Department of Germanic languages and literatures

U of T student's internship highlights importance of cross-cultural teaching and learning

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 14:56:17 +0000

U of T student's internship highlights importance of cross-cultural teaching and learning

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 08/31/2021 - 10:56

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Odel Jaji, a fourth-year human biology student minoring in chemistry and Jewish studies, recently participated in a new internship program “Yiddish in the City” (photo courtesy of Odel Jaji)

Sean McNeely

Topic

Our Community

Department of Germanic languages and literatures

Faculty of Arts & Science

Humanities

Undergraduate Students

University College

As part of a ��Ƶ internship program, undergraduate student Odel Jaji recently taught a group of children at a local Montessori Jewish Day School – discovering connections to her own Assyrian background in the process.

A fourth-year human biology student minoring in chemistry and Jewish studies as a member of University College, Jaji found the opportunity through the department of Germanic languages and literatures in the Faculty of Arts & Science and its iPRAKTIKUM initiative, which includes a new program called “Yiddish in the City.”

“Odel set such a great example because the Jewish culture she connected the kids at MJDS with was not the one she had grown up with herself,” says Helena Juenger, the department’s student placement co-ordinator.

“We love seeing how these intercultural connections benefit our students far beyond the classroom.”

The University of College student worked with MJDS students online twice a week for 30 minutes from January to June.

“Because I’m minoring in Jewish Studies, this was an opportunity for me to learn more about the culture,” says Jaji, who conducted her own research and learned alongside the students she was teaching. “That was one of the most important and fun parts of this internship.”

“It might seem like a weird combination, but I was always interested in sciences and learning about new cultures and religions outside of my own,” adds Jaji, who is originally from Iraq and came to Canada with her family when she was 14.

As a first-time teacher, Jaji soon realized holding the attention of 10-year-olds isn’t easy. She had to get creative, using trivia games, videos, crafts, colourful costumes and other tools and props to get her lessons across in a fun and engaging way.

“I was a bit nervous at the beginning,” she says. “But the teachers there are really friendly – the way they welcomed me was amazing.”

Jaji taught her young pupils about Jewish culture such as holidays, cultural traditions and small language lessons, such as teaching them the months in Hebrew. She was struck by the similarities between Hebrew and her native language, which originated among the Arameans in the ancient region of Syria and has been spoken across the Middle East for 3,000 years.

“The names for the Jewish months are actually Babylonian in origin,” says Jaji. “Aramaic was spoken in Ancient Babylon along with other languages. For example, in Hebrew the month of July is called ‘Tamuz’, which comes from Aramaic word meaning ‘heat’.

“My favourite lesson was on Tu B'Shevat,” she adds. This Jewish holiday falls in January or February depending on the year. It’s a tribute to ecology that is celebrated by planting trees, seeds, creating a garden or other community activities.

Though Jaji says she loved giving the lessons, the internship wasn’t without its challenges. “Some of the kids didn't want to join in, they didn't want to participate, so I felt like I was doing something wrong,” she says. “But the teachers were always there to help me.”

Others, she adds, were a little too eager and bombarded her with questions. “They want to learn, and they're really excited at the same time, so you have to be patient,” she says.

Yet, the experience was overwhelmingly positive.

“Some of the kids were really having fun,” she says. “At the end, one of the girls told me, ‘I'm going to be really sad when this ends.’”

The more Jaji taught, the more she was struck by language parallels.

“I found so many similarities between Aramaic and Hebrew, and it got me really excited to learn more about the language and culture,” says Jaji. “Aramaic is one of the oldest languages in the Middle East and not a lot of people speak it anymore. They have so many similar words, I actually understand a few things if I listen to someone speaking Hebrew. For example, saying ‘thank you very much’ in Hebrew is ‘toda raba’ and in Aramaic it’s ‘todi raba.’”

In any language, Jaji encourages students to get over any shyness and consider taking part in internships.

“Go for it, I highly recommend it,” she says. “The iPRAKTIKUM internship was one of the most positive and rewarding experiences for me. I learned a lot, especially with my communication skills because English is not my first language. I learned to be more open. It also gave me the opportunity to be more confident.”

An example of her newfound confidence: Jaji recently created a YouTube video sharing her experience at MJDS – something she wouldn’t have dreamed of doing earlier.

Songs from the past: U of T researcher's work leads to Grammy nomination

perry.king — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 16:41:37 +0000

Songs from the past: U of T researcher's work leads to Grammy nomination

perry.king Wed, 02/06/2019 - 11:41

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U of T's Anna Shternshis and a group of musicians have been nominated for a Grammy for their world music album Yiddish Glory, based on material created by amateur authors during the Second World War (photo by Perry King)

Perry King

Topic

City & Culture

Department of Germanic languages and literatures

Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies

Faculty of Arts & Science

An album of long-lost Yiddish songs – discovered by a ��Ƶ scholar at a library in Ukraine – is up for a Grammy award this weekend.

Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of World War II, nominated in the Best World Music Album category, grew out of a restoration project led by Anna Shternshis, the director of U of T’s Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies.

The album consists of songs originally written by amateur authors during the Second World War – women, orphaned children, Soviet Jewish soldiers and others – and tells stories of abuse, poverty, racism and discrimination. But the material was lost for decades until Shternshis discovered it and brought it back to life with the help of Russian singer-songwriter Psoy Korolenko and musicians brought together by Toronto-based producer Dan Rosenberg.

Shternshis’s son, Isaac Rosenberg, performed three songs on the project, including “My Mother’s Grave,” written by a 10-year-old child from Bratslav, Ukraine. Rosenberg was just 12 when he recorded the songs, making him the youngest nominee of the ensemble – and one of the youngest Grammy nominees ever.

“I was shocked,” says Shternshis of the moment when she learned the album was nominated for a Grammy. “I almost fell off a chair.”

That said, Shternshis understands why the music drew significant attention, beginning with San Francisco record label Six Degrees, which released the album.

“They took this project because they believe the dangers of anti-Semitism are so real now, that they need to do something about it,” Shternshis says. “The project, when we pitched it, resonated with them.”

The album's source material was originally compiled by a team of ethnomusicologists from the Kiev Cabinet for Jewish Culture, led by the folklorist Moisei Beregovsky. But Beregovsky and his team were arrested in 1950 amid increasing anti-Semitic campaigning by Josef Stalin’s regime. They were ultimately sent to Siberia and the musical archive was thought to have disappeared with them.

In 2005, Shternshis was tipped to the existence of the archive at Kiev's Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine and acquired them in 2010. It took a few years before she was looking for creative ways to present the material – a challenge that Korolenko, who holds a doctorate in Russian literature, was well suited to take on. Shternshis and Korolenko began working together in 2013.

“My goal was to tell the story of experiences of Russian Jews during the Holocaust and [Korolenko’s] goal is that people don’t fall asleep during the presentation,” Shternshis says with a laugh.

A page of lyrics from folklorist Moisei Beregovsky's musical archives, discovered by U of T’s Anna Shternshis (photo by Perry King)

The project received significant buy-in from the music industry. Rosenberg, the producer, marvelled at the material when he first encountered it during a 2015 presentation at Toronto's Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre.

“I thought ‘These words are incredibly moving, the stories are heartbreaking and at times uplifting,’” says Rosenberg, who helped Shternshis and Korolenko connect with other musicians.

“But this idea of how much they suffered – [it] seemed like we had to do something so this work wasn’t in vain.”

Shternshis recalls Rosenberg remarking that the story told by the songs was so compelling that it went beyond what one usually associates with academia – or, for that matter, a musical production.

“He said ‘You have the potential to bring these worlds together.’”

At Rosenberg’s suggestion, the project tapped a number of prolific contributors. They included: U of T alumna Sophie Milman, a Juno award-winning jazz musician; composer Sergei Erdenko, who helped create multi-instrumental arrangements for the songs; and Alexander Sevastian, an accordion virtuoso who lived in Richmond Hill, Ont.

The world premiere of Yiddish Glory took place on Toronto radio station Classical 96.3FM via a live concert at their Toronto studios.

For the collaborators, the project was not only about music, but language. Many Yiddish native speakers were killed during the Holocaust or were greatly suppressed in Stalinist Russia.

“The fact that Yiddish is not an everyday vernacular of a majority of Jews means that it’s an endangered language in some way – a language that has values and issues that were relevant to Jewish people before, and they’re being lost if we don’t do something about this,” says Shternshis, who compared the language’s decline with Indigenous languages in Canada.

Language was certainly what motivated many of the artists to take part in the project, according to Rosenberg. “These stories, to them, this is their heritage – this is what all of their families went through,” he says.

“This is a very important part of history to be told, in such an unconventional way.”

Shternshis, who will be with Korolenko for a special lecture-concert about Yiddish Glory at Moscow’s Jewish Museum & Tolerence Center prior to Grammy night, is grateful for the recognition. She sees the nod as having an impact in academic circles as her colleagues begin to collaborate with artists on other projects.

“It’s not just a conversation about a fun way to do research, but it’s actually ‘Well, maybe that’s what we should be thinking about in an era when students are not so excited about reading long texts,’” she says.

It’s Shternshis's flair for the creative that impressed Rosenberg, who calls her a “revolutionary.”

“This wasn’t an ordinary project, an ordinary recording,” he says. “Nobody thought it would get recognized – but we all wanted to make sure that these people didn’t go to the Gulag for nothing.”

Read full translations of each song on Yiddish Glory here.