Every day, we’d take a busy bus from to the campus of Tel Aviv University, which was blooming with monoï flowers and eager-to-learn students enrolled for the summer. One morning, we found the hallway we’d usually gather in during coffee breaks transformed into a book sale. Eclectic offers in Yiddish filled a table kept by our teachers. Bilingual editions, poetry, magazines, children’s books… and, standing out because of its white cover and hand drawn illustrations, a tiny little cooking book. 

I took it home for a few shekels and soon, I was baking delicious babka. How fun to follow a recipe entirely in Yiddish! Talk about an immersive pedagogical experience. 

Another fun encounter with Yiddish books happened at Yung Yiddish, a community space/museum where Mendy Cahan has stocked piles and piles of literary treasures in Yiddish. We went there to see a show put together by the Georgian students of the summer program, which was in itself quite a special reason to visit. Browsing Mendy’s collection, kept in such an unexpected location, was unforgettable.   

The comradery of the program was overall really refreshing. One evening, we all gathered for an open mic where people sang and recited poems. I made puppets for the occasion and together with the help of other students, we had a tiny puppet show, all in Yiddish. It would not have been possible without the inspiration of all the theater artefacts previously encountered in the archives and the good spirit of everyone, their encouraging of our artistic endeavours. As a puppeteer with research interests in MODICUT, having the space and audience for a Yiddish puppet show was a highlight!