Yiddish

The conversation on one of Vilnius’s busiest streets would have been common enough 60 years ago. Two men are sitting over coffee, and discussing old times in Yiddish.

Before the Second World War and the Holocaust, it was hard to walk ten steps in Vilnius without hearing Yiddish. Back then, the city was roughly half Jewish, and one of the most vibrant centers in the world for Yiddish and Jewish scholarship.

But today, with so few Yiddish speakers left alive, the discussion is being recorded for posterity.

It is for this reason that Dovid Katz, a renowned professor of Yiddish, moved to Lithuania permanently in 1998. His mission is