IN MEMORY OF GRIGORIY POLYANKER

"Alive and will be alive dear to our heart Mame-Loshn. The reason for that is the innumerable treasure of literary works written in this language all over the world. This is our immense contribution to the world culture, to the world civilization" (From lecture read by G.Polyanker at the seminar on Yiddish and Yiddishkait, held on August 15-16, 1966, in Kishinev. Lectures were in Yiddish. The translation is done by the author).

The current year (2001) is outstanding for its remarkable dates in the history of hard-suffered Mame-Loshn in the former USSR and after its collapse. First of all it is the 75-th anniversary of the period when Yiddish was in full swing (1926-1936). The second date is younger. It is only 40. The period starting from 1961 can be called the second blossoming. It ends in 1991, from which the third period, the youngest, began. The latter is only 10 years old. It is the "fading" period of Yiddish against the revival of the overall Jewish culture in independent Ukraine since the USSR collapsed.

So, the year of 1926. It is the 9th anniversary of "the greatest October". The Jewish section, not to be behind other party organizations in the efforts to make a present to its Jewish population on the eve of the great date, launched a slogan "Mitn ponim tsum shtetl!" ("Turn face to the shtetl!", a pendant of the remarkable and well-known Soviet slogan "Turn face to the village!" Shtetl is Yiddish, it is millions of Jews, speaking, writing, reading and thinking only in this language.

In order to involve these millions in active building of socialism in the USSR one had to speak with them in their native language, in Yiddish, concurrently opposing it to the other national language - Hebrew, the latter was labeled a hostile bourgeois language.

The process of "Yiddization" included not only the developing of a wide network of educational schools, colleges, chairs in pedagogical institutes, research institutes, writers' associations, publishing houses, periodicals in Yiddish, but also court proceedings in Yiddish in some regions. In some places local administration (Soviets) was oriented to the Jewish population. However, this active life of Yiddish didn't last long. In 1930 the Jewish section, as well as other national sections, was liquidated and soon (1937-1938) almost all its activists were repressed and killed.

Gradually the number of schools and departments in Yiddish at colleges and institutes decreased. In pre-war 1940 all Jewish schools in Kiev were closed one month before the end of the school year. It was a fatal blow to Yiddish, one year before the terrible catastrophe of the people, to which Mame-Loshn was native and the only understandable language.

Jews who survived the Shoa-Catastrophe, would witness afterwards a series of post-war "small" catastrophes - anti-Jewish campaigns that didn't promote the development of the national culture in Yiddish. The terrible 1952 September events cut down the blossoms of Jewish literature. Those, who survived were constantly under the threat of arrest by the unmerciful KGB. It happened also to Grigoriy Polyanker. Only the tyrant's death saved him from 10 years of sufferings. His book "Returning from hell" is about those horrible three years (November 1951 - October 1954) spent in the KGB prisons and camps.

This novel was written in Yiddish for the "shelf" (not to be published) but during the so called "Khrushchev's thaw" the Jewish writers with the support of Moris Torez, one of the influential leaders of the communist movement and personal friend of N. Khrushchev, got the permission to publish their own literary and social-political magazine called "Sovetish heimland" - "Soviet Motherland".

The first issue of this magazine came from print 40 years ago, in August 1961. We have to know about this, as well as about its editor-in-chief Aaron Vergelis (1918 - 1999), about the role of this magazine in preserving Mame-Loshn because it is a bright page in our life that can't be forgotten. The opening of the magazine was the "second breath" for Grigoriy Polyanker, for all Jewish writers and philologists. The writer Polyanker was a member of the editorial board of this magazine (renamed into "Jewish Street" after the collapse of the USSR) from its first to the last issues.

In summer of 1981, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of "Sovetish heimland", an Yiddish group was set up at the High Literary Courses under the Gorky Literary Institute in Moscow. Among students of this small group (5 participants) two names are still well known: poet and translator Lev Berinsky and Boris Sandler who later on became the editor-in-chief of the "Forverts" newspaper. No representative from Ukrainian Jewry was in that group. Worthy to note that the small seminar where education was done in Yiddish after a 40-year break was the only educational unit across the vast territories of the USSR.

The revival of Jewish life in Ukraine began from the late 80s, in the years of perestroika, when the ideological grip lessened. In 1988-1989 the Kiev Jewish culture society was set up, then the Republican society and the Kiev Jewish cultural and educational society named after Sholom-Aleikhem were established.

Here are the reminiscences of Semen Averbuch about those times: "Owing to the efforts of the writer Grigoriy Polyanker a circle for learning Yiddish was set up in Kiev. For some time we used to gather in the synagogue in Shchekavitsky street to speak Mame-Loshn. It was very important for me. For 50 years I had never heard a word in Yiddish. The classes revived inside me the feeling of communication in Yiddish with my parents..."

Mostly people of pension age used to come to Polyanker's classes. For them Yiddish was really Mame-Loshn. The classes were not a mere esthetic vent. I can tell the names of two students of that colloquium - Efim Vinnitsky and Grigoriy Kogan who began to actively write in Yiddish afterwards. E. Vinnitsky lives in the USA now and widely cooperates with Jewish newspapers. G. Kogan resides in Israel and writes poems and songs in Yiddish, which are being published and performed all over Israel.

There were attempts to revive the secular Jewish education. Groups "English and Jewish" (Hebrew) were opened at the Kiev pedagogical institute. In the International Solomon University only one group is taught Yiddish.

Worthy of mentioning is an experiment held at the Karpenko-Kariy Theatre Institute where Yiddish was taught to students who were supported to work in Jewish theatres. Where are they now, they who tasted Jewish wisdom in Yiddish? There were also Yiddish classes in the 90s for pupils and teachers of the Jewish school. The teacher was the associate professor from the Polytechnic Institute Roman Frenkel who emigrated and left his pupils, who liked him very much, without Yiddish lessons.

One teacher of Yiddish was invited from Germany for students of the Institute of Jewish Studies. Several weeks passed and once she noticed skeptical smiles on the faces of her students. She inquired: "Is anything wrong?" "All is wrong!" - said one brave student. "It isn't Yiddish that we heard from our grandmothers and mothers". The teacher was not only upset but she burst into tears. That was the end of one more attempt to study Yiddish.

There are four Sunday groups in Kiev where enthusiasts of Mame-Loshn teach Yiddish. They are Yosif Torchinsky, Mark Derbaremdiker, Yosif Shaikin and Lyubov Matyushina, who learned Yiddish attending Torchinsky's classes. My God! Give them strength to go on teaching. No substitute is available.

Yiddish is sometimes looked upon as a "general for wedding" to make the holiday prestigious and to forget it until next holiday. The proof of it is the events of this summer with studying Yiddish and singing in Yiddish.

For Yiddish the summer begins with the holiday. It has been for 12 years already. 2001 was not an exception. The rest-house "Lastochka" in the village of Strishavka (near Vinnitsa) was the venue of the international seminar "Yiddish un Yiddishkait". From late July to the middle of August Mame-Loshn was very popular there: some were teaching, others were studying. Among "others" were a Japanese, a Pole, Israelis, Americans and representatives of the CIS countries. It was a real holiday. It was a dear holiday, in the direct and indirect meanings.

When the holiday was over, Yiddish went to the Crimea as part of the "Klezfest-2001" festival with songs and classes in Yiddish. Yiddish classes were taught by Andrei Bredstein from Moscow and Arkadiy Gendler from Zhaporoje. It was a holiday, a dear holiday!

This is not all. The 3rd international "Wandering stars" festival was held on October 10-15 in Kiev. All tickets were sold beforehand. The repertoire was strikingly amazing. The efforts of amateur theatrical troupes were beyond any praise. Alas, Yiddish was forgotten. To my opinion, dancing also lost its Jewish semantics, its khein and charm. I assume that it is difficult to learn one or two dozens of words in Yiddish or a Yiddish song. But dancing has its own language. Great Mikhoels said once that his performances were attended by people who mostly didn't know Yiddish, but they understood it through movements of the hands.

One shouldn't grumble but praise for the holiday!

Have you ever met a family, which spends its entire budget for holidays? What do they eat on weekdays? A strange question! All other days they are on a free, accessible to all, public catering. They are fed and pleased. No big efforts are needed, they are in assimilated families from birth.

Now, I am reading in Yiddish the elegiac novel by G.Polyanker called "Mother's song". At the end of the novel there are thoughts about the future of Yiddish. Here is a short translation of two last passages: "Is it really possible that there are people who can turn away from their Mame-Loshn, from mother's songs, from treasures saved and granted to them?"

No! It is not subject to oblivion. It can't disappear until the people is alive. And the people will live forever. Its spirit and its words are eternal..."