A Jewish resort in the country for Yiddish speakers of all ages
Each summer, the Yidish Vokh hosts a week filled with workshops, campfires, arts & crafts and sports.
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Rukhl Schaechter May 24, 2023
Imagine a Jewish resort in the mountains where graduate students are playing board games and children are splashing in the swimming pool. Senior citizens are listening to dynamic lectures under a large maple tree.
Now imagine them doing all this in Yiddish.
The Yidish Vokh (literally: Yiddish Week), which is sponsored by the Yiddishist organization Yugntruf, has been hosting retreats like this for 48 years. It’s one of the only events outside the Hasidic community for Yiddish speakers of all Jewish denominations. The guests spend an entire week together engaging in a variety of recreational activities, while improving their Yiddish-speaking skills.
The annual event takes place on the grounds of the Berkshire Hills Eisenberg Camps in Copake, New York, along a natural lake surrounded by the Berkshire Mountains. This year the it will be held from Aug. 16-22
All meals are under kosher supervision, with vegan and gluten-free options available. Participants seeking shabbos services can choose between an Orthodox or egalitarian minyan. Others can join a group hiking in the nearby woods.
First-time registrants get a 15% discount.
In the evenings, the guests gather in the theater for a special activity. It could be a college bowl (called freg-geshleg in Yiddish) or a Yiddish version of the game show Family Feud. Or it could be an evening of folk dance and tango accompanied by professional klezmer musicians, or a talent show.
For guests who have no car, there is a bus leaving and returning to midtown Manhattan.
To get more details about the Yidish Vokh, or to sign up, click here.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
