Home > Mission Statement

Mission Statement

Introduction



The League for Yiddish, Inc., was founded in 1979 by prominent Yiddish linguist and professor Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter in order to provide organizational support for the modernization, standardization and use of the Yiddish language in all spheres of daily life. With devoted members on six continents, the League for Yiddish is one of the few organizations in today's Yiddish cultural and linguistic world that conducts its activities almost entirely in mame-loshn.

Our goals



The goals of the League for Yiddish are:
  • to encourage people to speak Yiddish in their everyday life;
  • to enhance the prestige of Yiddish as a living language, both within and outside the Yiddish-speaking community;
  • to promote the modernization and standardization of Yiddish.


How do we accomplish these goals?



  • We publish a high-quality Yiddish magazine, Afn Shvel, which appears three times a year under the new editorship of Dr. Sheva Zucker. Now in its 65th year, the magazine features articles of Yiddish cultural, literary, linguistic, and communal interest, as well as a beautiful, modern layout, high-resolution photos, and extensive glossaries to help newer readers. Its advisory board includes the poets Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman (New York), Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath (Teaneck, New Jersey), Moyshe Szklar (Los Angeles), Simkhe Simchovitch (Toronto), the writer Iosif Burg (Tshernovits, Ukraine), as well as the linguistic and literary scholars Paul (Hershl) Glasser (New York) and Sholem Lurie (Merhavia, Israel).
  • We sponsor VZMAY, an electronic "Yiddish Q & A" mailing list which seeks to promote the use of Yiddish words and expressions not easily found — or not found at all — in existing Yiddish dictionaries. This project is coordinated by Binyumen Schaechter.
  • We are currently engaged in a film project, A Velt mit Veltelekh (Worlds within a World), that records interviews with Yiddish writers. The films are directed and edited by Josh Waletzky, director and editor of Image before My Eyes and Partisans of Vilna. Among other awards, Josh is the recipient of the Silver Ducat at the Mannheim International Film Festival for Image and First Prize at the Anthropos International Film Festival for Partisans. Thus far we have filmed poet/songwriter Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, literary critic/editor/educator Itche Goldberg, and writer/painter Yonia Fain. The interviews are in Yiddish with English subtitles. Watch this website for more details.
  • We plan and conduct special public programs on Yiddish cultural and literary topics.


Our publications include:



Textbooks

Mordkhe Schaechter, Yiddish II: An Intermediate and Advanced Textbook (for use at the second and third-year college levels), 3 editions: 1986, 1993, 1995.

Linguistics and Terminology

Der Eynheytlekher Yidisher Oysleyg: Takones fun Yidishn Oysleyg (The Standardized Yiddish Orthography), sixth edition, together with Mordkhe Schaechter's Fun Folkshprakh tsu Kulturshprakh (The History of the Standardized Yiddish Spelling) (published jointly with YIVO, 1999).

Mordkhe Schaechter, ed. English-Yiddish Dictionary of Academic Terminology, 1988.

Mordkhe Schaechter, Laytish Mame-loshn [Authentic Yiddish]: Observatsyes un Rekomendatsyes (in Yiddish), 1986

Mordkhe Schaechter, ed. Plant Names in Yiddish, published jointly with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 2005.

Mordkhe Schaechter, ed. Pregnancy, Childbirth and Early Childhood: An English-Yiddish Dictionary, 1991.

Literature and Music

Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, Fli, mayn flishlang (twenty-two original songs, English transliteration and translation), 1999.

Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, Zumerteg (twenty original songs with music, English transliteration and translation), 1990; second edition, published jointly with the Congress for Jewish Culture, 1994 (accompanying tape and/or CD available).

Vidervuks [Regrowth]: A New Generation of Yiddish Writers, 1989 (a Yiddish-language anthology published jointly by the League for Yiddish, Yugntruf — Youth for Yiddish, and the Congress for Jewish Culture).

Currently in the planning stages are:



  • Graded readers for students at various levels, structured by the level of vocabulary and the difficulty of grammatical construction;
  • A series of video-recordings illustrating the regional varieties of spoken Yiddish;
  • Audio-recordings of a series of everyday Yiddish conversations on specific topics


Executive Director



Dr. Sheva Zucker, professor of Yiddish, author of Yiddish educational materials, and translator, is executive director of the League for Yiddish and editor-in-chief of its publication Afn Shvel.

Executive Board



The executive board includes the following individuals:
  • David Braun
  • Dr. Beatrice (Brukhe) Caplan
  • Jeremy Garber
  • Dr. Itzik Gottesman
  • Dr. Dorothy Indenbaum
  • Dr. Bertram Kabak
  • Binyumen Schaechter
  • Charne Schaechter
  • Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman
  • Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath
  • Shelby Shapiro
  • Adam J. Whiteman
  • Herbert T. Yonish
  • Dr. Zuni Zelitch