Charles Infeld – On South Florida Jewish Culture

Partial Transcript: Charles begins by talking about where he and his wife were born. They were born in Poland, the city of Lodz. They went to school together. Charlie and Rose came to the United States 56 years ago. They went to a Yiddish school. They were educated in Yiddish where they learned the Yiddish language, Yiddish literature, and Yiddish poetry. They have been together for 66 years. The couple has 2 sons in California.

Partial Transcript: Charles talks about his life in New York. He is a printer and worked 10 years at the New York Times. He joined the Worker’s Circle in NY, he also joined a Yiddish speaking branch of the Worker’s Circle. He became the secretary until he came to Florida. He met a few people from New York and they organized the only Yiddish speaking branch of the Workmen’s Circle in Florida.

Partial Transcript: Charles talks about his father. His father was active for many years in the Folkspartei, Folkists, party. His parents sent him to a private school, they paid for his education. He received a well-rounded education. Yiddish was the main language but there was some Polish.

Partial Transcript: Charles talks about the Yiddish Theater coming to his town. As a kid for 50₵ he saw Yiddish theater, standing room only. Many theaters came to his town. Lodz is the second largest city in Poland. 450,000 Jews lived there. They had a beautiful Yiddish life there.

Partial Transcript: Charles tries to remembers some of the Yiddish actors he saw. The Yiddish actors traveled all over the world. Lodz had Yiddish newspapers, Yiddish journals, Yiddish books were published, and there were Yiddish libraries.

Partial Transcript: Charles talks about the work his parents did. They had a grocery store. They had a middle class life. The middle class were people who owned their own businesses. There were unions in Poland, shoemakers, hat makers just like the US.

Partial Transcript: Charles talks about coming to the United States 56 years ago. The arrived in Boston and moved on to New York.

Partial Transcript: Charles talks about being in the Holocaust. He was on the Russian side and the German side. Charles does not want to talk about it. He doesn’t want to forget about it but he doesn’t want to talks about it. His whole family was destroyed. Rose’s family also disappeared. Hitler destroyed the people who spoke Yiddish. People who spoke Yiddish for the last thousand years were destroyed.

Partial Transcript: Charles talks about feeling an obligation to keep Yiddish alive. Charles worked both in New York and Florida to show people Yiddish is alive. They have concerts, Songs of the Jewish people. 90% of the people did not know Yiddish but they loved to hear it.

Partial Transcript: Charles discusses the Institute for Yiddish Culture and what they did. They had weekend events with Yiddish culture and atmosphere. There were lectures one in English and the other in Yiddish. There was Yiddish music. There were lectures about world events. There was folk dancing and music. There was a variety Yiddish activities. There was a Yiddish feeling, Yiddish taste.

Partial Transcript: Charles talks why he thinks the Institute closed. Charles talks about the difficulties of running big events and all the work involved.

Partial Transcript: Charles describes what he thinks is the cause of the disconnect between generations. Charles feels there is no foundation for the Yiddish community in the United States because people are Americans. He talks about how immigrants felt in their homeland and how that changed when they came to the United States. Charles discusses his sons and how they lost their ability to speak Yiddish. If the language is spoken by the adults the children will speak the language.

Partial Transcript: Charles expands on why Yiddish is no longer spoke in America. He feels there is no foundation. The deterioration started 30 – 40 years ago. Before Hitler the Jewish people of Germany spoke Yiddish. The German Jews felt threatened so they stopped speaking Yiddish. He feels that Yiddish will not come back. Yiddish is a beautiful language the poems, the spoken words everything about it beautiful.

Partial Transcript: Charles talks about Dr. Barnett Zumoff the director of the Worker’s Circle in New York. He was a translator of books, and poems from Yiddish to English. Charles quotes Dr. Zumoff from an article Dr. Zumoff wrote for the The Forward, “I hope Yiddish will be with us as long as I am alive”

Partial Transcript: Charles talks about why it is important for the next generation to know Yiddish. It is a part of Jewish life, Jewish existence. But not everyone has a feeling for it. Life is different now. Charles wants people to realize Yiddish was part of his life.