Students 'upset' after university cuts Yiddish program

The University of Maryland's unprecedented budget crisis prompted administrators in the Center for Jewish Studies to cut the Yiddish program, which has existed for 15 years.Students and community organizations expressed disappointment in the decision to eliminate the program after 2011.

"I was really upset to hear the Yiddish program at Maryland was going to be cut because I really wanted other students in the future to have the same opportunity as me to study with Miriam Isaacs who is so passionate about the language and has done so much to keep it alive," said Miri Friedman, sophomore letters and sciences major.

Organizations such as Yugntruf, were upset over the decision and are comitted to protecting the future of the Yiddish language across the United States. Yugntruf's leaders are organizing its next Yiddish break at the university from April 16 to 18, said Dr. Miriam Isaacs, a visiting associate professor in Yiddish language and culture at the Center for Jewish Studies.

Hayim Lapin, director of the Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies, said he is considering creative solutions to continue offering Yiddish at the university. However, the university no longer has the funds to continue teaching the variety of classes focusing on the literary aspects of the language, such as Yiddish in the Americas.

"There were warning signals of budget cuts but it came as a shock when I found out in October," said Isaacs. "One other faculty member decided to leave the university, which left enough money to fund the program for one more year."

Isaacs has worked to keep Yiddish alive at the university for the past 15 years. She has taught classes including Intensive Elementary Yiddish, Yiddish Theatre, Film and Popular Culture and Yiddish in the Americas.

"Dr. Lapin made Yiddish an intensive one-year program so Yiddish could satisfy students' language requirement, yet Yiddish has not been treated like a modern language," said Isaacs. "Yiddish is never listed as one of the languages taught at the university and really should have the status of other languages."

Isaacs considers Yiddish a relevant language which ties modern Jews to their heritage and ancestors and should not be undermined as an insignificant, dying language. Jews and non-Jews alike use Yiddish phrases in their day-to-day conversations, often without even realizing it.

"People want to pretend Yiddish is dying or that it is only a language for 'old people,' but it is very much a living language, so why kill it prematurely?" she said.

Sophomores Etana Kenter, Dani Beckerman and Friedman had the opportunity to take Isaacs' Yiddish course for beginners last fall. All three students said they are extremely disappointed and fearful about the future of the language on the university campus and its impact on future generations.

"I sympathize with Miriam Isaacs because of her dedication to the Yiddish language to prevent it from becoming a dying language," Kenter, an economics major, said. "She is part of many Yiddish organizations outside of Maryland and has really made an effort to allow the language to spread to future generations. I really enjoyed the class and my grandparents were so happy I was able to learn a language that is so sentimental to them and the Jewish people as a whole."

Beckerman, a psychology major, suggested that the university's Hillel or Chabad should take a more active role in teaching and preserving the language by finding substantial ways to incorporate it into its programming if a solution to the university's budget cuts does not materialize.