Yiddish-Speaking Brooklyn | On The Grid with Zephyr Teachout | Ep 1

maps define us imaginary lines that delineate neighborhoods they speak to where we've been and who we are but these old boundaries only show part of the picture here are the new maps of Brooklyn these are the maps that tell the story of Brooklyn today and this is what it's like to live on the grid hi my name is Zephyr Teachout and today we're going to be looking at where it'sh is spoken at home in york where people work where they live so we're going to start with a interview with John Mullen cop who's the director of CUNY Center for urban research he's going to take us through the numbers and we're going to go on the grid in Brooklyn hello great to see you to see you so refreshing it's going to have a great adventure today we're going to talk about the Yiddish speaking neighborhoods of Brooklyn in particular the most important ones are the biggest ones are here in Crown Heights where we are Williamsburg with a Satmar community and Borough Park which has a number of different Orthodox communities living there can we just start with numbers like what kind of overall numbers well according to the census about 87,000 people live in households that speak Yiddish at home here here in Brooklyn and the biggest one of course is Borough Park with about 36,000 about 24,000 here in Williamsburg and then a smaller amount in Crown Heights all the people who speak Yiddish at home did they grow up in this country where are they learning 90% of you grew up in this country and the median household size is six so they have a lot of kids in their household can you give me some kind of portrait is there any kind of employment portrait that you'd see I mean it's interesting people might think of Orthodox Jews ultra-orthodox Jews working in the diamond district or bnh camera or something like that but most people in the neighborhoods are actually at home and studying and and not at work the poverty rate is is pretty high 47% of the people in Yiddish speaking households in in Brooklyn qualifies under the poverty line it's really interesting what about women gender and work there's they're very low rates of labor force participation on the women probably well less than half which is unusual in New York this music most when they're working so why don't we go into these three different neighborhoods then these two are different sets of the Satmar are here and the Lubavitch errs are here in Crown Heights and they have very different orientations to the world to religion the Satmar for example don't believe it's time yet for Israel to be a separate state and they're also very inwardly focused whereas the Lubavitch errs are well known for their Mitzvah tanks driving around town the people that come up to you and ask if you're Jewish in terms of sort of interacting with politics what would you say is the political profile in a way they're very much against the secular world but I think they're very astute about the importance of their your vote is this growing or shrinking you know what I've read that Turkish on the whole is really in decline internationally in the long historical sweep yes the generation from 1890 to 1915 was a Yiddish speaking movement from Central Europe they Yiddish theater eaters papers and so forth has largely died out but these communities are definitely growing and the use of the languages is very much alive well thank you so much this is really interesting good luck eighty-seven thousand people speak Yiddish in Brooklyn that's incredible that's the size of Trenton New Jersey in order to understand the magnitude of this I go to visit the Satmar sect in Williamsburg this Hasidic community was established in 1947 by rabbi Joel Teitelbaum and other survivors of the Holocaust title BAM encouraged his followers to speak only Yiddish and strictly followed the teachings of the Torah to learn more about this community I invite freedom Iselle who grew up among the Satmars of curious Joel in Monroe New York to help me explore the Hasidic culture of today thanks so much for this it's my pleasure caps bakery is one of the most popular kosher bakeries on Lee Avenue in Bloomsburg they have been selling certified kosher dairy products to the community since 1989 oh we got some puff pastry rugelach we grew up calling them Kepler this is where standard Yiddish that we all know about is different than Hasidic Irish hair people know the word rugelach but the word capella originates apparently from a Hungarian pastry and it reflects the different regional areas that Yiddish was brought from whereas standard Yiddish comes mostly from Eastern Europe a lot of Central Europe Hungarian Jews settled here and brought a different Yiddish so we're in Brooklyn should I call one of these amazing looking things I kept a look we're gonna we're gonna make couple of part of the language call them everywhere okay so how would you - be used like if I'm buying this capella what a lot of there are a lot of the business transactions here the social transactions in Yiddish or is it just in the home we could do it in both the Edition English most people would do their business transactions primarily in Yiddish especially if whoever's at the counter is a man that would be my impulse but there's always always a lot of English mixed into the Yiddish because of the influence of the environment it is in grass seed unka how am i doing that's an effort no how do I say screw you squash Koya why didn't you taste one okay that's good right good for your hips it's good for everything Freda left the Satmar sect in her mid-20s even though our presence is tolerated it is not encouraged it is originated from old German but with time it incorporated Hebrew and a lot of peace turn languages where the Jewish Jews lived at the time and it became its own unique Yiddish which is actually what's a year to Jew it is Jewish it's the unique Jewish language so if I blindfolded you and put you here in Williamsburg versus in say Crown Heights and you just could hear people speak and that's it would you know where you work I would definitely know in Crown Heights even in Borough Park which is also Hasidic people have a different enunciation of certain letters for instance the L would be more American and I would be able to regionally distinguish between people of more piety and insularity than others I don't know to which degree Yiddish is spoken in Crown Heights but it's definitely spoken as a first language here and in many homes in Borough Park now what is the role that you dish plays in the spiritual religious community that's a great question you just plays a very very important role in the spiritual religious community in preservation of the faith which is so important in this community when I was a child I was always taught the three reasons why Jews were saved from from Egypt in the Exodus was because they didn't change their shine Lucian and mulish shine is the name is the language and mala she's the clothes it was such a central part of our religious philosophy that preserving the clothing was a way of preserving the faith what's interesting is yet ish is called mama Lucian which means mother's tongue and Hebrew is called Lucian hakodesh the holy tongue and the important thing is that Lucian hakodesh is very different from a bridge a bridge is modern deeper and then you can see from the word itself that it's a modern language is a modern interpretation of Hebrew it's related to the Zionist movement which the Satmar community does not support you see modern Hebrew your best guess is it's there's no relationship to the Satmar community exactly all of these toys that we're going to see inside are examples of how this community is creating its own material that image there with a sort of classic princess okay right exactly we all know that game but here it's not a princess it's a Kahlo which is a bride and it's just how language expresses culture or faith because this expresses the hope for every girl to grow up to be a bride and get married which is so important this is a game about dressing up to help people who are maybe have a busted tire or locked out of their houses the language is so much more than just the language it's a vehicle for faith see see these books they're constantly produced so it seems like international is shrinking as a language but in this area it's really rapidly girl exactly because as the community is growing the languages all these books have so much about character development and moral lessons so what are the core values the influence of not being angry and not being jealous not being spiteful one of the values in the community is that anything any personality flaw can be changed you just have to work on it and that's when you really serve God thank you thank you so you know I was asking about the language differences but what would you say are sort of deep cultural differences between this community and again crown heights the Habad community and the her City and the city community of Williamsburg are extremely different because they have a fundamental ideological difference we have sittin from Williamsburg view the outside world as a force that should be kept out by all or means which is why Yiddish is so much more important to Hassidim here whereas the Habad community views the outside world as of course that should be change brought in they have proselytizing as a huge part of their culture one runs from the outside world and the other runs into it to try to change it my trip continues with a visit to Crown Heights The Hobbit movement was created by a dynasty of Hasidic rabi's in Lubavitcher Russia in what is now Belarus its founder Shanor Zalman wrote prolifically about Jewish mysticism and law welcome welcome thank you so much my pleasure my pleasure I'm rabbi barrel Epstein originally from the Holy Land of Tennessee and we're in a subterranean library which we give the introduction to the Jewish tours today were as part of this exploration of Brooklyn we're looking at where you dishes spoken at home and what defines this community in your understanding so let me just get a little bit of background there's over 200 different Hasidic groups you're only in one of them there's not a lot of tours of the other fatigue rupes by members of the community themselves because each Hasidic community is emulating the founding rabbis world view in the year 1800 so depending on the founding rabbis world view in 1800 that's how each of the city group is interacting with the outside world to this day so all the things we're going to see today from the beard which means a person cannot put a blade against her face at five points two of the lights I'd like three of the chin to a yarmulke to actually a four-cornered garment which Jewish men are command to wear a tassel attached to a four-cornered garment now it says in the Bible you should look at these remember all you have to do so some people say they get dressed in the morning they saw other Hasidic Jews may wear it inside but have just the strings out and then other Hasidic Jews may actually get dressed and then put it on like a cape over their clothing now that's the custom the law is to wear it let's say tomorrow morning you wake up and intentionally put a blade to one of the five corners and you choose to do that just again to understand the theology from the outside what is it that is sin and what is sin mean sin means to death disconnect from God now interestingly if you take a rope and you cut in the middle and now it's disconnected if you reattach it you have to pull the two ends closer because do you need more rope to get it the knot there right so we say where where a person stands who reconnected is higher than a person who never sinned you know I think a lot of people are curious about Yiddish in Brooklyn how would you describe the relationship between this language and the kind of theological community you're talking about so I would say this community has become more euler's and Yiddish because as more people come from the outside and study here this store signs in the community have gone from Yiddish to English or take English because specifically a lot of Hasidic communities only speaking Yiddish and they intentionally do not speak in Hebrew because it hope Hebrews a holy language but we say as a physical community that it's not as important which language you speak as what you say in that language so it may be I would say Hebrew is even more common than you this year you can perhaps teach me some languages I want to learn a little little Yiddish a little Aramaic and a little Hebrew Shalom Aleichem Shalom is Hebrew Salam alikoum yes yeah saw Salam alaykoum do closed but not perfectly connected and now I really need to know Yiddish she goes today's about Yiddish verse muffs - how are you that's max TRO let's go over to describe then we'll face so today we're going to just learn a little bit about the scribal arts of the Jewish people there's three commandments one is a black box that has to go on the head and the arm these are spiritual transmitters and receivers mind and heart should talk to each other because the male species have a preponderance for disconnect but they have to be made exactly right so if you look right over here you're going to see that he's actually wrapping parchment with Hebrew letters on it an animal skin and then wrapping it in the hair from the tail of a kosher animal placing into a black box there's a final product but it has a start out with an skin under the chin of a cow it's a very pliable but it's hard we soak it and we start stretching it hold that and we turn it into this so we start forming it until we come to something like this so this actually takes a year to go from rawhide to eventually the four chambers and they cannot tear along that way then we have to put something inside the tefillin which carries the power to accomplish that transformation in your mind and heart this has to be written on animal skin with a feather from a kosher bird not a bird of prey then the ink has be handmade from kosher ingredients when an ingredient is kosher it means a rabbi supervised the production and certified that all the raw materials came from kosher animals animals like pigs birds of prey and certain seafoods are not considered kosher due to various biblical passages so right over here we have a Torah on animal skin that is the five books of Moses this is one of sixty sheets within Judaism writing a Torah scroll is a religious art this entire process is done by hand and takes a whole year to be completed two letters touch each other it invalidate the entire scroll and a Jewish man is commanded to here every Monday Thursday and the Sabbath a portion of this to regenerate his soul as if the total was given to day so what does this Teufel and say this tefillin commands us to put on the black boxes that's what's written inside of here these are the four sections of the Torah the command and say those words can you read a section of that is that okay be happy to okay Valhalla MSHA moiety shmoo ailments Versailles I share an Okemah table okay Eskimo um if you will listen to me these commandments which I have commanded you to do this day to love lava s Eden oil heheh we will have the whole of Elohim to serve God your God with all your heart of a whole Navajo with all your soul every single door every Jewish person's home we've looked at over here we have on the doorpost a mezuzah this is part of what I just read this is the life force of well-being into a Joseph or Jewish person's home and it's commanded to be on every door post and not just have your home but also of your workplace The Hobbit community is the largest Jewish organization in the world having moved from Russia to Latvia to Poland in the run-up to World War two Hobbit relocated to the United States and Crown Heights in 1940 today there are approximately 40 synagogues in the neighborhood including the Lubavitcher world headquarters our final stop on the tool we're in a Hasidic synagogue we can see them but they cannot see us and it's very similar to what a synagogue was in Eastern Europe it's a big room a lot of things going on our custom is once a boy is 13 he puts on a hat once a man is married he wears the white prayer shawl so if you look downstairs particular from the women's section it's good to see who's married or to see who's still available there was a men's section any women's section in the temple in Jerusalem that is why in the synagogue we have a separation between the men and women because we're spiritually corresponding to always happening in Jerusalem you only have to get married to really profoundly study and then you need to provide for your wife so this is considered like a race against time my time is very limited I only acquired so much information till I get married most people fail in life when there's an inconsistency between what he knows and what he should be doing that's where the land of regret comes from so we say if you were able to focus yourself now you're able to be able to go and transform other people to make sure that they are able to live consistently with what they know is right so you might see people swaying down stairs we consider prayer like meditation even a person meditates they get more in touch with the soul in the body so to a Jewish man he has his prayer shawl on he has his black boxes on and he's praying he's turning on the soul and the soul wants to lift off in that attempt to lift off he will start swing automatically unconsciously every single day you got your mind and heart going in the right direction it's a daily struggle of the mind and heart really fascinating good my pleasure thank you and we're really glad we got to come in I don't want you to miss this the Lubavitch community attaches great importance to this building and has built replicas all over the world from Canada to Cambodia this is 770 eastern part is the world above headquarters now went to look on top of the door see the word Lubavitch that's the name of the city that we actually physically came from a Europe okay and mu ball which means love and we're from Russia so we are the original from Russia With Love and instead of double-oh-seven we are double 7o because anywhere you go in the world just say I was at 770 and they will know this is the iconic location of lamothe which world headquarters thank you very much my pleasure grass Rossi danke yesterday grace the tank grace attack it really was a fascinating tour boots thank you my exploration of Yiddish speaking Brooklyn continues with a trip to Borough Park this neighborhood has 36,000 Yiddish speakers and is the largest group of Jewish people in the United States to learn more about this community I meet up with Jacob Gluck he's the founder of Hasidic Williamsburg tours and currently works as a teacher professor get to meet you so nice to meet you thank you so much thank you for joining me today I'm gonna show you around borrow parque loro Parque is the predominant Orthodox neighborhood in Brooklyn and it's also known for its diversity there are many different sects and different streams of Orthodoxy here including the Kuwaiti version which is known as ultra-orthodox also the ultra-orthodox her Eddy community regards itself as the most religiously authentic group of Jews they maintain a strict observance of Jewish law and segregate themselves from modern society this is basically the the ground way the cornerstone of the Borough Park that you see nowadays which which has transformed into ultra-orthodox II which is a step above mere orthodoxy so Orthodox is simply people who keep a challah ha Alec house Jewish law is passed on over many centuries the Haredi movement also known as ultra-orthodox takes it a step further and says that not only do you have to keep the law but they also strive towards separatism meaning they're saying we're not going to be part of the mainstream culture when you're growing up would you speak I spoke get it okay yeah do you think in Yiddish still oh it's a good question I remember when I transitioned oh when was making thinking from Yiddish to English that was about about age 19 uh-huh what happened it's it was a conscious decision I when I left the community I had to adopt the American norm which is the English language and I knew that I had to do that in order to assimilate which was my ultimate goal why did you choose to leave in one word ideology I didn't believe in the system anymore the godly things and the world to come observing them it's vote doing God's will things like that they meant nothing to me how many Jews live in Borough Park who are not either Orthodox or ultra-orthodox overwhelmingly all fourth about seventh day and you grew up here and I grew up here yes I grew up in the 80s this is the heyday of ultra-orthodox in America in my opinion and maybe I'm being romantic about it but this I really think that that was the heyday so can you give me a nice welcoming Yiddish phrase so I can chat with people in Brooke okay I have a good one for you okay this one is one of my favorites McKenna's Thompson of five happens McKenna's Thompson of spy half syns you got it what is it into no baloney you can't enjoy two festivals at the same time you got a choice oh yes do you speak Irish and high son speaks with his children even he became a TV so we know one of the questions is you know what is the role of Yiddish in the community well that guy say here standing to see a connection to religion or life here in Berlin for sure okay we're not what you would call the leadership because those are the people who admire the language and make a contrived effort to retain the language here its natural its organic exactly I cut off from their parents and the other is a secular I grew up here my heart is very very wearing the wig because that's what about the duck swim in the park walkway always but I'm a little bit you know my hair oh yeah so I should send them drilling you know but I love myself to be Who I am in contrast to what you might have seen in Williamsburg this community here is much more open to outsiders coming in interviewing them you know conversing with them and their and they they want to know about the world outside of them well thank you for giving this little slice of Borough Park and the slice of history I've forgotten the wonderful thing about dancing it to weddings but I would McKenna's bouncing of five fasteners Kennex bouncing I'll spy hassanis you get it and then do it we go to one wedding you got to choose which one for a final stop of the day I travel to Bay Ridge to listen to the zwei machinery banned started by Jeremiah Lockwood in 2006 the band combines Jewish cantorial music with modern-day blues and jazz Oh hi I'm zapper Zephyr pleasure to meet you hi it's really nice to meet you so that was amazing thank you very much I understand you come from a significant family I come from a cantorial family my grandfather was a well-known cantor at M mechanic Jacob Koenigsberg and I sang with him growing up and sang in his choir even as a young man deep roots in Jewish religious music talk a little bit about what language you're saying well I'm singing in what we call a Russian Kurdish it's the holy language so I mean it's mixed in with with you - words and the pronunciation style for singing the prayers uses the phonology of the initial and I wish that wonder they give me examples of what the pronunciation style is and isn't so that you could tell the difference something fits a bit subtle like the term that would probably mostly be noticeable to someone who you know is a speaker of modern Hebrew and in Israel to them it sounds really weird the way I pronounce Hebrew well that last one I just sang it the chorus it's like an old Hasidic song and of course the verses are all lines from from the prayer book you know the Hebrew verses but then in between you throw in the words knock'em knock'em all which means one more time one more time okay it gives it this kind of the steps the server tastes the flavor of the language and is this your invention this combination no no no it's very very old and you know you hear it in the old clothes on him but so the Cantor is the fuzzums the Jewish word for mmm for Cantor do fill it for Cantor Cantor's kind of Jewish also but uh close on him in the old days would oftentimes interject so you - words into the mix of the prayers so what do you think it does what do you think the sort of inclusion of Yiddish in the Hebrew singing does well I think there's just always attention in terms of trying to balance between the high and the low yeah and the purpose of music is to connect those those two places well thank you for for both that description but I'd love to hear you sing and play some more what here yes here listening to Jeremiah it's amazing to think in tens of thousands of homes in Brooklyn Yiddish is being spoken right now in fact by more than one in 25 Brooklyn Heights here at least what most people might think is a dying language is alive and well haha

Channel: BRIC TV

Views: 120,017

Rating: 4.7281551 out of 5

Keywords: Brooklyn television, brooklyn news, brooklyn culture, downtown brooklyn, brooklyn public access, brooklyn public affairs, brooklyn civic affairs, brooklyn local news, Brooklyn, New York City, 647 Fulton Street, Bheard, BSide, StraightUp, BK Live, Zephyr Teachout, Yiddish Language (Human Language), Nyc, Yiddish-Speaking Brooklyn

Id: Dl856YM_krU

Length: 30min 2sec (1802 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 29 2015