Dov-Ber Kerler (Indiana University, Bloomington)

EYDES and Contemporary Fieldwork in Yiddish Ethnography and Dialectology

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Appendix 1: The IUYEP and some other related projects
by Jeffrey Veidlinger & Dov-Ber Kerler

In the past decade Yiddish language and culture has begun to see a surprising revival.
Around the world large segments of the rapidly growing Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish population
continue to use Yiddish as their vernacular; the academic study of Yiddish is proliferating at
universities and academic institutions; and festivals of Yiddish culture, public lectures, Yiddish
music, and klezmer groups regularly celebrate a heritage that may yet be recovered.1 Yet on its
native soil, the Yiddish language and associated culture are on the verge of disappearance. For
most of the twentieth century, the historical heartland of East European Jewish civilization was
inaccessible to Western observers. Scholars and the general public assumed that in the
aftermath of the Holocaust and Sovietization, the last traces of Jewish life and language in the
region had already been destroyed. However, since the opening of the former Soviet Union and
the establishment of independent states in Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania, scholars have begun
to find significant remnants of this civilization.2 In addition to researching at a distance or from
pre-existing literature, it is now possible to capture first-hand memories of the last surviving
generation of native Yiddish-speakers in Eastern Europe.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, researchers have begun to comb local archives
for genealogical records;3 Hasidic pilgrims have streamed into the region to pay homage to holy
graves; community activists have begun to restore the faded facades of synagogues and with
them the life of local Jewish communities; and tourists now sporadically trickle into the “Old
Country” in search of their roots. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of Jews from the
region have been fleeing in search of better lives in Israel, America, and Germany. Yet no
attempt has been made to record the memories, culture, and language of those who remain.
Given the age of the remnant population, in a few years this living resource of Yiddish in its
original habitat will be lost forever.

1
See Joshua A. Fishman, “Stock-Taking: Where Are We Now,” pp. 291-349 in his Yiddish: Turning
to Life (Amsterdam/Philadelphia, 1991); Leonard Jay Greenspoon, ed., Yiddish Language and Culture Then
and Now (Omaha, 1998); Dov-Ber Kerler, ed., Politics of Yiddish, Studies in Language, Literature and
Society [= Winter Studies in Yiddish, vol. 4], (Walnut Creek—London—New Delhi, 1998); Jeffrey Shandler,
“Imagining Yiddishland” History and Memory 15: 1 (Spring/Summer 2003), 123-149; “Reading Sholem
Aleichem from Left to Right”, YIVO Annual, vol. 20, 1991; and “Beyond the Mother Tongue: Learning the
Meaning of Yiddish in America,” Jewish Social Studies, 6 (Spring/Summer 2000), 97–123; Mark Slobin,
Fiddler on the Move, Exploring the Klezmer World, (New York, 2000); Dovid Katz, Words on Fire: the
Unfinished Story of Yiddish, (Basic Books, New York 2004).
2
See Dovid Katz, Back to the Old Country: A Decade of Expeditions to the Last Shtetl Jews
(London, forthcoming); Lithuanian Jewish Culture (Baltos Lankos: Vilnius, 2004); and the documentary film
End of the Road. The Last Shtetl Jews in Belarus (Vilnius 1999). See also Benjamin Lukin and Boris
Khaimovich, 100 evreiskikh mestechek Ukrainy, istoricheskii putevoditel', vypusk 1, Podolia, (Jerusalem—St
Petersburg, 1997); and Benjamin Lukin, Boris Khaimovich, and Alla Sokolova, 100 evreiskikh mestechek
Ukrainy, istoricheskii putevoditel', vypusk 2, Podolia, St. Petersburg, 2000).
3
See, for example, Miriam Weiner, Jewish Roots in Poland: Pages from the Past and Archival
Inventories (Secaucus, 1997); Miriam Weiner, Jewish Roots in Ukraine and Moldova: Pages from the Past
and Archival Inventories (Secaucus, 1999); David A. Chapin and Ben Weinstock. The Road From Letichev
(2 vols., San Jose, 2000).

1
 The short window of opportunity between the collapse of the Soviet Union and the
passing away of the generation born in the 1910s to 1930s is about to close. We now have the
unique opportunity to interview people whose lives span the entire era of the Soviet empire and
most importantly, who witnessed events of the twentieth-century from a single geographic
vantage point. Given the catastrophic losses of the Jewish population during the Holocaust and
the considerable emigrations that followed it, the population group that remained in their native
region is truly exceptional and adds a significant element to the history of Yiddish language and
culture. If testimonies are not taken now, this gap in our historical knowledge will become
insurmountable.
The Soviet government in the late 1930s liquidated Yiddish education and Jewish culture
in the region. Millions of Yiddish-speakers were murdered by the Nazis and their allies in the
following decade. As Jews reconstructed their lives in the aftermath of the Holocaust, Yiddish
language and culture were largely left by the wayside. The younger generation has virtually no
knowledge of pre-war Yiddish culture. The last Yiddish-speakers of Ukraine are now in their
seventies, eighties, and nineties. The documentation of this living generation is therefore of great
urgency.
The vast majority of American Jews trace their roots to Eastern Europe. Although many
retain emotional and cultural links to the culture, the language—except for a handful of words and
popular expressions—is largely lost among them. At the same time, East European Jewish
culture and Yiddish language is surviving among many Hasidic groups around the world, and in
academic circles, where Yiddish is becoming a popular topic for specialized research as well as
undergraduate curricula.

Related Projects

The first and most celebrated ethnographic expedition into the heart of the Pale of Jewish
Settlement was that conducted in 1912-1914 by S. An-sky under the auspices of the Jewish
Historical and Ethnographic Society. An-sky’s expedition focused on the regions of Kiev,
Volhynia, Podolia, and parts of Galicia, the same regions the IUYEP is now rediscovering. An-
sky’s expedition was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I, but he remained in Galicia
during the war, reorienting his efforts from ethnography to relief. Although parts of his collection
did not survive the two world wars and communism, the testimonies, artifacts, and songs he
collected remain important resources to this day and serve as sources of inspiration for both
artistic creativity and academic scholarship. 4 For example, since the late 1980s a group of then
aspiring Russian academics, including Valeriy Dymshits, Benjamin Lukin, Alla Sokolova, and
Boris Khaimovich, have set out to trace An-sky’s expeditions, documenting material culture,
archives, architecture, and remaining local communities.5 Despite their great respect for Yiddish
and Jewish culture, they themselves did not use Yiddish language materials or research Yiddish

4
See, for instance, Mariël Beukers and Renée Waale, eds., Tracing An-sky, Jewish Collections
from the State Ethnographic Museum in St Petersburg (Amsterdam, 1992). Vaslii Rakitin and Andrei
Sarabianov, eds., The Jewish Artistic Heritage, An Album (Moscow, 1994); Rivka Gonen, ed., Back to the
Shtetl: An-sky and the Jewish Ethnographic Expedition, 1912-1914, From the Collections of the State
Ethnographic Museum in St. Petersburg/ Bechazara laayara: Ans-ki vehamishlakhat haetnografit hayehudit,
1912-1914, (Jerusalem, 1994); A. Kantsedikas and I. Serheyeva, The Jewish Artistic Heritage Album by
Semyon An-sky (Moscow, 2001); and Avrom Rekhtman Yidishe etnografye un folklor, zikhroynes fun an
etnografisher ekspeditsye ongefirt fun Sh. Z. Ans-ky, (Buenos Aires, 1958).
5
Benjamin Lukin and Boris Khaimovich, 100 evreiskikh mestechek Ukrainy, istoricheskii
putevoditel', vypusk 1, Podolia, (Jerusalem—St Petersburg, 1997); and Benjamin Lukin, Boris Khaimovich,
and Alla Sokolova, 100 evreiskikh mestechek Ukrainy, istoricheskii putevoditel', vypusk 2, Podolia, (St.
Petersburg, 2000); Boris Khaimovich and Valery Dymshitz, “Beekvot An-ski, 1988-1993" [= In Ans-ky's
footsteps, 1988-1993], pp. 121-132 in Rivka Gonen, ed., Back to the Shtetl: An-sky and the Jewish
Ethnographic Expedition, 1912-1914, (Jerusalem, 1994).

2
language and culture itself. The superbly researched and annotated guidebooks they compiled,
though, have been instrumental for more focused expeditions to the region.
The IUYEP was immediately inspired by the Vilnius Yiddish Institute’s Expeditions to the
Last Shtetl Jews, led by Professor Dovid Katz. Since the early 1990s, Dovid Katz has been
conducting audio and later videotaped interviews with the last Yiddish speakers of historical
Jewish Lita (contemporary Lithuania, Belarus, and adjacent regions in Poland). During the
October 2001 conference, “Beyond the Shtetl: Yiddish Language and Culture in 20th Century
Eastern Europe,” held at Indiana University, the idea of expanding this research into Ukraine was
discussed. Professor Katz agreed to serve as a consultant for the project and to accompany the
expedition on a pilot project to Ukraine. The IUYEP was subsequently established in close
collaboration and consultation with the Vilnius Yiddish Institute’s project. While the two projects
are separate organizations, a principal agreement was reached whereby the Vilnius Yiddish
Institute would provide Indiana University with copies of the approximately 1000 interviews they
have collected over the past decade in return for copies of all tapes made by IUYEP. Professor
Katz accompanied the first pilot expedition and joined the second expedition for ten days. The
two projects are also sharing questionnaires and research materials, and are working together to
unify and coordinate analysis of different regions.
Aside from the Vilnius Institute’s Last Shtetl Jews project, the IUYEP is the only oral
history and documentation project of its scope to be conducted entirely in the Yiddish language.
Our work builds upon both scholarly and non-scholarly projects undertaken by colleagues around
the world, many of whom we have been collaborating with to varying degrees.
Several oral history projects have been conducted in part in the same communities with
the goal of collecting Holocaust testimonials. The Steven Spielberg Survivors of the Shoah
Visual History Foundation, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History
Department, and the Yale Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies have collected
testimonials from Holocaust survivors in Ukraine and elsewhere.6 Dr. Iulii Sternberg, who
coordinates interviews for the Spielberg Foundation in Lvov (Ukraine), has been a helpful source
of informants for our project, as have other regional representatives in Ukraine. These oral
history projects have created an integral database on Holocaust testimonials. The IUYEP
supplements these collections by preserving memories of the culture that was lost, rather than
focusing on the process of destruction itself.
Other projects have focused on contemporary Jewish life in the region. The sociological
survey work currently underway at the University of Michigan to interview Jews in the Former
Soviet Union, particularly Russia and Ukraine, about contemporary Jewish life and identity also
focuses in part on the same population and time periods. The University of Michigan project
provides valuable context on post-war Jewish life in the region and the current state of the
communities we study.7 In addition, a number of smaller-scale anthropological and oral history
projects have been conducted as doctoral dissertations that focus on Ukrainian and Russian
Jews.8 We have benefited from extensive contact with these researchers.
The IUYEP is also distinguished among these projects in that it targets exclusively those
who have remained on their native soil rather than émigrés. While it is very important to interview
and record Yiddish speakers who have moved to Western countries, native Yiddish speech in its
original milieu has dialectological value and ethnographic immediacy that cannot be fully
recreated abroad. Interviewing subjects in their own homes and their native milieus also
stimulates the unmediated flow of memory and allows the viewer to observe the physical

6
For the Steven Spielberg Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation see www.vhf.org. For
the Fortunoff Archive see www.library.yale.edu/testimonies. For the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum see www.ushmm.org/research/collections.
7
For more on this project see Valeriy Chervyakov, Zvi Gitelman, and Vladimir Shapiro, “E Pluribus
Unum? Post-Soviet Jewish Identities and Their Implications for Communal Reconstruction” in Zvi Gitelman
with Musya Glants and Marshall I. Goldman, eds., Jewish Life After the USSR (Bloomington, 2003), 61-75.
8
See, for instance, Anna Shternshis, “Soviet and kosher: Soviet Jewish cultural identity, 1917-41”,
D.Phil., Oxford University, 2001; and Rebecca Golbert, 2001 “Constructing self: Ukrainian Jewish youth in
the making,” D. Phil., Oxford University, 2001.

3
environment in which their narrative takes place. For example, the footage we have already
obtained of the last Yiddish speaker of the former Galician Jewish center of Zholkva showing on
camera the sites of the former synagogue, cemetery, Jewish streets, and Jewish stores cannot
be replicated in a studio abroad or a Brooklyn apartment.
Other projects are currently underway to collect and digitize pre-existing Yiddish
collections. The National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst Massachusetts has been collecting
and digitizing Yiddish books from around the world, and the Dartmouth Jewish Sound Archive
collects and digitizes pre-existing Yiddish musical and voice recordings.9 The Language and
Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry, which recorded Yiddish interviews with Jewish émigrés in
America and Israel in the 1960s, is being digitized, catalogued, and transcribed by the German-
based EYDES (Evidence of Yiddish Documented in European Societies).10 The Indiana
University Yiddish Ethnographic Project expands on the Atlas by interviewing subjects in situ from
various regions including many which could not be covered in the Atlas and it plans to closely
collaborate with the EYDES project in the near future. All of these collections will serve as
important contributions to Yiddish studies and signify the growing awareness of the Yiddish
cultural heritage. Whereas these collections focus on preserving and further disseminating
existing materials, the Indiana University Yiddish Ethnographic Project collects and creates new
Yiddish resources that would otherwise disappear with the demise of the last generation of native
Yiddish-speakers in the region.
The number of projects currently underway to record and preserve the last remnants of both
the Yiddish language and the culture of East European Jewry stands as a testament to the
importance with which both the general public and the scholarly community regard this work.
While much of the linguistic material and living memory has already been lost in the region during
the last three decades, our recent expeditions to Ukraine, coupled with more than a decade of
expeditions led by Professor Dovid Katz in the northeast, show that there is still a wealth of
valuable and otherwise irretrievable linguistic data and cultural material that could not be fully
recovered from afar in the 1950s and 1960s. Then, in the heyday of the Cold War, “the study of a
culture from a distance” was the only possible type of research of Eastern European subjects.11
However, today a great deal of material can still be videotaped and recorded in situ. In addition
to the so-called “envelopes of sound”12 a treasure house of “sound and moving images of
memory and testimony” of Yiddish language, folklore, oral history and East European Jewish
cultural heritage can and should be captured and preserved for future generations of students,
scholars, and educators.

Appendix 2: The First Two IUYEP Expeditions in Contemporary Ukraine

9
For the National Yiddish Book Center see www.yiddishbookcenter.org. For the Dartmouth Jewish
Sound Archive see http://www.dartmouth.edu/~djsa/
10
For details on the project, Evidence of Yiddish Documented in European Societies, see
www.eydes.org; for more information on the Language and Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry see fn. 15 below.
11
Margaret Mead and Rhoda Metraux, eds., The Study of Culture at a Distance (Chicago, 1953);
Uriel Weinreich, "Culture Geography at a Distance: Some Problems in the Study of East European Jewry,"
pp. 27-39, W.L. Chafe, ed., Symposium on Language and Culture (Seattle, 1962).
12
Ronald Grele, Envelopes of Sound: The Art of Oral History, (2nd ed. New York, 1991).

4
 Previous IUYEP Expeditions 2002-2003
I. Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Berdychiv, Vinnytsya, Zhmerynka, Sharhorod, Bratslav, Tulchyn, Shpikiv, Gaysin, Bershad,
Teplik, Uman

II. Kyiv, Polonnoe, Shepetivka, Iziaslav, Slavuta, Rivne, Lutsk, Kovel, Zholkva, Lviv, Drohobych, Ivano-Fran-
kivsk, Kolomyya, Chernivitsi, Kamyanets-Podolskyy, Mogilev-Podolskyy, Tomashpil, Tulchin, Vinnytsya, Berdychiv,
Zhytomyr, Ovruch, Korosten, Nizhyn, Chernihiv

Total informants interviewed: 111

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