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Amid bombs, drone-strikes and blackouts, these non-Jewish Ukrainian students are studying Yiddish
Daryna Kahaniuk, a 19-year-old student of English philology at the University of Lviv, was in the middle of an online Yiddish class when the air raid started. Outside, the sirens were wailing. Her phone blared out a warning. After five years of war, these sounds didn’t surprise Kahaniuk anymore. She knew the rules: Seek out the designated shelter near her flat, or else a metro station. At the very least, she was supposed to follow the “two-wall rule” and keep away from windows.
But Kahaniuk stayed in her chair. Keeping one eye on her computer screen, where Yiddish class was carrying on somewhere in Zoomland, she checked the Telegram channels on her phone. On Telegram, “you can get information about how many drones, missiles, et cetera were launched and in what direction they were flying, as well as how many of them were destroyed by Ukrainian air defence,” she wrote over Whatsapp. She put her phone to the side and tried to focus on the Yiddish lesson: the aleph-beys, a story by Sholem Aleichem, a song about bulbes, potatoes. But her worries sucked her inward: “I was worried about my family, especially my cousin who lives in Kyiv,” she told me. Still, she didn’t leave class. “I sometimes neglected my own safety and stayed in the lesson because I didn’t want to miss anything studying Yiddish,” she said.
Kahaniuk, a bespectacled young woman whose expression can shift from concern to radiant sweetness in a moment, was 14 when Russia invaded Ukraine. At the time, she lived with her family in Nyzkynschi, a small village on the border with Poland. She has never known an adult life without sirens, air-raid alerts, and missile strikes on power plants that leave the city without electricity and running water for hours at a time. Sometimes she forgets that life used to be otherwise: “It is a little weird to realize how all these things became just a part of your life that it seems that there is no need to explain them.”
Kahaniuk is not Jewish. Neither are the other 14 Ukrainian students who began studying Yiddish this past semester through the Lilka Scholarship, a new partnership between YIVO and the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, a city in western Ukraine. The program is funded by Australian-Jewish philanthropist Irene Kronhill Pletka, whose mother was born in Lviv — or Lemberg, as the city is often known in the Yiddish world. From the 13th century to World War II, Lemberg buzzed with Jews busy with scholarship, journalism, theater and winemaking. Today no more than a couple thousand Jews live in Lviv, a city of more than 700,000.
There is no Jewish graveyard anymore. Technically, the Jewish graveyard is in the stones of Lviv’s streets: During World War II, the Nazis and then the Soviets destroyed the headstones of the Old Jewish Cemetery and used them as pavement all across the city. The names of these Jews are scattered across Lviv like pieces of a puzzle that nobody has cared to solve. When you consider that Yiddish has a whole term — ivre be-loy — to describe the phenomenon of Jews incorporating more Hebrew into their conversation to throw off gentiles who understand Yiddish, it is hard not to wonder what the forgotten Jews of Lviv would make of 15 youthful Ukrainian gentiles studying Yiddish over Zoom (“vos iz Zum?!”) in the company of mostly retired American Jews.
In a city where buildings sit on top of the rubble of Jewish cemeteries, Yiddish is a “subculture” in the most literal sense. Learning the language can feel like an excavation of Ukraine’s past. “Jewish people have been an important part of Ukrainian history and population, so I just wanted to be a little closer to their culture,” Kahaniuk told me. “And honestly, my mom is very interested in learning Jewish history and especially history of Jewish people in Ukraine. So it’s made her happy for me.”
Yiddish has a reputation for being a rootless, wandering language, the language of goles, or exile. It is the language of the Bundist principle of “doikayt,” which means “hereness” in Yiddish and represents the idea that home is portable: Wherever Jews live, that’s where home is. But as YIVO teacher Philip Schwartz, who teaches one of three Beginner Yiddish sections available to Ukrainian students alongside fellow teachers Vera Szabó and Nina Warnke, points out, Yiddish has deep Eastern European roots. “It’s a language that used to be spoken by sometimes a third or half of the population of the places [these students] live in today,” he said. “So it’s a language that has an intimate relation to the places they inhabit themselves … it’s a way of discovering that heritage, and those cultural riches that are out of your reach if you don’t know the language.”
Spotting similarities for the first time between Yiddish and Ukrainian, students describe flashbulbs of recognition going off in their brains. One student, 19-year-old Diana Blaha, told me about discovering that the word for “frog” in Yiddish, “zhabe,” was nearly the same as “zhaba” in Ukrainian. When I asked Olena Malinovska, also 19, if she saw any similarities between Yiddish and Ukrainian, she replied, “You just feel it spiritually.” The hardest part, she said, was learning the Yiddish alphabet and script. “But then unexpectedly I received a reward because I started recognizing words, phrases,” she said. “Oh yeah, I was excited.”
This fall at Ivan Franko University, Yiddish classes are expected to kick into gear again — perhaps with even more students. But in the meantime, a few newly-minted Ukrainian Yiddishists are embarking on quests of their own. “I found out that my hometown was a place where one of the Hasidic dynasties stemmed from,” Diana Blaha told me. “I’d like to search it more because we have Jewish graveyards, I believe.” Which dynasty was this? “The Tzvi Hirsch Eichenstein Dynasty, from Zhydachiv,” Blaha said. I had never even heard of this dynasty; I wondered how many people in Zhydachiv had.
Daryna Kahaniuk has duties as a Yiddish tutor now. She has one pupil: her mother. After every lesson, “I had to phone her and tell her everything that happened during the lesson, what we did, what we listened to, even the few students from the USA who are Jewish people and what they share about their family experience and their family stories. I must tell her everything, and also how I write in Yiddish, and even the books we have, some songs. I just let her listen to them all the time.”
One of these songs is “Bulbes.” If beginning Yiddish classes had a theme song, “Bulbes” would probably be it. It is a song that teaches the Yiddish days of the week and the monotonous shtetl diet in one go: “Zuntik bulbes, muntik bulbes, dinstick un mitvokh bulbes, donershtick un fraytik bulbes, Shabbos in a novene, a bulbe kugele, zuntik vayter bulbes …” Every day of the week, potatoes. Once in a while, maybe a potato kugel. Then back to plain potatoes.
It’s an unmistakably Yiddish song, bleak and bouncy at the same time. It’s got the salty-sweet flavor of “lakhn durkh trern,” laughing through tears. When there is nothing to eat but potatoes, what is there to do but sing about it?
“So happy and funny it sounds, but just then I realize the dissonance of just feeling so light, and at the same time because of what people had to live with in that time…” Kahaniuk said, trailing off. She said she did not know how to express what she meant. I wondered if there was a way to say “lakhn durkh trern” in Ukrainian.
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Portuguese artists pull out of Jerry Seinfeld-headlined festival
(JTA) — Several Portuguese artists have dropped out of a comedy festival in Lisbon headlined by Jerry Seinfeld, citing their support for Palestinians and implying opposition to Seinfeld’s support for Israel.
At least six acts over recent days have canceled their appearances at the MEO Commedia a La Carte Fest, a new international comedy festival in the Portuguese capital. The event from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 has advertised that it will host Seinfeld’s first live appearance in Portugal.
Though none of the artists who withdrew mentioned Seinfeld by name, some hinted at a boycott against his pro-Israel views. The Jewish comedian has become one of Hollywood’s most prominent advocates for Israel since October 2023.
Actress and comedian Inês Aires Pereira announced on Instagram on Saturday that “one of the names” featured at the festival “persistently defends ideas and acts that I consider indefensible,” adding, “We cannot relativize or normalize a genocide.”
The comedy duo Cebola Mol posted a graphic of themselves with a watermelon, widely recognized as a symbol of solidarity with Palestinians. “We will celebrate justice, freedom and joy with you on another occasion,” they said on Instagram.
The festival announced on Friday that performances by the groups Tributo Pop and Conjunto Cuca Monga were also canceled, but did not provide reasons. Two other acts, comedian Pedro Tochas and visual artist Vhils, shared their cancellations on Instagram without further details.
Seinfeld has aligned himself with Israel during its current conflict in Gaza, following decades of largely avoiding commenting on political issues. He visited Israel in December 2023 to meet with the families of hostages seized by Hamas on Oct. 7 of that year. Since then, he has attracted attention for a series of dismissive remarks toward pro-Palestinian advocates.
During an appearance last year at Duke University, Seinfeld compared pro-Palestinian activists with the Ku Klux Klan, saying, “The Klan is actually a little better here because they can come right out and say, ‘We don’t like Blacks, we don’t like Jews.’ OK, that’s honest.”
Representatives of Seinfeld and producers of the MEO Commedia a La Carte Fest did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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UK, France, Canada to ban goods from Israeli settlements
(JTA) —
The United Kingdom, France and Canada will ban goods produced in the West Bank settlements and Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told Parliament on Tuesday, explaining that all such communities were deemed by his country to be illegal.
The declaration exacerbated the rising tensions riling the traditionally strong Israel-U.K. alliance. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar warned that these steps stoked antisemitism against British Jews in an on-camera statement to reporters in Jerusalem.
Sa’ar charged that the measures were a politicized hostile action deliberately taken ahead of Friday’s Jewish New Year holiday, with an eye toward influencing the country’s Oct. 27 elections.
Israel, he said, is responding by closing the British Consulate in Jerusalem that services Palestinians. It will also remove British representatives from the International Gaza Support Center in Kiryat Gat and halt the British training of Palestinian Authority security forces. He added that Israel would bar the entry of 12 British politicians and other nationals involved in anti-Israel activity.
France and Canada have also announced a ban on the import of settlement goods, Miliband told parliament. He noted that the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain and Norway have either banned goods or in the process of doing so.
In the same address, Miliband affirmed Israel’s right to exist, reflected on his own Jewish roots and rejected the notion that there was a connection between the policy steps against West Bank settlement activity and the safety of British Jews.
What is motivating the U.K., Miliband said, is “a deep sense of shame about what has unfolded in Palestine under the eyes of the international community” as well as Israel’s “clear intent to bury the Palestinian state.”
In response, he said, the U.K. “will introduce an import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied [Palestinian] territory” as part of a “new comprehensive sanctions regime” that will be put in place within nine months.
This will include, he said, “action against specific companies and individuals who provide services, such as construction, infrastructure, financing or real estate for settlement expansion.”
To those who “finance or facilitate illegal settlements, let me say this, you will face the full force of U.K. sanctions,” Miliband warned.
Miliband clarified that the ban would not affect the export of religious items or life-saving Israeli medications. He explained that trade with the settlements was minimal and that the greater impact would be the sanctions on services.
As part of declaring the ban, Miliband said that the British government is also adopting the International Court of Justice’s 2024 advisory opinion that all Israeli settlement activity over the pre-1967 border was illegal.
But others in Parliament pushed back against Miliband’s declaration. MP Richard Tice of Britain’s right-wing Reform party said that the sanctions were a grave mistake that would “embolden the scourge of antisemitism against British Jews on British streets,” endanger ties with the United States and lead to “tit for tat” sanctions from Israel.
Miliband shot back that “no British Jew is responsible for the policies of the Israeli government and it behooves all of us to make sure that there can be no confusion about that,” saying that Tice’s statement “fell foul” of that goal.
The U.K. action is the latest escalation in tensions between Israel and the Labour-led British government headed by Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who took power in July.
The prior government, led by former Labour Premier Keir Starmer, had already angered Israel by recognizing Palestinian statehood in 2025, suspending licenses for the export of arms to Israel and freezing talks toward a free-trade agreement.
France and Canada are also announcing a ban on the import of settlement goods, Miliband told parliament. He explained that the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain, and Norway have either banned goods or in the process of doing so.
In concert with Miliband’s appearance at Parliament, Britain and 11 other countries issued a joint statement pledging “their intention to introduce national and/or support European restrictions on trade in goods with settlements which are illegal under international law.”
Those other countries were Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
The 12-country bloc said it was taking this step to maintain the viability of the two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, describing the situation in the West Bank as “rapidly deteriorating.”
In its statement, the bloc stressed that it was taking this step amid an “unprecedented level of settler violence and settlement expansion, including the unacceptable decision to publish tenders for the E1 settlement project.” That project is seen as cutting through land that would render a Palestinian state unviable.
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California Gov. Newsom, a presidential hopeful, slams Netanyahu and AIPAC in PBS interview
(JTA) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a 2028 presidential hopeful, ventured farther than ever in his criticisms of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a weekend interview that delved into the Democratic Party’s relationship with Israel.
“I think it’s overwhelmingly opposed to the current regime in Israel,” Newsom said of the party, in a PBS News Hour interview with Amna Nawaz.
Pressed by Nawaz on divisions among his colleagues on Israel, Newsom denied that the subject is “even controversial anymore,” stressing that “the condemnation of what Bibi Netnayahu’s doing is almost universal.” The governor slammed the Israeli military’s conduct in Gaza and condemned the settler violence that has expanded in the West Bank.
“We want a democratic and secure Israel, and we want a secure and democratic Palestinian state as well right next door,” Newsom said, adding that Netanyahu has proved counterproductive to achieving a two-state solution.
Though he repeatedly maintained that Democrats are not divided on Israel, the governor acknowledged that “some of the language” by fellow Democrats “has been weaponized.” Certain “aspects of rhetoric” from individual candidates, he added, are on “the spectrum of concern,” Newsom said.
A number of candidates from the party’s far left place most if not all of the blame on Israel for a war in Gaza that has resulted in tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths. and downplay the role of Hamas in launching the war with the Oct. 7, 2023 raid inside Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were abducted. Newsom’s rhetoric is of a piece with party moderates who are critical of the Israeli government but who call for a secure Israel, reject Hamas and who resist pressure from the left to call Israel’s actions “genocide.”
Newsom nonetheless insisted that the party is unified on the issue. “But I think universally, everyone agrees, even if you don’t think it’s genocide, that it’s been a moral catastrophe,” he said of the war in Gaza. “The vast majority of us also agree about the atrocities on Oct. 7th and how horrific and unacceptable it was, and the terrorism that was perpetrated by Hamas.”
Newsom was among the many U.S. politicians to visit Israel in October 2023, meeting with survivors and families impacted by the attacks.
During a March book tour, Newsom sparked a backlash when he said that some people were referring to Israel “appropriately as sort of an apartheid state.” He quickly walked back these remarks, telling Politico that he had used the term “in the context of the direction that Bibi is going.”
“I revere the state of Israel,” he declared at the time.
The governor warned, however, that if Netanyahu proceeds in the direction of West Bank annexation, apartheid could become “a word you may hear others use.”
In addition to amplifying his condemnation of Netanyahu this weekend, Newsom also addressed the fact that fewer Democrats are accepting funds from political action committees affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying group.
As for Newsom himself, Track AIPAC, an organization that compiles Federal Election Commission data to flag pro-Israel campaign contributions, did not log any such donations to the likely presidential candidate. But the group did flag him as “pro-Israel.”
“It’s a minority of Democrats that are accepting AIPAC,” the governor said, noting a “dramatic change” over the last couple years.
“The vast majority of Democrats I talk to, even Democrats in the past that have in the past have taken AIPAC money, are pledging not to now,” Newsom added. “That’s more of a mainstream position, interestingly, within the Democratic Party.”
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