Movatterモバイル変換

Author: Velvl Chernin

Ethnographer, literary scholar and Yiddish poet Velvl Chernin was born in Moscow in 1958. In the 1980s, he was on the staff of Sovetish heymland—the only magazine published in Yiddish in the Soviet Union during that period.

Spiritual Potential of the Communal Revival: Yiddish Culture and Post-Soviet Jewry

April 30, 2002 |Velvl Chernin

Even though Yiddish as a spoken language will most likely disappear in the former Soviet Union, it will still be needed as a symbol of Jewish identity - one that is not overtly Zionist or religious. Yiddish, with its rich culture and literature, can be utilized to help Jews reconnect with their roots. In Israel, older immigrants, whose knowledge of Yiddish is not fluent, and who are unable to master Hebrew, employ Yiddish in order to communicate. Zionist Yiddishism has become one of the ideological components in the identity of immigrants from the former USSR, and enables them to link up with some form of Jewish culture as they integrate into the life of Israel.