ANNA FISHMAN GONSHOR ORAL HISTORY

SARA ISRAEL:This is Sara Israel and today is December 13th, 2011. I'm here at the Montreal Public Library --

ANNA FISHMAN GONSHOR:Jewish Public Library.

SI:-- Jewish Public Library, excuse me, with Anna Gonshor, and we're going to record an interview as part of the Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project. Anna, do I have your permission to record this interview?

AFG:You absolutely do, and it's Anna Fishman Gonshor.

SI:Anna Fishman Gonshor. Thank you. So, to start out, can you tell me briefly about your family background?

AFG:Well, I was born in Europe after the war to parents who survived the war in the former Soviet Union. And my mother, as a guest of Stalin's gulag and 1:00prisons, and my father in Siberia, in work camps. My mother was born in Vilna, my father in Warsaw, and both of them became involved in the Jewish Labor Bund as young people. Became very, very active. My father was actually leader of the youth -- Yugnt-bund [youth branch of the Bund] -- SKIF, in Warsaw. And so, that made them very committed to Jewish life, Yiddish culture, Yiddish language, and a shenerer un besere velt [a more beautiful and better world], and took their Jewish identity and culture very, very seriously. I grew up in Montreal, we came 2:00to Canada in 1950, and grew up in somewhat a charmed environment of Yiddish-speaking kulturmentshn [intellectuals], who were very actively involved in supporting, maintaining, building Yiddish cultural institutions, including the Jewish Public Library. And my first language, clearly, was Yiddish and it never occurred to me that the world was not a Yiddish-speaking world. And our circle of friends and small family were all Yiddish-speaking and the heroes of 3:00modern Jewish history were my heroes: the Yiddish writers, the leaders of the Bund, the great Jewish thinkers. These were all people that I was very familiar with and I was really very fortunate to have met many, many of them in Montreal. Not only those that lived in Montreal but those who came to visit Montreal, and there were many. Almost every Yiddish writer of the twentieth century came and visited Montreal and I met each and every one of them: the great Yiddish actors, including Hertz Grosbard. It was an incredibly rich world. And more than that, my sister and I were very, very fortunate to attend a day school in which Yiddish was -- played a very important role as -- not only did we study the 4:00language and history in Yiddish but the literature. And so, it was very hard for me to separate home and school, especially since my mother was a Yiddish teacher. My mother was trained in Vilna, and she went to the Yiddish teacher's seminary there. She also trained Montessori in Vienna before the war. And so, many of the teachers were also family friends. And so, it was a seamless movement back and forth between home and school. And so, everything was validated equally in both places. It was really quite an extraordinary, extraordinary experience.

SI:So --

AFG:Oh! Oh, let me not forget, as a very young child -- as young children, my 5:00sister and I became involved with the Jewish Public Library, which was really at the center of Yiddish cultural life in Montreal. So, not only did we take out books as young children -- every Sunday morning, my father would take us to the library and we spent our time there choosing books -- but we also attended the children's story hour, which -- Ida Maze, and there's that portrait of Ida Maze (UNCLEAR) and then, my mother conducted it. And then, the great Dora Wasserman came and started her children's group at the library. And so, really, my connection to the Jewish public library is about sixty years now. And we really 6:00lived a Yiddish life, a very rich and diverse Yiddish life.

SI:Were you aware of that being sort of a unique experience?

AFG:When I was little, I would say before I was ten, I didn't think of it as so unique. I really thought of it as the most natural thing. But as I got a bit older and I went to my friends' homes, I realized how different it was. And I have to say, both my sister and I wore that difference as a badge of pride, no question. We then attended a Yiddish-speaking camp in the Catskills, Camp 7:00Hemshekh, which was created by the Jewish Labor Bund to continue -- and that's why Hemshekh. Continuation, continuity, the spirit of the Jewish summer camps in Poland, pre-war.

SI:So, were most of your friends Jewish growing up?

AFG:Until high school, yes, although the area we lived in, the immigrant area we lived in in Montreal was heavily populated by French Canadians. And we played with them on the street or fought with them (laughs) on the street, depending on the day. We never really formed friendships until I was in high school and met non-Jewish students. And then, quite a few of my friends were non-Jewish. I went 8:00to a public high school during the day because there was no -- the Jewish high schools at the time when I was in high school were Herzliah High School, which was a Hebrew and English high school. There was Hebrew Academy, which was a Hebrew and English high school. And, of course, the yeshivas, which was a different world. But we did have afternoon courses in the Peretz Shule -- that's the school I went to -- mitlshul [high school] and then hekhere korsn [advanced courses]. And so, I did all those at the same time as I was in the public high school. And so, in the public high school, there were all sorts of students. And certainly I made friends. I had quite a few, as I said, non-Jewish friends and 9:00sang in the choir for Christmas and did all those things.

SI:So, I'm curious: placing you in the broader context of Montreal, I know that in the '60s and '70s, it was a very politically-charged time, due to -- French-speaking and English-speaking -- did that affect you at all growing up?

AFG:I don't think anyone was unaffected by it. I think that what became clear -- there was a terrible injustice done. There's no question of the French majority being oppressed. But it was not only oppressed by the English majority but the Roman Catholic Church played a very, very important part in the life of Quebec, not only religiously but politically, and wielded tremendous, tremendous power. 10:00And the church was very connected to the -- particularly the right -- I won't say far right wing but right and far right political powers that be. And so, they also have a role in the oppression of the Francophone community. And I don't think any of us, certainly our generation, felt that the fight for French rights was unjust. The issue of separation was something else. And many of our peers left at the time. I think people who had survived the war, people that -- they were scared. They were scared. I mean, there were bombings, there were 11:00kidnappings, there was a political murder. It wasn't anti-Semitic. It was anti-Anglophone and the Jewish community, for historical reasons, because of the divide, the religious divide of the public school system, Catholic system and the English school system, which was Protestant -- the Jews could not attend the French schools, whether -- had we chosen to, we could not. And so, we were in the Anglophone camp, the majority of us. And it was uneasy. The economic situation was affected. There was a lot of instability and we lost a lot -- a lot of members of our community who just weren't ready to deal with the constant 12:00unrest and upheaval and chose to leave.

SI:So, I'm wondering, I guess, how did that affect sort of the -- and I imagine it affected the Jewish community a lot in the long run.

AFG:Well, we lost a large percentage of our population, there's no question, and you can see it today.

SI:So, did that have a big affect on Jewish organizational life?

AFG:Well, in sheer numbers, yes. But in terms of the quality of Jewish community life, no. This is an incredibly rich Jewish community in which to live. And the wonderful thing about this community is one can find a niche for oneself to live 13:00as a Jew in a variety of ways without necessarily having to belong to a synagogue of whichever denomination. But one can live a very rich cultural life as a Jew, as well. And there are many things going on throughout the year: lectures, Yiddish theater, Hebrew theater, Yiddish films, French films, and, of course, the whole gamut of Jewish community services which one can be involved in. And the quality of Jewish life here is really extraordinary despite the shrinkage.

SI:So, you talk about a number of different ways to live as a Jew.

AFG:Um-hm.

SI:Sort of on the track of your childhood, how do you think your parents chose to show their Jewish identity or sort of --

AFG:Veltlekhe yidn [Secular Jews]. We grew up -- "veltlekh" literally translates as "worldly," although it is used as "secular." Now, secular today seems to have a pejorative connotation, whereas in their day and in our day, it certainly didn't because if you take a look at the Zionist organizations, the youth movements, there was no question about their commitment to Jewish life and to 15:00Jewish culture and to Jewish identity. It just was in a way different than the traditional life had been. And it certainly didn't start here. It started, as you know, in Europe and it was a very, very rich life. There's no doubt about it. Today, I think the big difference is that the previous generations who made the choice to live as veltlekhe yidn were very Jewishly knowledgeable, were educated, were committed through their involvement in various youth groups, in summer camps and various organizations. And so, the choices that they made to leave traditional Jewish life were based on having experienced it and having 16:00alternatives. Today, many Jews are secular because they don't know anything --- they don't know anything different. And so, secular is not necessarily a commitment to Jewish identity and Jewish cultural existence. It means non-religious but it doesn't necessarily mean anything else, for many people. And so, would anyone have doubted my parents' Jewishness? Probably the Ultra-Orthodox, but that's about it, just as they would today doubt yours or mine.

SI:So, do you think that the values of secular Judaism were something your parents were trying to pass on to you?

AFG:No question, no question. But what my parents did was understand that -- and my father's mantra was, "A yid muz visn, a Jew must know." Must know where you come from, who you are, what are your roots, what are your traditions, what are the rituals? And yontev [holiday] was yontev at home and Shabbos was Shabbos, but in a very, very different way. My mother lit candles. She didn't bentsh [say the blessing]. Mayn mame hot getsundn likht, di bobe hot gebensht likht [My mother lit the candles, while my grandmother blessed them]. It was a difference. 18:00But, in addition to lighting the candles, our Friday night table was probably the most shabesdik [Shabbos-y] place I have seen to date in my life, although my home is a more traditional home and I try and emulate what we did. But Shabbos, everything stopped and we sat around the table. There were the four of us and there were people who didn't have a Shabbos table of their own to go to. My mother was extraordinary in that respect. And my father would, over the week, put aside either an interesting article from the "Forverts" or from a literary journal to read. Some poetry. We would read, we would discuss, and we would sing 19:00for hours, in Yiddish. And it was Shabbos. There was no question about it. And we celebrated all the holidays, again, with readings, with singing, with -- we lit Hanukkah candles, we did it all. In Yiddish.

SI:So, I want to make a little bit of a transition in talking about the earlier part of your life. Can you give me sort of a snapshot of your life today?

AFG:My life today. I am married. We have my husband, Aron, who I believe will be interviewed. We have three grown children, who speak Yiddish to a greater or 20:00lesser degree. Each of them understand it perfectly. Two of them actually read it quite well, and write. I am a grandmother of two wonderful young boys, [Heshia Hersh?] and [Gabriel Mendel?]. And I am a faculty lecturer of Yiddish studies at McGill University. I've been there for about twelve years now, full-time. Prior to that, I taught Yiddish at the high school, Bialik High School, which teaches Yiddish. And I was the coordinator for the whole Jewish 21:00People's Peretz School system and Bialik High School system, of the Yiddish program. Designed curriculum and that kind of thing.

SI:So, how did Yiddish become your academic focus?

AFG:(laughs) It was not a conscious decision. It was probably the most natural progression of my life. I was asked to come and teach. I had never considered it. Well, that's not true. When I was in college, I -- in order to earn money, I taught Yiddish in the Sunday school at the Avrom Reyzen Shule. But I trained professionally as a librarian and worked as a librarian. In fact, I was here as 22:00the director, the executive director of the Jewish Public Library, and never considered education as my profession until I was asked to come and teach at Bialik and I said yes. And it went on from there. And, along the way, I also did my master's in Jewish studies, in Eastern European Jewish studies and Yiddish.

SI:So, it seems as though teaching has now become a very integral part of your life. You've done --

AFG:It is, it is. It's something that I love to do. I guess I'm quite passionate about it. I really believe in educating our young minds about their culture, 23:00their history, their language and literature, and that's the context in which I teach. I don't only teach language.

SI:So, what are some of the challenges of teaching Yiddish language and culture in a university course?

AFG:I think, increasingly, the challenge is the lack of historical awareness that young people have today. History is no longer taught as a compulsory 24:00subject. And students come to the class unaware, not just of their own history but of world history and how their lives today have been shaped by events of the immediate and near past, let alone a hundred years ago. And so, trying to get them to understand that culture is shaped by -- culture, literature, all creative energies are shaped by a context. And that context is missing. That context is missing. And so, I spend a lot of time -- I am going to be teaching a 25:00course on the history of the shtetl [small town in Eastern Europe with a Jewish community] and co-teaching a course on Yiddish film -- and just in order to broaden their minds and their experiences so that they can understand what happened, why it happened, and what was all this incredible, incredibly dynamic and exciting creative outpouring that occurred from the middle of the 19th century on? Where was it coming from? What was it a result of? What was it in response to? What were the ideas, what were the dreams, what was the anger, what was -- that has to be understood. And it has to be something that young people 26:00today can grab onto and say, Hey, this is mine. There's something there for me. It speaks to me. It's relevant to me today. And that's what I really try to do, is create that relevance and that understanding of the passion that erupted from the mid-nineteenth century on.

SI:So, what is it about Yiddish language and literature and culture that your students connect to?

AFG:I think there are a whole range of things. I think that what they find in 27:00the language, first of all, is -- it is thoroughly Jewish. Yiddish means Jewish -- that Yiddish is a vehicle. It opens the door into who they are and where they come from. It's on all -- on a variety of levels in a variety of fields. And so, there is excitement that is generated just by the language. One of the things that I love to do with my beginners' class in particular is watch them, watch 28:00their faces when they make the connection between the word "shreklekh," "awful," and "Oy, a shrek!" -- "Oh, how frightful!" And then, I say, "Um-hm. And the movie 'Shrek'?" And the sudden -- the light bulbs that go on and the smiles and the laughter that erupt and that connection that, Oh, my gosh, here are a bunch of Jewish guys having fun at the expense of everyone by using this common Yiddish word. And, of course, always showing -- pointing out the influences into English and, of course, influences of other languages into Yiddish. I start by 29:00talking about Yiddish being a fusion language and debunking the whole myth of it not being a language. English is the greatest fusion language, the largest fusion language in the world. And if English can have a Nobel Prize in its literature, so can we. And we do. Being a fusion language is not pejorative. It's not a jargon, as it was called in the late 1900s and early twentieth century in the debates about Yiddish. And they begin to understand that it has merit, it has value, and it has something that speaks to them. On all, as I 30:00said, on all levels.

SI:Is there a memorable class experience that stands out to you?

AFG:Many. Many. I think as a teacher, as an educator, the -- what we all strive for is for students to be enriched, for students to begin to think differently, to look at the world, at themselves, in a different light. To begin to think critically and to begin to understand problems in life, in Jewish life, in the 31:00world of culture, in the world of politics. And when we achieve that, when we have students, say, as I have been told many times, I came to learn the language and left knowing and understanding that there's a whole culture and a whole world out there, then I know I've done my job. I've been very fortunate with the students I've had. Learning with you for three, for four years was certainly a 32:00wonderful experience for me, as a teacher. And I have been very fortunate to have a large number of students who stayed with me throughout their university career, coming in as beginners, not knowing what to expect, taking an elective and then having their lives changed, and who have stayed in touch with me regularly and over many years. And I have been blessed by their appreciation and their contact. And I have mentored, I have befriended, I have been befriended. I have been enriched by my students, there's no question. And that's part of what makes me so passionate about it.

SI:So, I want to talk a little bit about your involvement in the Montreal Jewish community. So, I guess we've covered a little bit about this but what has inspired you to dedicate so much of your time to the community?

AFG:Well, I think that that's clearly a direct result of my upbringing, where my parents, from the day we came to Canada as immigrants and I slept -- my sister slept on two chairs and I slept in a drawer or in a basket. My parents immediately got involved in the Workmen's Circle and the Jewish Labor Bund. My mother went around selling bricks at ten cents a brick for the new building of the Jewish Public Library on the corner of Mount Royal and Esplanade, which is 34:00an exquisite structure. It was built with such foresight and understanding of the importance of Yiddish cultural life. There was a full auditorium with a proper stage and wings and set for theater upstairs. There was a children's library, an adult library. There were classes. There was a people's university. And as little as we had, there were those who had less. And I remember my father taking us, as children -- my father was a factory worker -- to bring some of our clothes to the homes of some of his co-workers who had even less. And it was 35:00very clear to us, both my sister and myself, that we were advantaged. We were privileged, regardless of the fact that we lived in one room. (laughs) We never understood that we were not. And so, the sense of responsibility to the community and to others was something that both my sister and I imbibed with mother's milk. And not just the Jewish community. In high school, I was president of the Red Cross Society and volunteered in a children's hospital. I still do some of that in the non-Jewish community. But I spend -- given the 36:00limited amount of time, I spend time in the community. I was president of the Jewish Public Library during the years of the action on behalf of Soviet Jewry. I was very involved as a university student and then, later, I chaired the Montreal Committee for Soviet Jewry. I actually traveled to the Soviet Union in the bad days to visit refuseniks. I briefed other travelers, prepared them to do that kind of thing. And Yiddish was an incredible part of that work because when I got to the Soviet Union, the amount of people that I could speak to, especially the older ones, because of my Yiddish -- my partner who traveled with 37:00me was just in awe of what I was able to do because I had the Yiddish. I then got involved with -- well, do you really want all of this? (laughs) I just -- let's say I've been very active in the Jewish community, including on the executive of our Federation and the March of the Living. I co-wrote the curriculum for the preparation of that and took a few of the trips with the students.

SI:Oh, wow! Since we're at the Jewish Public Library --

AFG:I'm sorry?

SI:Since we're at the Jewish --

AFG:Right.

SI:-- Public Library and you were president here, what was that like?

AFG:Again, it was -- the library was no different than the Peretz Shule where I 38:00grew up. The library was an extension of my home life. It was a gift that I knew I had to cherish and protect and do everything to ensure its continuity. Its existence, its continuity, and its growth according to the times.

SI:So, I think it's been a pretty historic meeting place for a lot of prominent Jewish figures.

AFG:It has been. Every Yiddish writer and cultural figure of the twentieth century who was on the North American continent visited the Jewish Public 39:00Library at one point or another. And we have the guest book to prove it. Over the years, as the English cultural component grew, we can say the same thing, that the great English writers of English literature, historians, Sir Martin Gilbert and others have been guests here. And the most wonderful validation for all of us involved with the library are the comments that each and every one of them had made about the library and the community, but particularly about this institution and what it represents. There is the correspondence between the Yiddish writer Hey Leivick and Kadya Molodowsky in which they talk about 40:00Montreal and the Jewish Public Library as being the one place in North America that feels like home. Leivick writes, "Amerike hot sheyne, breyte vegn, ober zey zaynen kalt un fremd [America has beautiful, wide roads, but they are cold and and unfamiliar]." And they talk about their visit to Montreal and the Montreal audience, Yiddish-speaking audience, which was not only receptive, but understood. Understood them and appreciated who they were and appreciate the institution and the -- this institution is going to be celebrating a hundred years in 1914. And it has been at the center of Jewish life in this city from 41:00its very beginning. And it now functions in four languages all the time: English, French, Yiddish, and Hebrew. And Russian, that's five. (laughs) And occasionally in Spanish. And it's a model of its kind of institution, it truly is. Everyone talks about the 92nd Street Y. What did -- someone referred to it as the temple of Jewish secular culture. Well, the one thing the library has achieved that the 92nd Street Y hasn't or didn't is that it's not just secular 42:00culture. If you walk in here, you will see yeshiva boys sitting with -- poring over tomes of the Talmud, someone reading a French newspaper, someone reading something in Russian, someone working on their computer. When I was a child, there at the same table you had Orthodox people reading various sforim [Jewish religious books] and someone reading the "Tog morgen-zhurnal" or the "Forverts" at the same table, speaking the same language. That's what this library has achieved.

SI:So, what do you think is the place of the library in the Jewish community today?

AFG:I think that it really is no different. I think it really energizes the 43:00community intellectually and culturally, from children's programs, starting with six months old mother and tod-- songs and story hour to our lectures that have five, six hundred people and everything in between. And the library was founded as the Yidishe folks bibliotek un folks universitet [Jewish people's library and people's university] and takes that mission very seriously. And the National Yiddish Book Center, I think, has been the beneficiary of much of what we have 44:00done in the past. We're fortunate to be able to partner with them on some projects: the Yiddish talking books, which originated here and now the digitizing of the incredible, incredibly valuable and historic collection of lectures that were held here in the library, in Yiddish and in English. The who's who of the Yiddish cultural and literary world, on tape, is now going to be available in digitized format and that's an incredible, incredible undertaking. And kudos, it's a great partnership.

SI:So, Montreal has produced a lot of prominent Jewish cultural leaders and figures. What do you think it is about Montreal that fosters these Jewish figures?

AFG:Again, I think the organic nature of Jewish community life here, where it's 45:00not hidden away. It's very public. Between the schools, the library, the Segal Centre, the Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre, it has -- Jewish life has a very public face in Montreal. And, as I said, the diverse nature of Jewish life here in Montreal allows one to live one's life as a Jew according to one's ideology, one's vision, one's desire. One doesn't have to cut oneself into a million 46:00pieces. One can have it all. And I think the strong cultural support network that existed here, the people who lived in Montreal first of all, the circle of Yiddish writers and intellectuals that were in Montreal -- we didn't have to wait for them to come and visit. We actually had our own. It wasn't just the visitors. The visitors knew where they were coming. They knew they were coming to an audience that was well-educated in terms of Yiddish culture, Yiddish literature, Jewish issues. And we had our own greats: Rokhl Korn, Melech Ravitch. Itzik Manger lived here. The leaders of the two Jewish schools in which 47:00Yiddish was taught, Jacob Zipper and Shloime Wiseman, they were giants in their own right, and many of the teachers, who were also Yiddish writers: Sholem Shtern, Moshe Shaffir. I mean, [Paul Trapman?] was a journalist. [Motra Hossad?] was a poet. Chayele Grober, the great Yiddish actress was here -- she was trapped here by the war and we benefited from that. So, she formed a studio for Yiddish actors. The poet Ida Maze, Yehudah Elberg, postwar. And then, of course, Chava Rosenfarb. I mean, think about it! Think of who we had in our midst! And there wasn't a week that went by without at least one or two events, cultural 48:00events, that one went to, or concerts, the choirs that we had here and we still have. We still have some wonderful choirs that don't necessarily sing Yiddish but they're Jewish choirs. So, it was not surprising. It's not surprising.

SI:So, I want to ask you some questions about language. Montreal has a tradition of multilingualism, sort of similar to the Jewish world of Eastern Europe. How do you think that plays out in Montreal's Jewish community today?

AFG:I'm not sure I understand your question, Sara.

SI:I guess I'm trying to say how do you think language, having multiple 49:00languages affects the Jewish community in Montreal?

AFG:Yeah. Well, the Montreal Jewish community is multilingual, itself. I think most of us, today, speak English and French. Many of our students will also be able to speak Hebrew and some will also be able to speak Yiddish. We're not talking about the Hasidic community. The Hasidic community is its own world and they really don't interact with us. So, it's not much of a factor in terms 50:00of language, although for the university students, it's always a lot of fun for them to go into the Hasidic areas and be able to speak Yiddish with Hasidim, who are always very puzzled. But the big difference today, as opposed to pre-World War II, is that of the eighteen million Jews in the world before the Second World War, eleven million were Yiddish-speaking to a greater or lesser degree. Because we already know from the research that was done even then that 51:00many young Eastern European Jews were opting to speak their national language in addition to Yiddish, and some dropping Yiddish completely. Yiddish was the international Jewish language at the time. Has it been replaced by Hebrew? Not here. Nowhere except in Israel. That's the tragedy, that there is no Jewish international language anymore that connects us. We would like it to be Hebrew, but it's not. The amount of North American Jews who learned Hebrew or can speak it or read it -- we don't read -- many of us don't read their literature, the 52:00Israeli literature, except in translation. And even then, how many of us do? And so, is there a Jewish language that is spoken predominantly by any North American Jews? No. English. English is the Jewish language, the international Jewish language. So it's -- that's the state of affairs today.

SI:So, what do you see as the place of Yiddish in Montreal today?

AFG:I have to tell you, my parents were never people who walked around saying, "Redt yidish! Redt yidish! [Speak Yiddish! Speak Yiddish!]" A, they didn't have to. B, speaking Yiddish in and of itself was not enough. You had to have something to say in it. (laughs) I am not one of those people who teach Yiddish 53:00because I think it should be the spoken language. I teach it because of its cultural richness and value. There's so much to learn from it. There's so much to learn in it. Will we sing Yiddish songs? Yes. Will we speak Yiddish on a daily basis to go buy apples? No. Do we have to? No. That world doesn't exist. But accessing the Yiddish world that did exist and still exists, to a degree -- 54:00there are young people who are writing wonderful things in Yiddish now. And they're worth reading. We need to know Yiddish, not to go buy apples.

SI:So, what do you see as the future of Yiddish?

AFG:I'm not a clairvoyant, I don't make predictions, and I certainly -- I'm an optimist. I'm an optimist. I'm an optimist that the young people today that I meet in my classes, on the campuses, in the various graduate programs, in Jewish 55:00studies programs are bright, energetic, interesting, intelligent, and are beginning to appreciate the world of Yiddish that they were deprived of, not only for themselves but also understanding it in the context of their academic work -- that one cannot begin to explore Jewish history and Jewish culture and the Jewish arts without an entree to the Yiddish-speaking world. And the world of Yiddish song and poetry is something that I think people are beginning to adapt. There is a brand-new CD by Basya Schechter, otherwise known as Pharaoh's 56:00Daughter, who just -- whose CD is Heschel's Yiddish poetry set to music. Now, some of us knew that Heschel wrote Yiddish poetry. Brilliant, wonderful, profound poetry that she has now set to music -- and producing as a CD. I just saw an email from Jeff Warschauer and Deborah Strauss. They're doing a program of Kadya Molodowsky's poetry being played by violins, fiddles. So, that's what I see. I see the unearthing and the reclaiming of the Yiddish world by younger 57:00people in a very different way, and that's fine. And that's fine. It can't be what it was and we're wasting our energies if that's what we're trying to do. Our energies should be directed towards exposing people to it, showing them what it is, and then letting them take it and make it theirs. Look at this musical phenom, Socalled, who is quite secular in his orientation and absolutely fell in love with Jewish music and Yiddish music and has made that an integral part of 58:00his hip-hop and everything else that he's now creating. And that's fine.

SI:So, as a Montrealer, how do you think language can influence somebody's sense of identity?

AFG:Language is identity as far as I'm concerned. It says everything about who we are. And the more we know, the richer we'll be. And I subscribe to Kadya Molodowsky's philosophy, and she stated very clearly in the '30s -- and she 59:00says, "Yidishe shrayber vos shraybn nisht in eyne fun di tsvey yidishe shprakhn zaynen di blumen afn vaser. Zey zaynen zeyer sheyn, ober zey hobn nisht keyn vortslen, un flisn avek afn vaser [Jewish writers who don't write in one of the two Jewish languages are like flowers on the water. They are very pretty, but they do not have roots, and they float away in the water]." In other words, the two Jewish languages of Hebrew and Yiddish -- and, of course, there's also Ladino, which needs to be popularized more and made more available to all of us. Writing in a Jewish language gives us roots is basically what she said. She said, "Otherwise, we're like water lilies." She says, "Beautiful on the surface 60:00but blown away, floating away on a strong current." They're gone. So, my view of language is we must know them. We must know our languages to be who we are, to be all we can be. And I think that the Jewish day schools are doing our students a terrible disservice when they don't expose them to good education in those languages. And I include Ladino.

SI:Now, you speak Yiddish, English, French, Hebrew, German. Personally, how has 61:00language influenced your sense of identity?

AFG:Well, I think it's very clear. It's who I am. Being able to access my own culture and others -- have enriched me. I remember Dora Wasserman used to take us to see theater in French, theater in Greek. During Expo '67, we went to Russian, Greek, Japanese. Anything that gives you, gives one insight into someone else's culture can only enrich your own. I'm a firm believer in knowing more than one language, especially our own.

SI:So, do the different languages you know have different meanings or uses for you?

AFG:Different places? Well (pauses) English is -- I function in English. Not that well. (laughs) Often I am groping (clicks fingers) for a word that I know in Yiddish (laughs) and say, "How do you say this in English?" (pauses) Yiddish is who I am. It's everything that I am. Hebrew is a part of me. It's part of the modern Jewish world. It's my connection to Israel. It's my connection to the Jewish world today, I think, although the Jewish world meaning Israel being the 63:00center of it. French allows me to deal with the place in which I live and the people whom I meet, including my travels around the world. German is academic. It's an academic -- I've used it for academics, academic reasons. I struggle a little bit with Polish. I can -- reading with a dictionary.

SI:What language did you speak with your kids growing up?

AFG:Ah! My children all spoke Yiddish as their first language. It was very funny.

SI:Was that a challenge for them?

AFG:Not at all. I mean, no child who grows up bilingually is challenged by it unless clearly there's a learning disability or a challenge in some area of development. But children are like sponges. My grandchildren are growing up with three languages: Spanish, Hebrew, and English, and, when we visit, Yiddish. And they're fine. Talk funny right now, (laughs) but so did my kids. My kids sounded like immigrants.

SI:So, is your husband also a native Yiddish speaker?

AFG:Yes.

SI:Was there any debate about speaking Yiddish with your kids or just -- it was obvious?

AFG:It was natural. It was very natural. And they were lucky enough to have 65:00grandparents that could speak Yiddish with them, as well. My daughter plays Yiddish songs for my grandchildren on the CDs. She sings with them. And when we Skype, we'll speak a little bit Yiddish, we'll sing songs in Yiddish. And the older one knows it. He'll say to my daughter, he says, "The flowers, the flowers!" And it's so interesting because I never said the word "flowers" when I sang the song (singing) "Sheyninke blimelekh vaksn in gortn [Pretty flowers grow in the garden]," and he's saying, "Ima, ima [Hebrew: Mom, mom], flowers, flowers!" And so, it's doable. It's wonderful. Languages, the more you know, the more you are enriched. The world is at your fingertips. And the world's very 66:00small today.

SI:So, what's been most important for you to transmit to your children, to the next generation?

AFG:To my kids? I think our children grew up understanding the importance of their identity, their linguistic inheritance, their cultural inheritance. They were all products of Jewish day schools and of Dora Wasserman's Children's Theatre. And so, identity and connection to Jewish peoplehood was always number 67:00one. The fact that they live in the world and have a responsibility to the larger world, their community and the larger world was always -- we deliver Christmas baskets as well as Hanukkah baskets. And to be good people. I mean, (laughs) that's ultimately any parent's wish, that they be happy.

SI:So, we're sort of nearing the end of our time but I want to ask you what 68:00advice you have to students of Yiddish today.

AFG:Learn it. It's worth it. It's so enriching. I mean -- why don't you answer that?

SI:Maybe in my interview. (laughter)

AFG:It is a wonderful, wonderful gift that we can give to future generations. And to diminish the opportunities of experiencing Jewish life is a pity. To 69:00provide as many options, as many opportunities, to live Jewishly, to enhance one's Jewish identity, to enhance one's intellect -- Yiddish has so much in that area to enrich one that cutting oneself off from it is depriving oneself of a very rich and valuable inheritance. It's really as simple as that. It's really as simple as that. If we are looking for meaning in our lives today, which I believe we are -- I can't think of a worse time that I have experienced and I 70:00think for young people today, it is very difficult to be optimistic and to look forward and see something positive. I think we don't have any great leaders, political or intellectual or ideological or philosophical to look up to. There is so much that our tradition and our Yiddish world has to offer to provide that today. I've been translating much of Peretz's essays and I am so awestruck by how relevant what he has to say and what he had to say over a hundred years ago is today. It is exciting. It's challenging. It's invigorating -- that it gives 71:00one hope. And we all need that today, and it's there. We don't have to go to the top of the mountain in India, although that's fine, too. Although that's fine, too, because there's something to be learned from that, as well. But we also have our own and together, I think, it's amazing.

SI:Well, thank you so much for talking to me today. (laughs)

AFG:My pleasure.

SI:A pleasure, as always. (laughs)

[END OF INTERVIEW]