The Cape Jewish Seniors Association recently hosted our annual Ot Azey Yiddish week.
Once again, we were thrilled with the attendance, with the participants including young adults and our beloved Clara Gersholowitz, whose input and contribution to the sessions was so valuable and appreciated.
Our visiting teachers were Rochelle Winer from Durban, who prepared lessons for those who have a good knowledge of Yiddish; and Tamar Alswang from Johannesburg who took the beginners. The advanced class was under the guidance of Clara and participants were certainly privileged to have her input.
Guest appearances this year were Fazia Shaskolsky, who performed an English and Yiddish dialogue of Sholem Aleichem; and Barry Braun accompanied by Harvey Citron, who encouraged the group to sing as he entertained with a selection of Yiddish songs.
Claudia Braude spoke about the new Jeruselem library, which encourages archiving of historical family documents; and Jason Toay explained the ancient tea drinking ceremony in Yiddish. Luckily Sybil Castle was available to step in to assist Rochelle when she took ill.
As usual delicious meals, synonomous with ‘der Heim’ were prepared and the tea times were social with conversations including a smattering of Yiddish. CJSA certainly is playing its part in keeping Yiddish alive!