Al Weinstein – On Miami Jewish Culture

Partial Transcript: Al Weinstein introduces himself and gives some background information about his about himself. He grew up in Brooklyn NY, went to school in NY, graduated from Brooklyn College, and went into the Army for 4 years.

Keywords: Brooklyn College; Brooklyn, NY

Subjects: Al’s early years

Partial Transcript: Al discusses his teaching career. He became a teacher in the NYC school system. Al was a teacher in the science department at the Washington Irving High School and he was also an adjunct professor at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. He became interested in political life and Jewish secularism. Al always belonged to a Conservative Temple and his children a Reformed Temple.

Keywords: Washington Irving High School; NYC school system

Subjects: Al’s teaching career

Partial Transcript: Al talks about coming to Florida in 1977. He explains how he felt retirees were getting ripped off. He contacted the Workmen’s Circle in NY and started a branch in Delray Beach, Florida. Al discusses what he did to help the retirees in his area and how the organization grew. When he first came to Florida there were 22 branches and slowly they have died out.

Keywords: Workmen’s Circle Delray Beach Florida.; Workmen’s Circle, NY

Subjects: The beginning of the Delray Beach Florida Workmen’s Circle

Partial Transcript: Al talks more about his personal history. His parents came from Kovel Poland. Al talks about his father’s religious life. His father was part of the new generation of Jews in Russia and Poland called the People of the Haskalah, The Enlightenment. Al’s father was a secular Jew who attended synagogue on the high holidays. Al felt caught between a religious secular father and a religious mother. He recognized the great value of the morality of religion rather than the mythology. He mentions his favorite lecture which is the biblical roots of secularism. Al feels he is neither a fundamentalist religious nor a secularist.

Keywords: The Enlightenment; the People of the Haskalah

Subjects: Al’s talks about his parents

Partial Transcript: Al talks about his connection to the Jewish culture. His first language was Yiddish he never realized there was an English language. Al talks about his first day at school. He was surprised by the fact that the kids spoke English. He was grateful for his Socialist father and his religious mother. He felt that religion brought everyone together in the 21st century.

Keywords: Jewish culture

Subjects: Al’s early days in school

Partial Transcript: Al goes back to talk about his father’s family. They were all, but his first cousin Bella, wiped out in Kovel Poland. She came to America and shared the horrors she saw. Al is grateful that his dad came to America in 1915 because they would have been part of the Holocaust. His dad read in Yiddish, his library was Yiddish. Al became aware of Yiddish culture because of his dad’s strong attachment to Yiddish literature. His dad knew a lot about American literature through Yiddish literature.

Keywords: Holocaust; Kovel Poland

Subjects: Al’s father and Yiddish culture

Partial Transcript: Al talks about the fact that his dad was a socialist and had Al always thinking in a liberal way. Yiddish was fundamental to his dad. Al joined the Workmen’s Circle because he felt it would help sustain Yiddish culture. Charlie Infeld was the Executive Director and Al was the Chairman. The Cultural Foundation was started in 1986 and disbanded in 2005. Al was chairman of the Foundation and also the entire region of the Southern Workmen’s Circle.

Keywords: Cultural Foundation in Florida; Socialist

Subjects: Al’s father’s socialist beliefs helped Al become a liberal

Partial Transcript: Al talks more about the beginning of his involvement in the Workmen’s Circle. By starting the Workmen’s Circle in Florida Al felt he would be able to give benefits to retirees they never realized they had through Medicare. He never realized how widespread the Workmen’s Circle was. He is hoping some young people might become interested in Yiddish culture and help keep the organization going. It has basically become a fraternal organization. The young who are joining are in their late 60s and 70s.

Keywords: fraternal organization; Workmen’s Circle

Subjects: Why the Workmen’s Circle started in Florida and how they hope to keep it going

Partial Transcript: Al discusses the pool of Yiddish artists. He feels they are dying out. The Yiddish is being translated into English in the NY theaters. Al mentions artists that he would be surprised if young people knew of them. Borofsky and Shoshanna are just a couple. It was the dominant culture that took over. Al discusses what he thinks has contributed to the loss of the Yiddish culture. The lack of speaking Yiddish he feels is the biggest problem.

Keywords: Borofsky; NY theaters; Shoshanna; Yiddish artists

Subjects: Why Yiddish is dying out

Partial Transcript: Al mentions the book repository in Amherst MA. There are over one million Yiddish books held there. But who reads them?

Keywords: Repository, Amherst, MA

Subjects: The Yiddish book repository in Amherst, MA

Partial Transcript: Al explains how the Workmen’s Circle has worked to retain the Yiddish culture. 100 –150 people attend the meetings and they are asked to send Yiddish entertainers. The response is “there are none”. If a speaker comes to a meeting and speaks in Yiddish only half the people attend. They struggle to get people to join the Workmen’s Circle. The younger generations have no interest. Even in NYC, the membership has reduced.

Keywords: Workmen’s Circle; Yiddish entertainers

Subjects: The decline of Yiddish culture and membership in the Workmen’s circle.

Partial Transcript: Al talks about the Yiddish club in his community. It was run by a Yiddishist who understood that American Jews did not speak his kind of Yiddish so he interspersed English with Yiddish. This man had many people come to meetings. When he died a strict Yiddishist took over and attendance dropped.

Keywords: Yiddishist

Subjects: Yiddishist

Partial Transcript: Al talks about other places and their Yiddish clubs. They use an American Yiddish. The young people use phrases they have learned from their parents, but this is not true Yiddish. Al and Charlie feel this is vulgar. Al feels that they are losing a wealth of culture.

Keywords: American Yiddish; Yiddish clubs

Partial Transcript: Al talks about the Shul where approximately 40 kids attended. The parents never became involved. It was more like a drop-off Sunday school. The kids were introduced to Yiddish through the holidays, but it was not a great success. The kids did learn a basic history of the Jewish people, the music, and dancing. They were also taught about religion from a secular point of view.

Keywords: religion form a secular point of view; Shul

Subjects: The Shul

Partial Transcript: Al says Hebrew has been kept alive because it is used on the streets of Israel. People speak Hebrew to each other. It is kept alive because people speak it and read it.

Keywords: streets of Israel

Subjects: Hebrew is alive

Partial Transcript: Al discusses the migration of the Jewish community from Miami Beach. Al feels they did not leave Miami during the revitalization. They stayed until the very end. When they were forced out of their homes they moved to other parts of Miami Beach, they moved to Kendall, Florida. The people who moved from the Miami area were not true Yiddishists.

Keywords: Kendall, Florida; Miami Beach; Migration

Subjects: The migration of the Miami Jewish community

Partial Transcript: Al talks about the value of the Yiddish language and why the younger generation should learn it, speak it, and remember the Yiddish legacy. Yiddish is part of the cultural past and it is important to know the past. Knowing the past helps to know the present culture. Yiddish is a wealthy culture. Al mentions the World of Our Fathers by Irving Howe which outlines the Yiddish contribution to the United States. Al feels his knowledge of and use of Yiddish helps him to understand his past. He talks about the curiosity of the younger generation and the knowledge of Yiddish will help the younger generation to learn about their past. Al mentions YIVO in New York City where people can go to learn about the Jewish past.

Keywords: Irving Howe; World of Our Fathers