Uriel Weinreich Summer Program Testimonial: Lila Fabro, ‘16, ‘19 & ‘23

Oyf Yiddish and in Pyjamas

by Lila Fabro, Summer Program ‘16, ‘19, & ‘23

From the beginning, my learning of Yiddish—which began with a six-week trip from Buenos Aires to New York for the 2016 Summer Program—has been characterized by a bit of distance. I remember my return to Argentina feeling strange after that first summer. I felt a bit tired, a bit confused and overwhelmed by a language I still didn’t know what to do with, but was suddenly missing.

After some distance, I returned to the program in 2019, where I gladly realized Yiddish is my path forward. This year, I participated in the Summer Program online from Baltimore. As a Ph.D. student interested in Argentine Yiddish literature and in the mixing of Spanish and Yiddish, I had a much clearer relationship with Yiddish, which has become part of my daily life.

And so I think of my previous summers at YIVO: learning the alef-beys and grammatical structures with Sheva Zucker, hearing the first lullabies in Perl Teitelbaum’s amazing voice, tasting the first kosher coffee that Eve Jochnowitz taught us to make (with an egg!), discovering Holocaust literature in Yiddish and the first erotically tinged literature I had ever read in Yiddish—Monish by I.L. Peretz in Anna Fishman Gonshor’s class. And now, with almost no distance from the end of my third summer with YIVO, I think I have achieved two important things: a strong language foundation, and an enjoyment of the language and the literature learned and read with my classmates and with professors Vera Szabó, Karolina Szymaniak, and Yankl-Peretz Blum.

I smile thinking of Yiddish and its growth in me. It has taken time and a bit of distance, but I am very grateful to YIVO, my professors, and the classmates who accompanied my learning so far.

Lastly, in addition to allowing me to meet my professors and classmates in the intimacy of their homes, lives, and families, with their cheeky cats parading across Zoom’s little windows, participating online this year allowed me to discover the fargenign (joy) of reading Kadya Molodowsky, Avrom Reyzen, Jacob Glatstein, Abraham Karpinovich, Sholem Asch, Anna Margolin, and Moyshe Nadir oyf Yidish and in pyjamas.

Learn more about the Uriel Weinreich Summer Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture.