ESTELA AIZENMAN STERN ORAL HISTORY

CHRISTA WHITNEY: So, this is Christa Whitney and today is October 30th, 2015. I am here at the Colegio Israelita de México ORT with Estela Aizenman, and we are going to record an interview as part of the Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project. Do I have your permission to record?

ESTELA AIZENMAN STERN: Of course.

CW:Thank you. So, first of all, what do you know about your family background, before Mexico?

EAS:Well, my family -- I'm sorry, my family came -- my dad's from Hungary -- in 1930. He was fifteen year old and came with the -- his elder parents, and all these siblings were already in Mexico. Eleven brothers and sisters in the 1:00family. And my mom came from Poland in 1935 as a young girl, seventeen. She met my dad here. And then, my grandparents came for the wedding in 1937. And my grandfather on my mom's side, he was from a town called Jarosław, near Przeworsk. And it was one of the towns, early towns, that the Nazis took the people out of there. So, I think it was luck. But he wasn't happy in Mexico. He was like Tevye der milkhiker [Tevye the dairyman]. He had a farm -- well, two cows, not a farm, a dairy. And he sold milk and cheese, whatever. And in Mexico, he was really upset. He didn't like the city, he didn't like anything. He want to be with the cows. So, the family had a dairy ranch in Texcoco, near Mexico. They put him there and he was happy there. And my father -- my grandfather on 2:00the other side, he was a very religious man. But in Hungary, in the town of Sátoraljaújhely, I learned that -- is in the north part of Hungary, and across the border with Czechoslovakia. So, my grandmother was born on the other side of the river, in Czechoslovakia and my dad in Hungary. And he was like an agent for the Singer company, Singer machine. He went around all the towns, collected old machines. And my father and my grandmother fixed them and then they'd resell them again. And he didn't have a beard or anything. They have a school of -- embroidery school. My grandmother teach the girls who embroider the beautiful Hungarian embroidery. And that's why they came to Mexico with a sewing machine, that I have. But in Mexico, my grandfather became very, very religious. He grew 3:00a beard and didn't work on Shabbat. And I don't know if I can tell you a story about my grandfather?

CW:Please.

EAS:He started as a shoykhet [ritual slaughterer], that was a butcher. And once -- and he was a young boy, seventeen or sixteen. They're getting money to buy a cow, so he went to another town to buy a cow. And he met two of his friends, and they say, Don't buy a cow. Let's take this money and buy passage to America. America, America. "Okay." The grandfather said, "Okay, let's go to America." So, they escape. When they came to New York, there wasn't any job that -- he couldn't stop on Shabbat. He had to work Shabbat, and he wasn't -- very unhappy. Couple of -- a year later, and the two friends said, There's a new business in 4:00California. Movie business. Let's go to California. Said, "How are we going to California?" Well, by train, by burro, by carriage, whatever. "Okay, what are we doing on Shabbat?" Shabbat, you have to travel. "Oh, no." He said, "I'm not going, because I don't want to travel on Shabbat." So, he stay in New York, and the two friends became very important in Hollywood. One was a producer, Adolph Zukor, and the other was the -- one of the partners at 20th Century Fox. And I always joked, because he was so religious, and not in Hollywood. But he was a good man. He came to Mexico and one of the things he brought, very strange, he brought a Torah. He said, "I don't think in Mexico they have enough Torahs," so he brought in a Torah. And he always had the service at his house. And many, many Indians, Indian people who converted went to his house to pray. I have -- 5:00my youngest uncle was a Talmudist, was a rabbi in -- first in Saint Louis, Missouri, then in Miami and Israel. So, he wrote many books on the Talmud. He was very well-known, Tibor Stern. And, in fact, I found here -- and I got that for Passover. It was written by my uncle. So, they're funny stories what families have. And the family, when they settle here -- see, everybody knew how to sew. They had bright brides' gowns, for the bridesmaid and for the bride. And it was very funny, because they only have one size. And when the girl came in, my aunt used to pull from the back and said, "This will be okay for you." And next day, it was ready for her. So, it was funny. We have many funny stories 6:00from the family, both families.

CW:And did they come directly to Mexico or did they --

EAS:They stop in Veracruz and then they came to Mexico. They settle in downtown, of course, Calle Jesús María. All the Jews live in Jesús María, and the stores were in La Lagunilla, which was the -- like a market there. They had a market there. And they didn't have stores. They have -- it's called cajones [crates], it -- what -- they put up a stall or something, and they usually sell ties or socks or handkerchief. And they were peddlers. They went from one town to the other and they always sell abonos [on credit] -- I don't know how you say by -- I don't know how you call it, that you pay an amount and next month another. So, that's the main business.

CW:And can you tell me about the home that you grew up in?

EAS:I grew up in a, I would say, a modern Mexican home, because my parents came very young. They adapted to Mexico very quickly and they spoke perfect Spanish. And my mother sometimes had an accent like khigiene instead of higiene [Spanish: hygiene], que boyno [Spanish: how nice], things like that. But they adapted very well to Mexico. And in the homes is -- my father spoke Hungarian and my mom Yiddish. The language was Spanish. I always answer or spoke in Spanish.

CW:Did you hear those other languages, though, from --

EAS:Yeah, we hear Hebrew, and from my grandmother, I used to hear Yiddish. She used to -- she receive newspapers, the "Forward" from New York. She had two sisters in New York. They send the newspaper every week. So, she call me, my -- 8:00all my cousins said that I was the favorite, okay? I was. So, I sit down with my grandmother, and she used to read me all these stories. Like, "Listen, this is Tevye der milkhiker," or, "This is Bintel Brief," about letters, or whatever announcement. They are looking for a bride, they're looking for a husband. So, it was interesting to read. And she always mixed -- she didn't -- spoke Spanish. She always mixed Yiddish and Spanish, like if I want to go downtown and I need five cents, she said, "Nem a quinto far dem camión." "Take five cents for the bus." Or she had a friend, a Spaniard, who didn't speak Yiddish and she didn't speak Spanish. But every Friday, they went to the movies to see Mexican movies. And hand-in-hand, they walk, and my grandmother used to cry, "Oh, it was such a nice story." Says, "What's about?" "No, but it was so nice." They cry about the 9:00movie. So, it was funny.

CW:And where was your house versus your grandparents?

EAS:Very close. All the family live around -- we had a square with a big palm tree. All the family live around the palm tree. So, around five o'clock, everybody said, Let's go to the palma [Spanish: palm tree]. Let's go sit down in the palma. They gossip, they tell stories, and an hour later, they went home. Everybody brought in a kikhlekh [cookies], galletitas [Spanish: little cookies] or chocolates or candy. So, it was a large family, but everybody live around everybody in the Condesa, near the park in Mexico. That was already very modern, because they move from downtown to Condesa. I was born near the park in Mexico, in front of park in Mexico. We used to play down -- and there was a guy who rented bicycles. So, we went to Hilario, which was very famous, and we rented 10:00the bicycle. And when the time was over, he said, "Julio, Estela, give back the bicycles!" So, we went around -- my mom calls from the window, "Estela, Julio, come home!" So, it was a different Mexico. We were able to be free in the afternoon, after school.

CW:And by that time that you were growing up, were there any storefronts that your family had that you remember visiting?

EAS:No, they had to go downtown. But at that time, at one o'clock, all the stores closed and my dad came home for the siesta for two hours. And he didn't have a car or -- nobody had a car, but all the stores had to close from one to three, and then back to the -- to downtown.

CW:Can you --

EAS:But also, there were stores like di yidishe gesheft [the Jewish store] who 11:00sell salami or herring or pickles. And there was also -- the school was close by, around the corner.

CW:And your father's store, can you describe what it looked like?

EAS:It was marvelous. It was the best store in the world. He sell hats. All things for hats, like sequins or veils or flowers or feathers. So, when I went there, I dress up with all those things. And it was a marvelous store for me. Was like paradise, like being in -- out of this world, in Hollywood, yeah. And he used to sell all those feathers and sequins to the Indian dancers, the people who dance in the streets, or to the burlesque girls. They had all this hair -- 12:00how do you call it?

CW:Headdress.

EAS:Headdress. It was interesting. And he was very popular because he was very, very friendly. He was a football player, soccer player, with the club Atlante. When I say that, everybody said, How come with Atlante? What for -- Atlante was very amateur, but my father played with them, and all the players, all the soccer players came to the store to visit. And so, I met Dumbo Lopez, Horacio Casarín, and I remember many, many who became very important soccer players. El club Atlante, that's my favorite. (laughs)

CW:So, what were the marks of Jewishness in your home?

EAS:Everything, everything. We have Shabbat. My mom cooked everything. We went to my grandparents, the Hungarian parents for a blessing every Shabbat before 13:00Friday night. And we had Sukkos, we had -- every holiday was celebrated. Of course, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur. We went to the shul. It was a couple of blocks away, and it was a very funny shul, because upstairs were my family, the Hungarians, and some of the Galicianers. And downstairs were the Litvaks. And they didn't mix. Downstairs was another shul and upstairs was like a private -- for us.

CW:Can you tell me about Tarbut, the school you went to?

EAS:Yes. It was a very progressive school. Tarbut was founded by [Avner Halifas?], which came from the yidishe shul [Yiddish school]. There was a quarrel with -- I really don't know and cannot explain what was it, but many other people already did. He was an excellent, excellent teacher. We loved him 14:00so much. And I was one of the first fifteen students, I was the youngest. I was three years old. Why I was there, because my brother just was born, and my mother send me to school, which was one block away. So, in school, we learned four languages since kindergarten. English, because many families wanted to emigrate. Yiddish, because that's what they spoke at home. Spanish, of course, because Spanish is the language that we had to -- because of the Secretaría de Educación Pública [Spanish: Board of Public Education]. And Hebrew, because this was a Zionist school. Very Zionist, very. We learned in Hebrew geografiah, toldot, history, geography, the Torah. We translated Torah from Hebrew, from the Torah to modern Hebrew. And I took Hebrew for thirteen, fourteen years. And that 15:00was important. And I always thought Israel was in my future, but it didn't happen. But we are very -- I belong to the Shomer Hatsair, which was part of the school. I went to camp, Shomer Hatsair camp. It was a -- I think it was a very good school. But they didn't have high school, eleven and twelve. So, I moved to the yidishe shule for the high school. And that was my best part of -- here, I think I became free. I did nothing, and I discover boys, whatever. So, it was a fun relation-- still, we are friends -- every month, we meet, with that generation, we meet every month for breakfast, the last Tuesday -- Thursday in month. So, I had a good -- I think I had a good, very good education. And they 16:00taught me how to learn, and I learn many languages, which was good. And I met different people. I was never out of the Jewish environment till I went to Universida-- Universidad Autónoma, al UNAM. I study psychology, and then I married. I had five children, but after my fifth child, he cry so much because when he went to kindergarten -- that I went with him and I said, "I like this, I like kindergarten, I like teaching." So, I start studying again in Universidad de las Américas, and I finish a degree in education, in preschool education. And then, I went to Anáhuac University for a master's in education psychology. And now, I'm at IBERO, learning Yiddish. I always say that I am a professional 17:00student, forever.

CW:And so, even at the Tarbut, there was Yiddish?

EAS:Yes.

CW:Can you explain that?

EAS:There was Yiddish till 1948, with the Israeli -- when Israel became a state. So, they stop Yiddish, and they emphasize Hebrew. And it was -- I think it was a shame, but for me, since kindergarten hearing that and hearing with my grandma, something was there, Yiddish was there, yeah. And I don't think many people complained, but there was another crisis from the -- alte [old] yidishe shule became naye [new] yidishe shule.

CW:And when you were growing up, was -- did you feel any tension between the different schools and the different --

EAS:No, no. My friends, when we were -- well, because of the Montecito High 18:00School, which was Arab and Sephardi, which was Sephardic, they didn't have high school. So, they all came to Tarbut, to the Hebrew Tarbut. And all my friends were Arabs. I know all the bad words. They were Arabs or they were Sephardic or Ashkenazi. So, the sports center also was a very integrative place, that you mix with everybody. And all the dances, we went to dances with all the boys and -- from different communities. There is something very funny with my family. My dad had five sisters and they came to Mexico as young girls. But my grandfather said they have to marry to somebody who know Torah. And, oh, yeah. But there weren't many religious Ashkenazi boys. So, they all married Arab Jews who knew Torah. 19:00So, it was a mix from the beginning.

CW:And can you just explain about the Deportivo and what it is?

EAS:Deportivo is the greatest thing that the community has. It's a place for sport, art, music, theater, galleries. And it has a pool, an Olympic pool, has many, many sports. And I'm proud to say that my father was one of the founders. As I told you, my father was very social. He really didn't work so much, but he was social with Deportivo, he was social with the sports, especially with the sports. And he was one of the founders. And I remember when they were asking for donations for the sports center, I went to him many times to -- Sunday, to the yidishe shtunde [Jewish hour] -- there was a Yiddish radio. And they ask for -- 20:00we are building a Deportivo, we're building this. You have to donate, you have to buy -- we have to buy the land. And many people listen. Every Sunday, people listen to the yidishe shtunde with music, with announcement, people looking for families after the war. It was founded sixty-five years ago, is -- and it's an amazing place. And also, it's amazing, they have a large library, lending library. And they have a room full of Yiddish. They have every -- and they have many languages there.

CW:Did you have any other contact with Yiddish culture, like theater or --

EAS:Yeah.

CW:-- yeah, growing up?

EAS:Yeah, my parents took me to the place -- there were place in Mexico, there were also the -- Shumacher, the comedian from Argentina.

CW:Dzigan and Shumacher.

EAS:Yeah, Shumacher. Also, my friends, my generation, they were very involved in the Yiddish theater. Like, they put on "Chana" -- "Anne Frank" and other Yiddish theater or music. I didn't participate, but I was a, like -- support part. I came with a boy that I like, so that I came there. But Yiddish was very important. And also, they took me, very often, to the vaudeville in Mexico, to listen to the Mexican singers or to see all the feathers or whatever. And, yeah, theater was important in my family. And also, folk music.

CW:And what was the -- I mean, did you feel Mexican growing up?

EAS:Yeah, yeah. I was very patriotic. I remember every time I listened to the national anthem, I stood up, wherever I was. And I felt very patriotic, and I felt comfortable in Mexico. I never had any anti-Semitic demonstration or things like that. I felt very well, although I grew up in a small community. My first encounter outside of community was in UNAM. But it was fine, it was okay.

CW:And can you tell me, before we move on from your childhood, about the food that you grew up with?

EAS:Every Ashkenazi thing and Hungarian. We had goulash and we had pastries. I always make a joke that my grandmother used to make a cake. It's called [Hungarian - 00:22:56]. But nobody can equal the taste, because it tastes like a 23:00closet, because she kept it in the closet. We had [Hungarian - 00:23:08] and goulash and is it -- dobosh [Hungarian sponge cake] and all the -- they were excellent cooks, the Hungarians. And my mom was the Ashkenazi. Gefilte fish and trout and soup and --

CW:So, what was your favorite that you --

EAS:My favorite was something that my grandmother, my Polish grandmother did: pierogis. Pierogis with cream and they were potato pierogis, or she made excellent kikhelekh, galletitas, so --

CW:Looking back on that time, what do you think your parents and grandparents were trying to pass on to you?

EAS:They tried to pass Yiddishkayt and memories from the alter heym [Old 24:00Country]. They always talk about their alter heym or -- my mom, no, because she -- I think she suffer a lot in Jarosław. She suffer. She went to a Catholic school, and the Jewish kids always sat on the back with tseylem [crucifix] in the back. And she was very small, very tiny, and there's a picture that she's looking through the camera because she was in way back of the -- and she said she suffered a lot. And I went to the town, I went to Jarosław, and I went to find the house. One of my uncles still was alive and he told me how to get there. I don't know how he remember, because he was twelve when he came to Mexico. But he say, "You go to this -- Tarnów, Rzeszów, Przeworsk, and then fourteen kilometers out of Przeworsk, you will see Jarosław." I said, Nah, how could it be. When I came out of Przeworsk and I saw a sign, "Jarosław, fourteen 25:00kilometers," I almost faint. And he said, "Look for a church, the pan maryi [Polish: Lord of Mary] church. Turn left, two blocks, [Polish - 00:25:10] forty-four." And I found the house. I really found the house. It was there. And there was a lady painting the fence and I said, "Well, can I go in? Because my mom was born here." And she said, "No, no, no. Now nobody live here. Look somewhere else." She throw me away. And I said, "Well, okay, I understand." But I took pictures, and when I came to -- and I show my uncle the picture and he said, "Oh! They have cars!" (laughter) He left when there were carriages. And also, I went to my father's house in Sátoraljaújhely, and it happened to be a very famous house, because Kossuth Lajos [sic], which was one of the first presidents of Hungary, was born there. And there's a plaque that says Lajos 26:00Kossuth was born here. And my father used to joke and said, "No, no, no. They changed the sign because it says that Mundo Stern was born here." I said, "No." (laughter)

CW:What did you feel like when you were there, when you were in Hungary?

EAS:I felt good. I feel connection with my family, because I wanted to see the house. I say, I want to see the homes. It's too bad that I couldn't go in, but I want to feel their way of living, their style. And it was pretty well -- it was pretty good. I don't know. Well, one of the things in Jarosław that was really upsetting -- that the matseyves [tombstones] from the cemetery were used to pave the downtown. So, I felt sad in that. But any -- being there is -- I feel a 27:00connection with my parents and my grandparents.

CW:Was your father alive when you went?

EAS:No. Neither of them.

CW:Did you talk to him about going back? What do you think he would have thought?

EAS:Well, my dad went one -- he went with my mom. They traveled to Hungary, and they would -- my mom never wanted to go back. Never. She said she never wanted to speak in Polish, not in Polish. Yiddish was the language, that's it.

CW:So, I want to talk a little bit about where we are now and this project. So, first of all, how did you, having been at the Tarbut and not here very long, how did you get involved with the books here?

EAS:After I was working at the Universidad Anáhuac project, and I was in charge 28:00of the kindergarten program. It was sponsored by the Kellogg Foundation. For six years, they gave us a grant, a large grant, for the whole school. It was a school founded by Placido Domingo, after the big earthquake in Mexico, from K to twelve. And I was the coordinator of kindergarten, since I had a degree in preschool education. And I develop a program on the multiple intelligences by Gardener. So, it was an excellent program and I was able to do it in the school. But after six years, when the grant was over, they told us, Thank you ladies, goodbye, see you later. So, I came to the yidishe shule, to the director, [Raquel Klayman?], and I said, "Raquel, I have a wonderful kindergarten program. Can we do something in the yidishe?" And she said, "No, we have a very good 29:00program. But what can you do for first and second grade? And in Yiddish?" And said, "Well, first of all, I've never been in first and second grade. Second, I don't speak Yiddish. I don't know anything about Yiddish." "You will learn, you will learn." "Okay, do something." So, I start investigating what is the school about. And by chance, I went to the library and said, "What is this? This is marvelous." I don't know what they say, but I saw Darwin in Yiddish, Freud in Yiddish, well, Marx, and I saw those books and I said, "This is a treasure!" So, I went back to Raquel and I said, "Raquel, what can I do with all this?" She said, "Well, look for something for the kids." I said, "There's many things, but old-fashioned schoolbooks -- I would like to do something different." She said, "Well, can you develop a program with multiple intelligences in Yiddish?" 30:00(laughs) I said, "Okay, but you help me." So, I got together with the Yiddish teachers and they were helping me. That was a couple of years. And then, there was a new principal that came many years after, Remi Zohar. And first of all, I was volunteering, because I said, "I have things outside of the country." My husband at that time was very sick, so I said, "I want free time. I'll be volunteering." Perfect. So, Remi Zohar said, "Why don't you -- I'd like to do a merkaz ashkenazi [Hebrew: Ashkenazi resource center], a place where the kids in this school will learn about their Ashkenazi roots. Can you do that?" I said, "Yes." So, I did a program for sixth grade, seventh grade to twelfth on Judaica in Spanish. So, I went again to the library and start looking for books about the community. And I found many books about the community, so I have a special 31:00corner of material about that. That didn't came -- didn't realize, I don't know why, there was another principal who came to school, and he had other ideas. So, that program, the merkaz ashkenazi, was finished. But I stay in school, and -- as an education consultant in the elementary. I teach new teachers, I revise all the programs. I did workshops or seminars for the teachers. Yiddish, Hebrew, or Spanish. So, it was a good time for me. And for many years, I stop that. I travel. And then came another principal, Kalya, and he said, "You have to do 32:00something in the library. Would you -- willing to do something in the library? Because we're throwing everything away. If not, we'll throw them away. It's trash." And after twenty years or so, the library was in a mess. In a mess. Many books were destroyed, many books had moss. We had floods, we had dust. But I say, "We have to save these. What can we do with these books?" So, I made -- at the beginning, two of my friends, Shayndl Garalnik and Libele Lund Rappoport, which is in the picture with me, we start classifying, but very, very amateur. This I know, this I don't know. I know Sholem Aleichem, but this I don't know. This and this and this and that. And they were teaching me some literature. But if I didn't know a name or an author, I went to the encyclopedia or I went to 33:00YIVO, I went to many things. And I said, "We have to do something more important with these books." So, I send a letter to Aaron Lansky and said, "Are you willing to take about ten thousand books from the library?" And I send some pictures. He never answers, and a month pass by, another month pass by, and I think, six months later, he answered and said, "The answer is yes." Well, and so he contact me with you, and he said, "We are coming and get the books." Fine. In the meantime, we had another visitor. We had Justus Monkand from Holland who came to the library and said, "You have a treasure here. I want everything. I want to take them to Amsterdam." I said, "Wait, wait, wait." Now I have two -- what shall I do? And Liora said, "No, we have a commitment with the Yiddish Book 34:00Center and probably will send something to -- later to Justus." And he took a lot of books. But he show me that in the library, there were treasures. So, I said, "Okay. Let's look more carefully and with more knowledge and let's see what's in here." So, we start selecting and cataloguing -- very amateurly, but cataloguing poetry, theater, and music. Sholem Aleichem, we found four hundred copies. Peretz, we have copies. And then, we have very old books from Vilna and Varshah. And I start asking, "Who brought those books? What were those books?" Especially, I found interesting books like Lenin, in Yiddish. Here it is. Marx, my "Das Kapital," "Mayn lebn [My life]" from Trotsky. Socialism, anarchists, the Russian Revolution, Soviet Yiddish literature. What is this? Who brought those 35:00things? So, I get involved in research. So, I said, "I want to do a paper of this, because it's amazing. Who brought those books to the school?" And I start learning about the Bund and the ideology and the personality of every teacher in the school or every principal in the school. So, it start to make sense. So, we said, This is invaluable, this is very important. We have to take very good care of this. And last week, when we had our end of the first part of our program, people start criticizing us. "Why are you taking this out of Mexico? Why don't you keep in" -- I said, "Wait, wait, wait! We have enough to give everybody. We 36:00are keeping some in the school. We are sending some away." And for me, the best thing to do is to digitalize. I even went to -- I was looking for a book of Bella Chagall, and I found it on Yiddish Book Center. It's online, I print it, I have it, that's it. I was looking for the "Kishev makher fun kastiye [Witch from Castilla]," I found it, I have it. So, everybody can go in and do a little bit of clicking and will find. Also, interesting thing is the guys -- you saw the young students who came to help? Our slaves? They came to help and when I show them, "Look, I have found a Julio Verne, "Viente mil leguas de viaje submarine [Twenty thousand leagues under the sea]" -- "Who is Julio Verne? What is this book?" And they start to say, Oh, that's cool. Que buena onda. That's the 37:00expression. "That's cool." And I think I started to have them feel something about the Yiddish. I don't think Yiddish will be taught again in this school, but probably outside of this school or in another form, translations, or digital, or whatever. I don't know what.

CW:Can you give an example of some of the treasures that you found especially interesting?

EAS:Of course, of course. I found this, which is "Mayn lebn" from Leon Trotsky. It's in Yiddish. It's a translation. It's printed in Poland in 1930, 1930 in Poland. So, for me, it was hard finding something -- especially, I have -- I 38:00finish reading a book about Trotsky in Mexico and how he was murdered. And mainly, the story about the assassin, Ramón Mercader. So, for me, this is -- well, this is here. Another book I found is "The Life of Lenin," Nikolai Lenin. And it's also printed, I think, in Poland, with his picture. And I had found the Marx, "Das Kapital." And it, "Das Kapital," it was printed in 1918. And something interesting: I want to talk about the library cards. In the eight thousand books that we opened, each one, one by one, we found empty library 39:00cards, except five. And five of them were teachers that I knew: Lererke [Teacher] Bergman, Lererke Kleinberg, Lererke Balk, and a friend, Avram Tafelov. I don't know why he got two books. The five books, five library cards taken out from eighteen thousand volumes -- it's amazing. Maybe the Spanish, they have some more, or English. But the Yiddish, in twenty years, nobody took them out. And the library was there. There was a lady last week who told me, "Because Yiddish is not taught in the school anymore." I said, "It doesn't -- care. But Yiddish is around and the library was open." Who came to the school to see what's there, till we, sneezing and coughing and being sick, we got to the library and start saving books. It was -- I have a metaphor. It was like being 40:00in a -- naufragio [shipwreck], how you say in -- under the sea and found a treasure trove of Yiddish words. So, for me, was eye-opening. Was really amazing.

CW:So, can you explain why you're interested in the socialism books in particular?

EAS:I'm not socialist. But by chance, I am now taking a course with the Yiddish Book Center, "Soviet Yiddish Literature from the Soviet Revolution up to the Death of Stalin." Why I am interest? Because I'm a learner. I like to learn new things, not because -- and when I found those books, my main interest was not about the books, but about the people who read them. Who were they? Why are they in school? Who else was in charge of this subject? And it's interesting, they 41:00came from Poland, they came from Warsaw, from Vilna, from many places, in their suitcases. And why? Why? So, I'm doing some research. That's my main interest. If we see Japanese books, probably I'll be interested in Japanese culture, yeah?

CW:And what was it like for you to sort of come back to Yiddish in a way for -- after being that involved?

EAS:It was a nice thing. I think it's nostalgia, as I said the other day. We are a group of people my age who learn Yiddish or who knew Yiddish. And they have a nostalgia. We don't want to lose it. And since we start talking about Yiddish literature and so many fine language in there -- my favorite, for instance, is 42:00Sholem Asch now. I have read three books of Sholem Asch, two in English, one in -- struggling in Yiddish. But his language, his way of describing things -- very deep. I like Sholem Aleichem, I like Peretz, I like Sutzkever, the songs, all the folk songs. And I don't -- maybe it's nostalgia, because I'm getting old and I've tried to remember my grandmother, or sitting there eating the cookies and listening to the stories. And it's a nice feeling. And also, as I tell them, I'm a student, I'm a learner, and I want to learn things.

CW:So, in Mexico today, where can you find Yiddish?

EAS:There are private places. Private, like -- well, IBERO, IBERO has a reading 43:00group. It's not an academic group. It's a reading group. We read, we talk, and it's funny, when something -- we'll read "[Di mishpokhe kenifotski?]," that -- the wife wanted a raykhe khasene far di tokhter [fancy wedding for her daughter]. So, we start talking about our weddings. "Did you have a raykhe [fancy] wedding or another wedding? What did you wear? Where did you have your dress? How many guests at your wedding?" So, we start talking about the subject -- will come out of the book. There's another place in the Yiddish vinkl [group] that is here. And they tried to revive the Yiddish, also, as a -- I don't know if it's academic or no, but it's about talking about Yiddish and remembering Yiddish. And I think there are some other places, two or three places. It's just 44:00for conversational Yiddish. But not many young people. Not many, just Tali in their group.

CW:From your point of view, why do you think Yiddish stopped being taught in the schools?

EAS:I think it was practical reasons, not because they hate Yiddish or anything. I think the school had to evolve and teach more technology and computers. And for computers, you need English. And the new, the modern pedagogic shul ways, you need English. And, of course, Israel and Hebrew was very prominent, and Zionist. Still is. Although we stay in Mexico -- but we are pro-Israel. So, Yiddish was an extra, was optional. And after being optional, they start losing interest, no? And also, there weren't enough teachers. The teachers from the old 45:00seminar were passing out, passing away, and the new teachers are learning Hebrew. There's Universidad Hebraica -- but teaches not Yiddish, but Hebrew. And I think it wasn't a choice of, I don't want them or -- because they want to throw away the towel. No, it was a choice of practical reasons, I guess.

CW:And what does Yiddish mean to you?

EAS:Yiddish means alter heym, means family, means remembering sweet things. Remember at school, school years. Because I did learn it -- well, I didn't learn Yiddish -- I went to Yiddish class when I was in high school here. But the teacher, Shoshana Bergman, let me answer in Spanish, because I didn't have the 46:00language. And it was really fascinating. Things that I never heard about the Jewish history in Europe. I never heard that. I only heard history in Israel or Biblical history. And for me, it's remembering good moments, good times. And with my husband and my mother-in-law, I spoke only in Yiddish. It's very interesting that my mother-in-law had Alzheimer's for ten years. She was like furniture: couldn't talk, couldn't anything. But when we put folk songs, Yiddish folk song, she started to hum. (hums) And she had a beautiful song, "Rozhinkes mit mandlen [Raisins with almonds]." It was amazing to hear how music was still in her brain.

CW:Wow. Is there anything else you want to say about these books and this project?

EAS:This project was hard work, but I'm very proud of it and very proud of all these boxes. They have a little bit of my knowledge there and my learning there. It's -- I think it was a great project. Very tiring. We all sneeze and cough, and now it -- and sore throat. But I think it's worth it. I think it is worth it, and I hope somebody will be able to save something from this, no? And we have more books. You know that the sports center has a full room of Yiddish books? Nobody is interested in looking at the sports center. Why? I don't want to do that job. It was really a tough job. But it was very fulfilling, very fulfilling.

CW:What do you see or hope for the future of Yiddish?

EAS:Very few, very few. I don't know if -- after my generation or -- will be able to do something for the younger generation. The children don't know Yiddish. We don't speak Yiddish at home. Never spoke Yiddish at home. My husband never went to a Yiddish school. So, I don't think we passed anything. We pass the tradition. We pass maybe -- not even the religion, but the tradition, the food, the environment, the kehile [community], the belonging. But we didn't pass the Yiddish. And maybe very few people, very few families are doing it. And I think young people involved in this is very commendable. It's wonderful what they're doing. And maybe, maybe they'll start speaking Yiddish with their children.

CW:Well, a groysn dank [thank you very much].

EAS:A sheynem dank [Thank you very much]. It's been my fargenign [pleasure].

CW:(laughs) Yeah, it's been a fargenign far mir oykhet [a pleasure for me too].

[END OF INTERVIEW]