The concept of Yiddishland illuminates one strategy that a widely-dispersed people can use to maintain its identity while lacking a discrete territory: grounding its culture not in a physical space but in a shared language. Similarly, the idea of Yiddish architecture points to ways that Jews in the Diaspora, lacking political power and everywhere a minority, nonetheless left their imprint on the landscapes they inhabited. Paradoxically, it shows how Yiddish culture - defined by the intangible factor of language - may be enriched by the study of concrete architectural and urban forms. Yiddish speakers marked their environments aurally, as historically the language could be heard in any neighborhood where Ashkenazi Jews resided. Many residents (including non-Jews) referred to streets and landmarks there by their unofficial, distinctive Jewish names.
The language was also made visible on announcements and advertisements posted throughout Jewish neighborhoods. By the turn of the twentieth century as language choice became politicized, supporters of Yiddish encouraged shop owners to include the language in their displays as a symbol of Jewish national pride.
In the same period Jewish activists created a range of new political and cultural movements whose ideological innovations were reflected in the built environment. Groups such as Diaspora Nationalists (who wished to strengthen a Jewish national culture in the lands of their residence) created a network of new institutions that included trade unions and newspapers, schools and summer camps, libraries and theaters. Most activists lacked the resources to erect new facilities and so existing structures were adapted to Yiddish cultural functions. As they were shaped by new users committed to the Yiddish language, we may argue that these buildings became a kind of Yiddish architecture.
Director of Jewish Studies at Bard College
Cecile E. Kuznitz discusses the main principles of Jewish architecture and speaks about cases when supporters of Yiddish culture did sponsor new construction purpose-built to house their activities. Examples Cecile touches upon span the geographic breadth of Yiddishland, from secular schools in Poland to cultural centers in Israel to housing co-operatives in New York. A close examination of their physical forms reveals points of commonality such as a shared commitment to the Diaspora Nationalist principle of doikeyt [hereness]. While diverse in their stylistic choices, their designs reflect the interplay of various cultural and political influences and thus shed light on the dynamics of Yiddish culture. While they may not present a definitive definition of Yiddish architecture, such examples can help us to extend the concept of Yiddishland and understand the impact of Yiddish on the built environment.
Architect, urban researcher and artist
Natalia Romik speaks about post-Jewish architecture of memory within former eastern European shtetls with a specific focus on Poland. She discusses the processes of architectural disappearance, urban remembrance, and functional change in the context of dramatic social upheaval. She presents her extensive research of the former shtetls, i.e. Jewish towns that once spanned throughout central/eastern Europe before the Second World War.
After the war they were repopulated by people of other nationalities who started to live in and reuse previously Jewish properties. Today the traces of the former Jewish populations have all but disappeared, not only from urban reality, but also from public discourse and social memory. Natalia’s research work and artistic practice aims to formulate a design method, which reuses abandoned architecture, promotes social cohesion and stimulates urban regeneration, while facilitating processes of social remembrance and enables reconciliation with a tragic past.
Artist
Hagar Cygler presents her work
I Will Try to Draw a Sketch of the Property As Best As I Can, But Please Don't Laugh created from found photographs, mostly from Israel and Poland, and short texts, combined together in a double sided puzzle. The imagery and text reflect the entangled and conflicted history of Poland and Israel, through the story of a 150 years old apartment building in Lodz that Hagar recently inherited.The narrative she grew up in in Israel offered her a historical righteousness and with it - in the context of current matters of housing rights, gentrification and other socio-political issues - came a sense of discomfort when questions of ownership, power and guilt arose. The project was first shown in Łódź Poland and later adapted for online format to be a part of Yiddishland Pavilion. In the panel Hagar Cygler discusses her visual and textual research of this specific place, exploring the complexity initiated in personal and collective histories.