Like the ad said, you don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s Yiddish.

This was taken at our last weekly Shabbes “tish” – Yiddish for table, a sort-of traditional Friday night gathering in which we light candles, say kiddush and hamotzi, then eat & drink whatever anyone’s brought: Herring, cheese, salad, wine, vodka and something that the label identifies as “legal Lithuanian moonshine,” which I’m developing a definite taste for.

Then, led by a couple of our more vocally gifted classmates, we sing Yiddish songs.

I’m standing next to Anna and Lothar, both from Bavaria. To my far left are Weronika and Aga, from Warsaw and Wrocław, respectively. All four, Germans and Poles, speak better Yiddish than I do, and probably better than you. As far as they know there’s not a Jew in any of their families (although Aga’s husband is a Jewish Brit, if that counts.)

Anna, Weronika and Aga are all pursuing graduate degrees in Jewish studies and have studied in Israel as well as Europe and/or the U.S. Lothar is a retired banker, learning his fifth or sixth language pretty much just for the love of it. Great group, but it’s pretty humbling for a mediocre Hebrew-school graduate like me to hang with them. The way I speak it’s almost a shande far di goyim.