Asya Vaisman Schulman directs the Yiddish Language Institute and the Steiner Summer Yiddish Program at the Yiddish Book Center. She has been affiliated with the Center for over a decade, initially as a fellow and now as a faculty member. In that time, Schulman co-authored the textbook “In eynem: The New Yiddish Textbook” (“together” in Yiddish)—the first textbook to emphasize the “communicative” approach to learning Yiddish. Schulman told JewishBoston that, when learning a language, conjugating verbs and translating passages takes a backseat to communicating directly with another person and culture.
Schulman said that, from the beginning of her coming to the Center, she “created materials reflecting language as communication tool.” Before joining the Center, Schulman taught Yiddish at Indiana, Harvard and Columbia Universities, the New York Workmen’s Circle and Gann Academy in Waltham. She was the first student at Barnard College to major in Yiddish studies and went on to earn her Ph.D. in Yiddish from Harvard University.
When did you begin to study Yiddish?
My family moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, from Russia. I grew up knowing Yiddish was important to my Jewish identity. I wasn’t fluent in the language, but I listened to Yiddish music and heard Yiddish phrases. I took small group lessons in high school with a Yiddish teacher who lived near us, and I went to summer programs at YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and Columbia University. My parents created the first major Yiddish website, The Virtual Shtetl. I created the kids’ pages for the website. And I’ve always loved languages—French was my favorite subject, and I wanted to be a French teacher in middle school and high school. I’ve also studied Hebrew and German.
Your family has spoken Yiddish continuously for over 1,000 years. How did that influence you?
For many Jews, especially in America, there is a gap of a few generations in consistently speaking Yiddish. Maybe the great-grandparents spoke Yiddish, but they did not pass it on. There wasn’t a notable gap in my family—three of my four grandparents were Yiddish speakers. My father understands the language and is somewhat fluent. When I studied Yiddish, there was only a brief intermission beforehand. So, it wasn’t this rupture that many families have.
You and your husband exclusively speak Yiddish with your daughter. What led you to make that decision?
My husband and I are Yiddish speakers, so it wasn’t a very difficult decision, but he is doing the hard work. He speaks Yiddish exclusively to our daughter, and she is fully bilingual. At this point, she’s trilingual because we live in Montreal, and she speaks French in school. It’s wonderful to give a child the gift of language at an early age.
Where does your daughter speak Yiddish?
Her interaction has been mostly with Yiddish culture. My husband was the director of KlezKanada, and she grew up in that community of musicians. Last summer at the KlezKanada retreat, she sat with people and spoke Yiddish. Some of them were my former students; she chatted in Yiddish at meals with these young people. It was lovely.
When I think of opportunities to speak Yiddish, I think of Hasidic communities who almost always speak Yiddish exclusively.
There’s a different dialect in those communities, and it’s a different social situation. Although, here in Montreal, the boundaries are more fluid than, for example, in New York. We like to tell the story of my husband and daughter speaking Yiddish at Cheskie’s, the famous Hasidic bakery in Montreal. The baker overheard them speaking Yiddish and was very excited. Since their appearance does not match with speaking Yiddish, he asked them where they were from and how they knew…
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