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 Often
recollecting about our childhood we ask ourselves if it was real or it was only
our fantasy. Thus when listening to and understanding Yiddish songs, elderly
people attribute it to their rich imagination.
"On one of our lectures we were discussing the language
of European Jewry", the head of the Day Center Tatyana Risman told
us. "The lecture was presented by one of Hesed volunteers Yakov Vinnitsky.
He decided to tell an anecdote in Yiddish to let others listen to live speech.
It was supposed that he would translate it into Russian, but it was unnecessary -
everybody laughed."
In the first half of the XX century many Jewish families in Kazakhstan
spoke Yiddish. Of course, children could not but learn the language. But the
Soviet Union changed many things. Today many of our clients get acquainted with
the language again.
 "It
seems to me that I know Yiddish," a client Margarita Peters says. "Or
rather I understand the meaning of phrases. It happens by itself, in spite of
me, like a baby recognizes its mother. But I don't think I can speak it."
For these people, their children and grandchildren "Borough"
club is opened. "Borough" is spoken Yiddish for people of any age.
Revival of the language means returning to the Tradition and culture.
"When people smile sincerely and are really glad to see
you", Tatyana Risman says, "it's much easer to teach them.
The new club recreates a kind atmosphere of a Jewish borough and helps people
to start speaking Yiddish. Sketches, jokes, funny stories, literature, and songs
will be the first textbooks for inhabitants of the "Borough"."
Galina Goldberg
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