How can Yiddish fans in Israel benefit from the growing Yiddish scene abroad?

How can Yiddish fans in Israel benefit from the growing Yiddish scene abroad? We must ensure that the Israelis connect with other communities with deep Ashkenazi roots, instead of connecting Yiddish only with destruction. The Background The connections between Yiddish institutions in Israel and in America are an important, current topic that needs to be addressed with a fresh approach. On all other grounds such as security, economy, health, and education, one can determine that the connections are very broad and can even add that the support of American Judaism for the good of Israel is in such a way that it does not want to be perceived as a type of the institutions functioning without the financial repercussions on American Judaism. And how does this look from the perspective of Yiddish cultural relations? What academic exchanges and collaborations on important subjects in America and in Israel is the situation? It is a precarious situation. One can add that the field is being taken up by a few hundred active academics and advanced students. When we turn into the question of what happens with the broader society, the situation is very static. This is an expression of a very limited, localistic connection to the phenomenon of Yiddish culture in its various expressions. The determination is not valid only for America and Israel, but also for some other settlements around the world. In Israel, besides the orthodox sector, there are almost a million residents in the last few years in a stream of Yiddish-nationality thanks to active media, Facebook, movies, and Yiddish magazines. A little below the radar, one nests art, humor, Klezmer music. And the growth from year to year. No surveys have been done to date, to be meaningful, not pursued—the establishment has no interest in the appearance—and it is a shame, because if one wanted to get objective proof, one could follow the processes and prove the effect on them. The broader, weak organized public is not even aware that in 1996 the law was passed to establish "the National Institute for Yiddish Culture" in a very practical way, with a minimal budget. This public is immediately valid and almost in the entire unconscious of what comes from the field of Yiddish in America and other countries. Sporadically, when the media reports about a festival or an artist that has produced a compact, there is something. But this is a trick and one does not know much about the growing, qualitative Yiddish-nationality abroad. It is easy to imagine that such a thing also happens in America and in other communities. What is even more different is the situation regarding the topic of destruction, but this does not need to be calculated, because by studying the history of destruction, one uses a language like English, Russian, Spanish, German, etc., without separating and delving into the role of Yiddish, Yiddish culture, and Ashkenazi awareness. What can be done to improve this? As I am a Tlal-Observer, we can easily begin from my own capabilities and develop a work plan to make the English, hygienic, localistic Yiddishism and prove it. And the solution is simple. What the institutions in which I am active will disseminate knowledge about what is happening in the Yiddish world in America and other countries through all the communication means we have, the world in Israel, especially the part that is already close to Yiddish, will reflect precisely that we are part of a broader and richer reality. It will eliminate the feeling of isolation and strengthen the feeling of belonging to other communities with deep Ashkenazi roots (not just through destruction). The goal is that we should disseminate the progress in Israel, as well as the voluntary programs of YVO, labor-union, Yiddish book centers, etc., not as something that is far away from us, but as a reality that belongs to us. We take all the Yiddish experiences from abroad and we want the Israeli public to also enjoy this. Consider the question, in what way will the approach not be based on the interests of our own activities and knowledge that we must disseminate to the world? One must find the equivalent and solutions so that the sea of knowledge may be organized and serve the interests of everyone. Often one must be outspoken and find the right way and the right angle for every topic. The result of such a mirror-like strategy will increase the direction, education, and activism of our people. They will grow in number and develop on a more superior basis. It is more effective to say "Israelis, not provincial Yiddishists. Be global Yiddishists." But this cannot be. It cannot be forced. One must bring into public all the results that come from America and Europe. Thus, the Israelis will gradually land on the ground of real, loving Yiddishism from our days. From a lot of knowledge to a concise main idea Information and programs are not enough. One must introduce new concepts that organize all the experiences and give them value for themselves. When the recipients of so much information in their own country and also from abroad will grasp the broad dimension in which they are moving, will the concepts of Ashkenazi, their history, and values be transformed into a truly Jewish one in which everyone, where they find themselves, can find a place in the daily life. It must emerge an identity-metamorphosis; otherwise, the result will remain entirely chaotic, even parochial. For example, it is true that the YVO and perhaps a certain university put forward practical programs about Ashkenazi civilization for the student and the general public. Precisely! But what? The programs are about themselves and do not lead to the main question that one has today with civilization? What is the responsibility of the individual, of the family? How does one give the Yiddish language together with a broad-minded idea that answers a type of questions, give a feeling of belonging and inspire new, superior actions. For example, the labor-union in New York, with all its branches in various places, leads through serious programs to learn mother-tongue, celebrate holidays, and according to their worldview, develop a societal activism that reflects the values and civic attitudes of the country where Jews find themselves. This position is unfortunately not accompanied by serious activism for the sake of the own Ashkenazi Jewish identity. Therefore, its influence on general American Judaism is very limited. Even the progress that plays a central role in spreading English and Yiddish leaders from antiquity, does not have the goal of activating the rich qualities of the Ashkenazi identity. It gets, as a half-job, and one must insist on what needs to be done immediately so that their influence can grow and become more relevant. A final example. What can be bad if the YBC in Amsterdam allows the translation into English of works by contemporary Yiddish poets and writers from various countries from time to time? Fear of the honors that the partners will have to pay? Let's assume that the YBC has already been subject to more serious, financial measurements. There will also be justice for the partners whose work is not entitled to any stimulus or whatever is pending. Effect on American Yiddishism At the moment when Yiddish institutions in America will open a window to what happens in the field of Yiddish in Israel and in other countries, they will gradually improve the situation and enrich their own activities. It does not aim to narrow down a focus on the interests of a second, but rather to create a new focus that will nourish the new generation of American Yiddishists. This will open up a risky process of antagonism. Otherwise, it will happen that contemporary Yiddishism gets an elitist profile, and when it turns to broader circles of the popular movement, it will be against the past. Today one often speaks in general, colloquial terms, but it is not a clearer address, that is to say, the Ashkenazi-American Jew and what one derives from them. The roots of the problem lie in the traditional ideology of Yiddishism. Historically, the ideology developed together with the concept of the world. The leading forces of Yiddishism—not only in America—have developed away from the orthodoxy and the anti-Christian ideology that reflects Jewish life since the Haskalah until modern Yiddishism today. And this is its weakness. The power of the Ashkenazi vision lies in what it brings together religion and the world, and does not only rely on modernity. This is the main obstacle that hinders the Yiddishists from moving on on the very broad streams of Ashkenaz. In truth, it is not today among the Yiddishists the active anti-religiousness as a goal. But this does not mean that they have reached the maturity to accept all parts of Jewish existence as their own culture—their own *Yorsha*. A Jew can declare that he is secular and therefore also contradict the aspects of religion in the Yiddish history and in his present awareness. Yiddishism in America possesses strong established institutions. But it lacks a broad fabric that should connect it to broad Jewish communities, whether in America or in the world. When the YVO was created in 1925, it possessed the highest intellectual forces of Yiddishism and at the same time was connected and connected with hundreds of communities around the world. So, for something similar to emerge now, the New York YVO must begin to consider the situation differently, and to what is already done in the fields of research, study, scholarship, and art, it must also develop a sensitivity to all societal and cultural developments that come about in the field of Yiddish in Israel and Europe. Let us hope that a new dynamic will develop in the near future and from all possible directions we will be a testimony to a great convergence of streams, and a more understanding spirituality of Yiddish culture on a world scale.