Yiddishland Mayses
If you wanna feel your bobe’s presence, just go to Sylvan Lake.
Whether this is an idea full of emes or bupkes, my time in Yiddishland was fun der himl, full of glorious music, culture, fraynd, dancing, language, and neshama-uplifting. I’ve rarely experienced a week that removed me so beautifully from the pressures and worries of everyday life & transported me through time and existence into an andere velt. Particularly after the isolation durkh dos ersht yor fun di pandemik, di frayhayt experienced in Yiddishland was palpable.
On a gorgeous mid-August Monday, one of my chevrusa partners came to my apartment, where we waited for our third friend to pick us up and drive upstate. Even the couple hours in the car, listening to music and anticipating our arrival, was exciting! After parking, we saw a few other friends (including a few I met the day before at the Jewish Greek Festival and a Brooklyn klezmer concert), checked in with our vaccination no-COVID-infection proof, and found undzer naye heym far di vokh in Dorm B. A tour of the grounds, more shmues with other campers, vetshere, and an orientation later, we were in bed, ready to begin the official week inderfri.
The colour-coded, packed schedule came to life the next day. Morning “Stretch un Kvetch” led to frishtik, followed directly by the first sessions of Yiddish and klezmer. With clarinet and alto saxophone in tote, this was what I had been anticipating for weeks! What I learned that first day, into the rest of the week (that simultaneously passed all too quickly and felt like a longer time together), was that the mornings would consist of playing by ear, trusting myself, and trying to learn the modes – best expressed on my clarinet. Afternoons were filled with arrangements, playing with balance, rhythm, and volume – punctuated and wailed on my saxophone. The kapelye was robust that week: including an electric sitar (!), a couple mandolins, a few clarinets, several violins, a Belarusian tsimbl, drum kit, cello, viola, and sometimes piccolo and basset horn. We played freylekhs, bulgars, Yiddish songs, kolemaykes, and a beautiful dobriden. Each day we had at least three hours of daily practice plus played twice for dancing each day before meals – a total of about six hours a day for our chops! On moytsey shabes, we performed a short concert and led a final frenzied tanst!
My chevrusa partners, meanwhile, went to Yiddish shmues in the mornings, then cooking and singing klas in the afternoon. Eve Jochnowitz organized “Peysekh in Oygust” (she also led tantses), Zisl Slepovitch taught the Yiddish songs klas, and Cindy Paley crooned Yiddish love songs (she also led nightly singing). While I didn’t take these courses, I heard much about them. I was able to taste the feast prepared by the cooking class, hear the concerts of the singing classes, and sing harmony with Cindy and her kapelye arum dem fayer that ended our week together.
Another highlight of the week was the cabaret, which stretched into a two-night feature, during which I performed thrice mit ensembles: two duets (“Di zun vet aruntergeyn” and “Mayn rue plats”) with Beila (accompanied by Jonah on violin) and a rousing “Ven ikh bin a Rotshild” with Mikhl and several instrumentalists. We were serenaded with klezmer, other Yiddish songs, poetic recitation, midrash, skits, and comedy. Several evenings, di yungeren gathered outside for shmues un esn, lider un khaloymes. Un oyfn shabes, der tish was rousing, entrancing, melodic, elevating – a real feeling of togetherness, pulsated by the vibrations of table-banging and vocal chords.
Each night we were treated to programs, including concerts, recitations, memorials, readings, and dancing. Two of the nights also included cocktail parties, which were of course a hit! Among the events I couldn’t or didn’t attend there were several interesting lectures, late-night movies, and art sessions. The lake views and afternoons relaxing by the water offered a change of scenery, and sunsets were sublime.
All of us left filled with joy, culture, and hope, and our new relationships have continued over the past month. I have written to fraynd outside of NYC, and here have reunited with yids over shabes vetshere, for concerts during KlezKanada, to make ritual candles for yom kiper, and to break the fast – with much more to come. I am grateful for the opportunities brought to us by vaccines, patience and vigilance in caring for one another, and from pure luck of being in the right places at the right times. Here’s to the continual Yiddish future, connecting us to our past, and enhancing our present –
A GUT GEZUNT ZIS UMBAGRAYFLEKH SHEYN YOR IN 5782!!
