An academic challenge born of love: Yoni’s remarkable Yiddish result

Article by Miriam Hechtman originally from Plus61J (January 28, 2021): An academic challenge born of love: Yoni’s remarkable Yiddish result - +61J (plus61j.net.au)

Aged just 15, Melbourne student Yoni Ringelbum got an almost perfect score in last year’s VCE exams. Miriam Hechtman talks to her about a rich Yiddish family heritage

IF YOU SCROLL DOWN the Victorian Assessment and Curriculum Authority’s (VCAA) High Achiever Data Study List 2020 you’ll find one single entry on page 183, the last page in the ‘Languages’ section. It reads: Languages – Yiddish – 47 – RINGELBLUM Yoni – Sholem Aleichem College Community Education Centre Inc, Elsternwick.

For those unfamiliar with the VCE scoring system, a study score of 47 is three less than the highest possible score of 50. What’s not included on page 183, however, is that Yoni Ringelblum was a 15-year-old King David School Year 10 student when she began VCE Yiddish, she studied the subject after school hours through Sholem Aleichem College Community Education Centre (SACCEC), predominantly on Zoom, with a mixed class of students ranging between ages 15 to 70s, all in the time of Covid.

“It’s very important to me that I keep learning Yiddish,” says Ringelblum, whose family all speak Yiddish at home. “I chose to study Yiddish because it’s a way to connect with my grandparents who aren’t alive and to my grandmother who is still alive, and to feel more connected to my Jewish identity.”

Yiddish is Ringelblum’s first language, her mamaloshen, though she was born in Australia, as were her parents. Aside from picking up on English words at family gatherings or with friends, Ringelblum only learnt English when she started pre-school, and later primary school, at Sholem Aleichem College.

Though this may seem unusual for a second generation-born Australian, she says she “never felt different to other kids.”

Her father grew up speaking Yiddish at home with parents who had fled Poland after the Holocaust. Pinie Ringelblum, her paternal grandfather, was a principal of the I.L. Peretz Yiddish Sunday School and one of the founders of the Sholem Aleichem Day School.

Her mother’s parents emigrated from Europe to Australia prior to the war, though growing up, her mother spoke only a little Yiddish at home.

German-born Paula Boltman, Ringelblum’s maternal grandmother came to Australia in 1939 and was deeply involved in Yiddish theatre after the war. With the overall theme of immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries, Ringelblum focused on Jewish immigration to Melbourne between 1939-55 and how theatre impacted immigrants as part of her Oral Detailed Study for Yiddish.

Legendary Yiddish stage star Rokhl Holzer was her grandmother’s principal mentor and Ringelblum centred on the two women and how their stories intertwined. With her grandmother still alive, Ringelblum was able to interview her and include original photos and brochures from the plays.

I think that whoever does speak it, it’s important for them to pass it on their children and to those who they surround themselves with.

Though Ringelblum sees similarities with other languages she has studied, including French and Hebrew, she recognises that, “a lot of the humour, the culture of Yiddish, you can’t get in another language. So unless you know the actual language you can’t fully understand some of the stories that are written in Yiddish.”

As an example, she references Fiddler on the Roof, author Sholem Aleichem’s Yiddish story, ‘Ṭevye der milkhiḳer’. “While obviously the playwrights who wrote ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ were very talented, I think the real essence of the story can only truly be understood in Yiddish.”

Choosing Yiddish as a VCE subject was an obvious choice for Ringelblum given it is her first language but the teenager also appreciates her role as guardian of the language. “Because I do know Yiddish, it is my responsibility to uphold Yiddish.”

While she acknowledges that not many people speak the language, she says those who do speak it are passionate about it. “So I think that whoever does speak it, it’s important for them to pass it on their children and to those who they surround themselves with. It was the language spoken by many Jews for so many centuries and by letting go of that language you’re losing a part of Jewish history and Jewish culture.”

While the playwrights who wrote ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ were very talented, I think the real essence of the story can only truly be understood in Yiddish.

As the youngest student in the class, Ringelblum says she enjoyed and benefited from her motley crew of peers. “I got a lot of input in term of ideas and the older people’s life experience, their input in the class, helped with my understanding of the language.” She also credits her teacher Reyzl Zylberman for doing an “amazing job teaching over Zoom”.

As for advice to future language students, Ringelblum recommends reading as much as you can to improve your vocabulary and grammar, and of course to speak the language. “At home we speak Yiddish and sometimes we revert to English unfortunately. But recently I’ve tried to be more conscious of it and switch into Yiddish (when we forget) especially for my younger siblings to prepare them for when they want to study Yiddish.”

Ringelblum says she wants to study Yiddish at University and overseas courses, and beyond that she wants to be a teacher or study medicine.

Photo: Yoni Ringelblum (left) in a Zoom learning exchange with teacher Reyzl Zylberman