Geplaatst op door david.wertheim@jck.nl

Amsterdam Yiddish Symposium 16

A Language That Refuses to Die: Yiddish — Spoken Daily, Read Widely, Seen Globally

‘Tuesday, 21 April 2026   |   13:30 – 17:30

Goethe Instituut, Herengracht 470, Amsterdam  (1st floor)

Convened by Dr. Daniella Zaidman-Mauer (Universiteit van Amsterdam), Organized by the Menasseh ben Israel Institute

The symposium will be held in English and Dutch

Tickets €15  |  students and friends (donateurs) of MbII €5

It is no longer possible to register for this symposium. 

LUISTER HIER TERUG:

Introductie: Danielle Zaidman-Mauer

Chaya R. Nove:  New York Hasidic Yiddish: Migration, Maintenance and Belonging

Nikolaj Olniansky: An Unexpected Journey: Sweden as a Contemporary Center for Yiddish Literature

Naftali Moskowitz: S’past nisht — and Yet: Coaching Living Yiddish on Rough Diamonds (Netflix, 2023)  (lecture in Dutch)

Yiddish has long been framed as a language in mourning — a casualty of the Holocaust and of assimilation, preserved more in memory than in use. This symposium challenges that narrative. Bringing together three speakers from three distinct corners of the contemporary Yiddish world, it maps a language that is not retreating but reinventing itself: spoken daily in Hasidic homes, sustained in modern print, and transmitted to global audiences through the screen.

Dr. Chaya R. Nove traces the sociolinguistic roots of Hasidic Yiddish from the Carpathian Mountains to the New York metropolis, showing how postwar refugee communities rebuilt a functioning Yiddish-speaking world through schooling, print, and economic networks — and how that world persists today as a compelling case study in minority language vitality. Nikolaj Olniansky offers a counterpoint from the secular world: the story of how Sweden, through a combination of policy, coincidence, and personal commitment, became an unlikely center for modern Yiddish literature, home to dedicated publishers, university programmes, and an internationally renowned annual seminar. Naftali Moskowitz brings a third dimension — the embodied, performed life of language — recounting his role as Yiddish coach for the Netflix series Rough Diamonds (2023), where the transmission of Antwerp Hasidic Yiddish to Flemish actors became an act of cultural preservation as much as professional craft.

Together, these three perspectives reveal Yiddish not as a relic but as a resilient, plural, and productively contested vernacular — one that continues to find new communities, new forms, and new voices in the twenty-first century.

Program

13:30 Opening
Daniella Zaidman-Mauer, Lecturer in Yiddish Language and Literature, Universiteit van Amsterdam

13:45 New York Hasidic Yiddish: Migration, Maintenance, and Belonging
14:15 discussion
Chaya R. Nove, Fordham University/ New York Public Library

14:30 An Unexpected Journey: Sweden as a Contemporary Center for Yiddish Literature
15:00 discussion
Nikolaj Olniansky, Olniansky Tekst Farlag, Malmö

15:15 tea/coffee

15:45 S’past nisht — and Yet: Coaching Living Yiddish on Rough Diamonds (Netflix, 2023) [Lecture will be held in Dutch]          
16:15 discussion
Naftali Moskowitz, Yiddish Language Coach, Religious Studies Educator Antwerp)

16:30 Closure
Daniella Zaidman-Mauer, Universiteit van Amsterdam

Drinks

ABSTRACTS AND BIOGRAPHIES

New York Hasidic Yiddish: Migration, Maintenance, and Belonging

Chaya R. Nove

The history of American Yiddish is often framed as a story of decline: a vibrant immigrant language that flourished in the early twentieth century, then gradually receded as speakers shifted to English. One exception to this narrative is Hasidic Yiddish, which was brought to New York by Hasidic refugees after World War II. In these communities, Yiddish was integrated into the core institutions of communal life and remains a primary language of everyday use, sustained through community initiatives rather than formal state support.

The talk begins with a brief account of the sociolinguistic context of the Transcarpathian region of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, where the dialectal foundations of Hasidic Yiddish took shape. It then turns to the postwar period, describing how Hasidic immigrants rebuilt Yiddish-speaking communities through schooling, print culture, and economic networks. The core of the talk focuses on present-day linguistic practices in Hasidic communities across New York City and its suburbs, including vernacular use, pedagogy, print and digital media, and public signage. Drawing on archival, ethnographic, and sociolinguistic research, the speaker shows how Yiddish functions as a stable language of everyday life, coexisting pragmatically with English. In this sense, New York Hasidic Yiddish offers a contemporary case study of how a minority language can remain socially viable and productive within a multilingual metropolis.

Chaya R. Nove is a sociolinguist whose work examines variation and change in Hasidic Yiddish and its ancestral dialects. She is currently a Visiting Research Scholar at Fordham University and a Diamonstein-Spielvogel Fellow at the New York Public Library, where her project, “From the Carpathian Mountains to the New York Metropolis,” traces the social history of Hasidic Yiddish in New York

An Unexpected Journey: Sweden as a Contemporary Center for Yiddish Literature

Nikolaj Olniansky

For many, Sweden and Yiddish may seem an unlikely pairing. Yet this northern country, home to a Jewish population of approximately 20,000, boasts two publishing houses dedicated exclusively to modern Yiddish literature, several Yiddish scholars affiliated with Lund University, and a world-renowned annual Yiddish seminar held every summer. How did this vibrant Yiddish scene emerge?

Possible explanations include the official recognition of Yiddish as a national minority language in 2000, the influence of Jewish refugees from Poland who arrived in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and perhaps an element of coincidence. In this talk, Nikolaj Olniansky will share his personal story — an unexpected journey that established him as one of the world’s leading publishers of modern Yiddish literature. Through his publishing house, Olniansky Tekst Farlag, he has brought modern editions of works by authors such as J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Isaac Babel, and Erich Kästner to Yiddish readers. In a broader context, he will explore how Sweden has become a contemporary center for Yiddish literature.

Nikolaj Olniansky is publisher, translator, author, and editor-in-chief. He first encountered Yiddish in 2008 when the language became an academic subject at Lund University. In 2010, together with his wife Ida Olniansky, he co-founded Olniansky Tekst Farlag, one of the world’s few dedicated publishers of modern secular Yiddish literature. Olniansky has authored or translated several children’s books and contributes to the literary journal Yidishland, where he serves on the editorial board alongside prominent Yiddish scholars. He has written for the Yiddish Forverts, translated radio and television content.

S’past nisht — and Yet: The Coach Behind the Kheyder Teaching Living Yiddish on the Set of Rough Diamonds (Netflix, 2023)

Naftali Moskowitz

This lecture is delivered by a native Yiddish-speaking teacher from Antwerp’s Hasidic community. The speaker reflects on the internal diversity of Yiddish — its Hasidic, Lithuanian, Chabad, Israeli, and American variants — arguing that Antwerp Hasidic Yiddish preserves the closest living link to pre-Holocaust Polish and Galician speech, even as it has absorbed Dutch and French loanwords over generations. Drawing on his experience as a language instructor, he then recounts his role as the de facto Yiddish coach for the Netflix series Rough Diamonds (2023): how he replaced an inadequate official translation, developed a phonetic teaching method via WhatsApp recordings, and guided non-Jewish Flemish actors — as well as resistant Jewish ones — in pronunciation, intonation, melody, and embodied authenticity. The narrative weaves together linguistic observation, cultural commentary on Hasidic modesty, and a series of comic anecdotes from the set, offering an intimate portrait of what it means to transmit a living minority language across the boundaries of community, screen, and faith.

Naftali Moskowitz is a teacher of Religious Studies, Yiddish, and Hebrew based in Antwerp’s Hasidic community. A native speaker of Antwerp Hasidic Yiddish — the living dialect considered closest to the spoken vernacular of pre-war Polish and Galician Jewry — he has dedicated his career to transmitting Jewish language, liturgy, and tradition across generations. He has also brought his expertise to screen, serving as Yiddish language coach for the Netflix series Rough Diamonds (2023), where he guided Flemish actors in authentic Hasidic speech, intonation, and cultural expression.