A word on Yiddish

As much as I love all things German and German-related, as many affectionate memories from my childhood as the language and culture bring up, I cannot quite bring myself to love Yiddish in the same way.
I am taking a Yiddish culture course this semester- yes, yes, I know. You gape. I was really just looking for a fun class, and I audited an hour of this one, and loved the prof, so I stayed. It has proved to be pretty fascinating, actually. When I was a kid, I went through a phase of intense interest in the WWII period, specifically the Jewish experience. I read every book I could get my hands on about Jewish persecution in and escape from Europe. Of course, they were mostly the well-known classics, since my family really doesn't know anyone Jewish:
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
Number the Stars
The Chosen
Nie Wieder ein Word Davon?
The Diary of Anne Frank
My Name is Asher Lev
The Hiding Place (which is WWII related, if not exactly about Jews)

I guess those aren't really that many books, but they stuck with me, the way books from your childhood do, forming your conception of the world. I liked these books in great part, I think, because I identified with the Jews. They were constantly displaced, never at home, relying on their nuclear family to maintain their identity (just like me and my family), and they belonged to a much much larger population which was scattered, like them, and would always welcome them (similar to the missionary community). Also, they clung to their traditions in a similar way to how I clung (cling?) to my family's ideas & values. But because my family doesn't know anyone who is Jewish, I never got to really learn about their culture. Their mysterious traditions which never fully explained and which comforted them and gave them the reassurance of home, intrigued me. Plus, they're such a dichotomy. They are the people to whom God chose to reveal himself first, and through whom he gave his Son to the world, but they reject that fulfillment. It's like they are both mythical history and modern reality, both the harbringers of God's true relationship with man and the ones who reject it the most strenuously. I want to understand them, rejoice in their heritage with them, and cry over them.
In my class, we've been watching Yiddish films. The thing about Yiddish film is that it often inserts traditions whole. Today I decided that I would really like, if I can swing it without offending anyone, to attend a modern-day Jewish worship service, and see how it compares to the portrayals in these movies. I would like to be there when the history that so shapes my life is pulled forward into modern times for a few brief hours.
Ahem! I'm not quite sure where that tangent came from... oh, yeah. Why I took that class in the first place. :P The other thing I wanted to say about the Yiddish films, and the thought that prompted my writing this post, was about the actual language. Yiddish. After watching two movies (we've seen more, but only two were filmed in Yiddish), a total of four hours, of people actually speaking Yiddish, I am about to go crazy. The language is 60% German. The structure, and LOTS of the vocab is German, so it teases my brain into thinking "I should understand this, this should be easy! If I just concentrate hard enough, it will come to me!" - and then I do, and it doesn't. It was fun at first, to see how much I could understand. It still is fun, when I catch a phrase, or a sentence, or a structure that I know. But it's also pretty frustrating. Heh, I think I must've kicked into learning-a-language mode, because watching those movies was exhausting, as only immersion language learning can be. :P
That's about it for tonight, folks. Hope you enjoyed the rant, and if not, well, don't keep reading next time. =)
over 'n out.
E.O.