League for Yiddish
The League for Yiddish is a global, non-profit membership organization that promotes and encourages the active use of the Yiddish language in all areas of daily life. It is a charity with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, incorporated in the State of New York, U.S. The members of its board of directors and its staff live in the United States, Canada, and Israel. The League for Yiddish is one of the few secular Jewish organizations in the world that carries out nearly all its activities – from public events to staff meetings – in Yiddish.
History
The organization was founded as the Freeland Territorialist League of America for Jewish Colonization in London in 1935 and incorporated in New York State in 1942. The Freeland League advocated for the creation of Yiddish-speaking Jewish territories in every country in which Jews were present.With the cessation of its territorialist activity decades earlier, the Freeland League officially changed its name to the League for Yiddish on September 13, 1979, in order to continue its focus on promoting Yiddish as a living language.
Organizational goals and programs
The goals of the League for Yiddish are to:- Encourage people to speak Yiddish in their everyday life;
- Enhance the prestige of Yiddish as a living language, both within and outside the Yiddish-speaking community; and
- Promote the modernization of Yiddish.
Publications
The organization's publications include the following.Afn Shvel is the League's magazine and the only all-Yiddish general interest magazine currently in print. The magazine was originally founded in 1941 as the voice of the Freeland League; with the dissolution of that organization, the magazine likewise changed its content and presentation. Today, Afn Shvel is the world's oldest, continuously published print Yiddish magazine. Selected articles published in previous issues of Afn Shvel are available for digital download on the organization's website. Its editors have included the following.Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary.Motl Peyse the Cantor's Son, an abridged and adapted edition of the children's stories of Sholem Aleichem.- A variety of textbooks, graded readers, and Yiddish materials available through the League for Yiddish's website.
Yiddish Resources
- Video documentaries include "A velt mit veltelekh: Shmuesn mit yidishe shraybers".
- "Words of the Week", a series of terminological word lists in Yiddish, is posted weekly on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the organization's website, and emailed to member donors.
- Seminars, lectures, and live and/or online cultural events are featured on the League for Yiddish's YouTube channel. Regular uploads showcase original Yiddish content, including interviews with young Yiddish writers and other personalities in the Yiddish sphere, readings of literature, as well as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts.