Main content

A resurgence of Yiddish?

A question for anyone considering making a new life in another country with a different language: would you stick with your mother tongue or gradually push it aside and speak it less, so as to assimilate and try to master your new hosts' language?

This is one of the major themes of a new play by Rokhl Kafrissen which recently premiered in New York - in Yiddish.

The play is called 'A Blessing' - or 'A Brokhe' in Yiddish - and it's about Jewish refugees arriving in America after the Holocaust. Weekend's Paul Henley has been speaking to Rokhl about it - first we hear a short extract from the play, in which the two protagonists discuss fascism.

(Photo: Ben Rosenblatt (Kas) and Yelena Shmulenson (Dora) in "A Blessing". Credit: Andrew Dyck)

Release date:

Duration:

6 minutes