Theres a building on Norwoods Bainbridge Avenue, a busy thoroughfare at the heart of the Bronx neighborhood, that still displays Yiddishs serifed, curling script on its marble facade. Inside, members of the Sholem Aleichem Cultural Center can be found speaking the language with the same fluency and passion that their Jewish ancestors did, centuries ago.

In mid-November, an audience of 50 gathered at the cultural center to see a play based on the works of Sholem Aleichem himself. Members of the acting troupe, the New Yiddish Rep, said that after having done previous performances for English speakers, they relished a crowd that was hanging on every Yiddish vort, or word.

Open gallery view Actors of the Sholem Aleichem Cultural Center’s Yiddish theater troupe. Credit: Nathaniel Herz

This is the real thing, said Shane Baker, one of the actors. Its a different connection. Youre close to them — its not mediated through the supertitles.

Founded in 1929 as a Yiddish folk school, the center persists as a stubborn bastion of the language — a place where it is spoken, not studied. While some of the Bronxs other Yiddish institutions have withered, the centers monthly lectures and performances draw an avid audience, from Holocaust survivors to students hoping to pick up a few new words.

Read more at the Forward.

