city of
her childhood, that intimate, cozy, comfortable Jewish Chernowitz she remembered
so well. We visited some friends, who were also packing to leave for Israel.
We took a walk on Herrengasse (now called Kobilyanska Street), its hauntingly
empty shops with long lines for meat and milk. My mother kept looking around
in hope of seeing a familiar face – she prided herself on knowing every
Jewish person in Chernowitz at one time. But Jews have left the city. The
windows of its aged Austrian-style stone buildings are empty of Jewish
spirit and song. Ukrainian authorities have new challenges in front of
them, and for once, the centuries-old Jewish question is probably not one
of them.
<P>Places and people intertwine to create history. Take one away, and history
is invisible, gone, with only scraps of memory scrambling to remind us
of the past. . .
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<CENTER><B>Bibliography</B> </CENTER>
<P>Birnbaum, Nathan. “Contra Zionism.” In The Jew in the Modern World:
A Documentary
<BR>History. Edited by Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz. 2nd Edition.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
<P>Birnbaum, Nathan. “Opening Address at the Conference for the Yiddish
Language.” In Ideology,
<BR>Society, and Language: the Odyssey of Nathan Birnbaum. Primary articles
edited by Joshua A. Fishman. Ann Arbor: Caroma Publishers, 1987.
<P>Chalfen, Israel. Paul Celan: A Biography of His Youth. Translated
by Maximilian Bleyleben. New York: Persea Books, 1991.
<P>Chernivtsi: Dovidnik-Putivnik.[Guide to Chernowitz] Chernivtsi: Chernivetske
Oblasne Vidavnitztvo, 1959.
<P>“Czernowitz Conference of the Yiddish Language (1908).” In The Jew in
the Modern
<BR>World: A Documentary History. Edited by Paul Mendes-Flohr and
Jehuda Reinharz. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
<P>De-Vitte, Elizaveta. Puteviya Vpechatleniya, (s istoricheskimi ocherkami)
Leto 1903 g.
<BR>Bukovina i Galichina. [Impressions from the road, with historical essays,
Summer 1903, Bukovina and Galicia.] Published from the original of 1904.
Bridgeport: Carpatho-Russian Literary Association, 1977.
<P>Felstiner, John. Paul Celan: Poet, Survivor, Jew. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1995.
<P>Fichman, Pearl. Phone interview by the author. New York, NY, May
8, 1998.
<P>Fichman, Pearl. Before Memories Fade. (Published on-line only.) <A HREF="http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/Places/Czernowitz/Fichman/pf1.html">http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/Places/Czernowitz/Fichman/pf1.html</A>,
May 8, 1998.
<P>Fishman, Joshua A. “Attracting a Following to High-Culture Functions
for a Language of
<BR>Everyday Life: The Role of the Tshernovits Language Conference
in the ‘Rise of Yiddish.’” In Never Say Die! A Thousand Years of
Yiddish in Jewish Life and Letters. Edited by Joshua A. Fishman.
New York: Mouton Publishers, 1981.
<P>Fishman, Joshua A. Ideology, Society, and Language: The Odyssey of Nathan
Birnbaum. Ann Arbor: Karoma Publishers, Inc., 1987.
<P>Fishman, Joshua A. “The Tshernovits Conference revisited: The First
World Conference for Yiddish, 85 years later.” In The Earliest Stage of
Language Planning: The ‘First Congress’ Phenomenon. Edited by Joshua A.
Fishman. New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1993.
<P>Geipel, John. Mame Loshn: the Making of Yiddish. London &
West Nyack: The Journeyman Press.
<P>Gold, Ruth Glasberg. Ruth’s Journey: A Survivor’s Memoir. Tampa:
University Press of Florida, 1996.
<P>Goldsmith, Emanuel S. Modern Yiddish Culture: The Story of the Yiddish
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<P>Katz, Dovid. “On Yiddish, in Yiddish, and for Yiddish: 500 Years of
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<P>Peretz, Isaac Leib. “Speech at the 1908 Czernowitz Language Conference.”
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<BR>Works of I. L. Peretz. The Three Great Classic Writers of Modern
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<P>Peretz, Isaac Leib. “Education.” In Selected Works of I. L. Peretz.
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<P>Rabinovitch, Eddie. Interview by the author. Upper Saddle River, NJ,
April 13, 1998.
<P>Sitwell, Sacheverell. Roumanian Journey. New York: Oxford
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<P>Vaisman, Iosif. Phone interview by the author. Chapel Hill, NC, May
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<P>Weinreich, Max. History of the Yiddish Language. Translated by Shlomo
Noble with the
<BR>assistance of Joshua A. Fishman. Chicago: The University
of Chicago Press, 1980.
<P>Wisse, Ruth R. I. L. Peretz and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture.
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<BR> </TD>
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