Article by Barnard Senior Ester-Basya Vaisman published in Forverts, the Oldest Continuously Published Yiddish Newspaper in the World

New York, NY, October 2, 2002—An article by Ester-Basya Vaisman, a Barnard senior, appears in the latest issue of Forverts, the oldest continuously published Yiddish newspaper in the world. The article, titled "How many Yiddish speakers are there in the U.S.?", analyzes the current demographic trends in the American Yiddish-speaking population—a decline in the number of secular language carriers who immigrated to the US from Europe— and the rapid growth of a fraction of American-born Yiddish speakers from the Orthodox religious communities. Vaisman’s analysis is based on the newly released results of the 2000 U.S. Census and data from previous censuses.

Vaisman, who will graduate in 2003 with a major in Linguistics and Yiddish, is also the President of the Yiddish Club at the Columbia/Barnard Hillel and founder and vocalist of the Columbia Klezmer Band, a performing ensemble that has played with great success at concerts and festivals in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Vaisman is an active member of the international organization Yugntruf - Youth for Yiddish and was featured in an article on the New York Yiddish revival in the July issue of Blueprint magazine. In the previous two summers, Vaisman has worked as an intern in the Hebraic section of the Library of Congress and participated in the Institute for Public Affairs of the Orthodox Union Congressional Internship Program in Washington, D.C. This fall she begins work for the "Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry" project at Columbia.

To view an online version of the article, visit the Forverts website at http://yiddish.forward.com/092702/yiddishworld.html.

Contact: Cindy Pulver, Office of Public Affairs, 212-854-2037
Petra Tuomi, Office of Public Affairs, 212-854-7907