The Yiddish Book Center's

Wexler Oral History Project

A growing collection of in-depth interviews with people of all ages and backgrounds, whose stories about the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture offer a rich and complex chronicle of Jewish identity.

Adi Mahalel's Oral History

Adi Mahalel, lecturer of Yiddish Studies at the University of Maryland, was interviewed by Christa Whitney on December 15, 2013, at the Association for Jewish Studies Conference in Boston, Massachusetts. Both Adi's grandfathers were born in Palestine; one was of Moroccan and Syrian descent and the other Lithuanian. His grandmothers came to Palestine in the 1930s from Brisk and Hamburg. Adi was born in Haifa in 1979 to Hebrew-speaking, secular parents. The Jewishness of his family was mainly expressed in their love for Hebrew literature. Adi talks about negative attitudes toward Yiddish in Israel, where many consider it the language of the Diaspora. He feels that choosing his field of study was "going against the grain." His first Yiddish classes in Haifa focused on reading and translating rather than speaking the language. Adi explains why he switched his major from engineering to the humanities, in part because he wanted to read Yiddish literature in the original. He describes his Yiddish classes in Haifa, in Tel Aviv, and at Columbia University. From the start he also enjoyed talking to native Yiddish speakers who were not academics. At Columbia, Adi took courses with Jeremy Dauber, Miriam Hoffman, David Roskies, Dovid Fishman, and Dan Miron. He became intrigued with the connection between Yiddish and leftist politics. While pursuing his doctorate at Columbia he also worked for the "Forverts" and taught at YIVO. He is still writing for the "Forverts" and for the last remaining Bundist journal, published in Israel. One of the reasons that he is drawn to Yiddish is that it was a language of an oppressed people. He believes that the world requires radical change and that for various reasons Jewish radicals felt less constrained expressing their ideologies in Yiddish, in part because only a select group would understand what they were saying. Adi mentions his work with the Hasidic community. He acted as interpreter on a film about the "Neturei Karta", an anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox group with members in Monsey, New York. Adi discusses the place of Yiddish in the Israeli and American academies. Humanities programs are on the decline in both countries. He is hopeful that there is still a lot of interest, especially in this country. He is pleased that his classes fill up and often have waiting lists. He does not think that "revival" is an appropriate word when it comes to the current situation, because Yiddish is a living language in some religious communities. Adi believes that he is the first sabra (Jewish person born and raised in Palestine/Israel) to be hired as a Yiddish journalist. He advises students taking Yiddish classes to be open to the human experience and rich culture of the people who spoke this language.

This interview was conducted in English.

Adi Mahalel was born in Haifa, Israel in 1979.