By JoAnn C. Adkins | Photo by Ben Guzman ’11
Professor joins forces with the owners of a Miami Beach hotel to revive an endangered ancient language
A
sher Milbauer has never been ashamed
reintroducing Yiddish into the lives of those
speak the language — many stopped, some
to speak aloud in Yiddish.
who dared not speak it for decades.
in fear of antisemitism and others because
The child of Holocaust survivors,
Milbauer was born in post-World War II
••• On a recent rainy Sunday morning, people
they chose to assimilate, conversing instead in the language of the countries where they
Soviet Union. He never met his
casually walk into The Betsy South Beach
found refuge. Over time, the number of
grandparents. They were all killed in
hotel for a conversation. They don’t speak
Yiddish speakers dwindled, and today fewer
concentration camps. Many of his aunts
Yiddish to one another. Many don’t speak
than 1 million people speak the language,
and uncles were too. He knows the life of
Yiddish very well, some not at all. Most are
about 250,000 in the United States.
exile. As a child, his parents taught him
eager, however, to say hello to Milbauer. The
Most of those are from Orthodox Jewish
and his two brothers Yiddish even though
soft-spoken English professor with a faded
communities. UNESCO currently defines the
it was suppressed in the Soviet Union.
Eastern European accent is not one to call
language as “definitely endangered.”
For them, it was a matter of pride, a matter
attention to himself. But those arriving at
of preservation.
The Betsy for the monthly Yiddish salon look
of FIU’s Exile Studies Program. Milbauer,
upon Milbauer with admiration and affection.
fluent in Yiddish, Hungarian, Russian,
language,” Milbauer said. “That love — as
After all, he is helping them regain something
Hebrew and English, founded the program
a language of resistance and language of
they once thought lost.
within the College of Arts, Sciences &
“They instilled in me a love for this
exile — has stayed with me all my life.”
Prior to World War II, approximately
The Yiddish salons at The Betsy are part
Education seven years ago. The owners of
11 million people spoke Yiddish worldwide.
The Betsy hotel have long been supporters
once ashamed or afraid to speak in their
Of the 6 million Jews murdered during the
of the program. Jonathan Plutzik and
mother tongue. With the help of the owners
Holocaust, as many as 5 million were Yiddish
his sister Deborah Briggs are resolute
of The Betsy South Beach hotel, he is
speakers. After the war, some continued to
advocates for arts and culture. They are the
But Milbauer knows many Jews who were
Continues 16 | SPRING 2018
