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For many Jewish people, supporting the state of Israel is an essential part of being Jewish, but younger Jewish Americans have been questioning that support and looking for new ways to engage with Jewish culture. Some have found community by learning Yiddish, a language with roots in 10th century Europe. From member station WFCR, New England Public Media's Nirvani Williams brings us the story.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing in Yiddish).
NIRVANI WILLIAMS, BYLINE: That striking, upright bass filled a small dorm-like room in the Jewish food co-op on the Upper West Side. Brown wooden bookcases line the back wall. The smell of wax from melted Hanukkah candles wafts near the radiator.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing in Yiddish).
WILLIAMS: Sally Kaye, a senior at Barnard College, was among the 20 students crammed in that room for a Yiddish zingeray, or singing circle. For Kaye, and for many young Jews, her culture and identity are important, but she's been struggling with both recently.
SALLY KAYE: It's hard to be, a lot of the times, in, like, synagogue spaces and, like, kind of traditional religious spaces that have been so, like, focused on supporting Israel no matter what.
WILLIAMS: There's tension in Jewish communities across the country right now, with some questioning their support for Israel. Divisions lie along political, ethnic and generational lines. A Pew research survey found that even prior to the October 7 Hamas attack, Jewish Americans ages 50 and older, especially those who are religious, are much more, quote, "emotionally attached to Israel" than younger Jewish Americans.
LINDSEY BLOOM: I've definitely talked to quite a few people that just - kind of just stopped engaging with their Judaism because they didn't know where to go.
WILLIAMS: That's Lindsey Bloom, a senior from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.
BLOOM: Like, that was, I guess, the case for me. And then I got into Yiddish, and I was like, oh, this is actually a lot better. Like (laughter), I actually align with this a lot more.
WILLIAMS: Bloom grew up going to Hebrew school and attending synagogue with an Israeli flag hanging near the front of the sanctuary. She says she didn't know there were other ways to engage with Jewish culture until she learned about Yiddish, a language derived from around the 10th century in modern-day Germany. And Bloom isn't alone. There's been a spike of interest in Yiddish, with the language app Duolingo reporting that roughly 296,000 people around the world are studying it on the app as of this year. Sixty percent are under 25 years old.
Mindl Cohen, the academic director of the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, says the young people she teaches are engaging with the culture by...
MINDL COHEN: Performing new plays, creating new music that's inspired by Yiddish music, you know, of the early 20th century, translating Yiddish literature so that people can read the stories and poetry even if they don't learn Yiddish.
WILLIAMS: Cohen says her students are interested in learning about how Yiddish speakers expressed their creativity in the past. Then, she says, the students recreate it in their own way.
COHEN: By taking the time to learn about the past and learn about this culture, we can be inspired to continue things and make new things and make versions that feel relevant today, and that feels very special to see happen.
WILLIAMS: Francesca Rubinson is with The Workers Circle, a Jewish social justice organization in New York City. She works with young Jewish college students and helps them plan Yiddish cultural events on their campus. The events range from playing Yiddish music and talking about its cultural significance to...
FRANCESCA RUBINSON: Actions with local immigrant justice organizations as part of their kind of ambassador events that they plan. They've done letter-writing campaigns for local tenant rights organizations, and they've also continued to bring special speakers and Yiddish teachers to campus.
WILLIAMS: Lindsey Bloom from Mount Holyoke College is a part of The Workers Circle College Ambassador program, and she's in a Yiddish singing duo called Khaverte.
KHAVERTE: (Singing in Yiddish).
WILLIAMS: That's Khaverte's performance of Chappell Roan's "The Subway" in Yiddish. There's something about Yiddish, Bloom says, that inspires her creatively.
BLOOM: Playing with the language and playing with the art and making new things, and I really, really like it. I like making new things, new Yiddish things.
WILLIAMS: Bloom says not only is she able to express herself in her culture and religion, but now she's able to find a community that understands her. For NPR News,
I'm Nirvani Williams in Springfield, Massachusetts.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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