On May 12, 2019 in the town Khmelnytsky, Western Ukraine, the representative of the International Yiddish Center at the World Jewish Congress Mis Tetyana Batanova provided two lectures for leaders, volunteers and members of the local Jewish welfare and community center Hesed-Besht.
The lecturer familiarized the audience with elements of Jewish history in Central-Eastern Europe, especially in Ukraine, and Yiddish culture and linguistics. The audience comprised about 50 people, including the Jewish community leaders, volunteers and members.
Tetyana’s lectures were dedicated to the following topics: “Yiddish – Zhargon or Mame-loshn (Mother’s Tongue): Notes to the History” and “Lomir zingen (Let’s Sing): Yiddish Song and Music Traditions”.
Both lectures included interesting old historical documents and works in Yiddish. The second one was dedicated to Yiddish song traditions, folklore and author songs, such as zmires, nigunim, lullabies, inspiration by traditional Yiddish women prayer Got fun Avrom for contemporary klezmer authors (the example of Lorin Sklamberg’s Shnirele perele). The lectures were conducted in a friendly dialogue manner, with questions, answers, jokes and even collective singing in Yiddish. The audience got motivated to learn more about Yiddish language, culture and history.
Tetyana Batanova is a Yiddish teacher at the Jewish academic studies program at the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” in Kiev and a junior scientific officer at the Judaica department of V. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine.
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