Progressive Judaism has celebrated its first Yiddish Bas Mitsve service with a member of Kehilla North London leyning her portion and giving a Dvar Toyre in the language once deeply embedded in Ashkenazi Jewish culture.

Tamara Micner, 39, who teaches Yiddish, told the JC: “I loved it. I really appreciate the community were up for it. My students were there; my father was there; ten of us who speak Yiddish attended.”

As part of the Stoke Newington community, she sometimes reads the Haftorah in Yiddish while congregants follow the English translation. 

Kehilla North London celebrates Tamara's Yiddish Bas Mitsve (Photo: Lexi Clare Photography)

Canadian-born Tamara said that her interest in learning Yiddish was sparked by her friends and family. “I had friends on the Jewish left who spoke Yiddish, and I naturally became part of that environment.

“I wanted to have my language back. I felt that it was taken from me. I heard it when I was growing up and I just decided I wanted to learn my ancestral tongue. I wanted to speak Yiddish with my Bubba while she was still alive, which I was able to, and now my father and I speak Yiddish together.”

Tamara came to the UK from Canada in 2010, and in 2019, she began her Yiddish educational journey. “I had about eight months of in-person learning at SOAS and then Ot Azoy , [the Yiddish course] which is run by the Jewish Music Institute.”

Before World War Two, there were between 11 and 13 million Yiddish speakers, and many of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust had been fluent in Yiddish.

According to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, only seven per cent of British Jews currently speak Yiddish fluently or to a significant extent, the majority of whom live in Charedi communities.

Tamara said that while it had been “a joy” to learn Yiddish, it had also been “challenging and emotionally complex”.

“This is my language, I clawed it back from Sheol (abode of the dead), from the gas chambers. I can assure you it has not been a walk in the park, learning a language which was almost wiped out in attempted genocide.”

Tamara Felisa Micner Guincher (left) in English and Yiddish play Yankl and Der Beanstalk

Tamara also shared that “as an Ashkenazi Jew I see it as an alternative to modern Hebrew, and it helps me feel connected with our culture and history. I see it as part of my inheritance.”

Away from shul, Tamara is a playwright and performer and has helped to re-establish a Yiddish theatre company in London. Around 20 people are currently, involved including some professional actors.

The playwright said: “Yiddish theatres were common in the East End back in the 80s and 90s. I simply just wanted to bring it back. We have held four workshops, and they have so far been successful.”