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2011-09-08
Boris Sandler gave a lecture at the Vilnius Yiddish Institute

Boris Sandler, an editor of the Yiddish newspaper "Forverts", visited the Vilnius Yiddish Institute on September 6, 2011. He gave a lecture entitled "The Development of Yiddish Literature from the Conclusion of the Czernowitz Conference to the Contemporary Moment". Boris Sandler has the highest degree in Literature from the Literary Institute (Academy) in Moscow. He is also one of the most significant contemporary secular writers in Yiddish being the author of fourteen books of poetry and fiction. Sandler's works have been translated to Russian, English, French, German, Hebrew and Rumanian. He was also a recipient of a number of prestigious Israeli literary awards.

At the beginning of his talk Boris Sandler introduced the audience to the details of the publishing of "Forverts". He stressed the importance of online version that is updated daily and attracts thousands of readers all over the world.

Boris Sandler continued talking about the development of the Yiddish literature. An international Czernowitz conference (1908) on Yiddish language and its role in Jewish life was important in recognizing Yiddish as “a language like all other languages". But the dream of Khayim Zhitlovsky, one of the initiators of Conference, that Yiddish should be the basis of a modern secular Jewishness, has not been fulfilled. Today, Yiddish in the secular sector is an elite culture. The existence of today’s Yiddish literature is dependent on a few writers who have to publish their books at their own expense and then distribute them by themselves. "Yiddish has a place in the hearts of individuals, each of whom has his own motivations, his own “Why Yiddish?" These individuals create families in which they speak Yiddish with the children; large or small groups or “communities"; Yiddish clubs; and study groups in Yiddish. We should support all of that, strengthen and develop it, each in his own place and every day. We should remember and declare at every opportunity, like a prayer, that wherever the Yiddish word dies, an alien language appears; assimilation comes with its non-Jewish associations and non-Jewish soul."