Brandeis planned to put its Yiddish program ‘on hiatus’ — until the Yiddish community spoke out.
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Citing financial stress and low classroom enrollment of approximately eight students per class, Brandeis had decided to put its Yiddish program “on hiatus” at the end of next year, when the students already enrolled in Yiddish would graduate, after which Ellen Kellman, Brandeis’ sole Yiddish professor for almost 30 years, would likely lose her job.
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Brandeis Yiddish students past and present fired off salvos of emails to Jeffrey Shoulson, Dean of Arts and Sciences, urging him to intercede with the president and provost. Ignited by a call to action in the Boston Yiddish Culture and Klezmer Community WhatsApp group, Yiddishists in the area wrote to Brandeis administrators and tried to explain the beauty of the language, and the danger of throwing a treasure overboard to lighten the financial load.
Not yet a month after learning the news that Brandeis would end its Yiddish program, “Profke” Kellman received an email: impressed by the barrage of emails and letters the school had received in support of Yiddish, President Arthur Levine and his advisors had decided to allow the program to continue. However, there would be limitations: Only two Yiddish classes would be taught each year instead of four, alternating between one year of introductory courses and one year of more advanced levels.
After Harvard downsized their Yiddish education last year, not great to see Brandeis do the same. There’s a relatively vibrant Yiddish scene here in Boston, so I wonder if age interest just isn’t aligning for college students.
