A Bisl

June 29, 2021 Klipsun Magazine

“A little bit” more from “Sweet as Honey,” with an in-depth look into the lives of two Yiddish speakers in Bellingham.

Photo Essay by Eva Bryner

David Schlitt, Manager of Special Collections at Western Washington University

Left: David Schlitt stands outside his Lettered Streets home in Bellingham, Wash. on May 17, 2021. Schlitt has lived in Bellingham for the past four years. Right: Schlitt stands on the second floor of his home in front of his collection of books.

“As I became a more rebellious teen, my way of rebelling — I guess that says more about me — was to study Yiddish as opposed to Modern Hebrew. What we [were] learning about in school in no way reflects my family life or my experience of Jewish life at home.”

Schlitt’s bookcase, filled with the selected works of Lenin.

“Yiddish literature, critics and scholars have said, is something that really was catalyzed by women readers.”

Left: In Schlitt’s top-floor office, piles of books, movies and posters line the walls. Right: In the upstairs hallway, Torah study books sit beside yearbooks and comics.

“You don’t have to be a brilliant speaker or scholar or whatever to learn a few songs, have people over, drink wine, play cards and sing a song to somebody, [try] something new.”

Left: Jacob’s chair sits empty in front of a bookcase. The chair was painted by a friend of Schlitt and given as a gift. Right: Sarah Zarrow, Schlitt’s wife, works from Jacob’s room while a painter removes old paint. Zarrow is a professor at Western and has been working at home during the pandemic.

“Teaching Yiddish at Western and in general, you walk a really fine line knowing that you want people to have the community experience, but you also want to be respectful of people’s time … My class, a lot of it is about exposing people to something they can take and run with later in life.”

Left: Schlitt joins a meeting from home while Jacob’s toys cover the living room on May 17, 2021. Right: On the mantle, family photos and nesting dolls sit under Schlitt and Zarrow’s wedding Kebutah.

Maggie Weisberg, Resident of The Willows

The Willows Life Minded Residence is quiet on the sunny spring day of May 17, 2021.

“For a long period of my life, it was Hebrew that I felt focused on. I didn’t come back to Yiddish actually, until I moved to The Willows and discovered the Yiddish group, which I joined out of curiosity, I still was not particularly interested in Yiddish, but the Jewish heymishkeit — the sense of being together with Jews — was important because that’s my strongest identity.”

Top: Maggie Weisburg sits in the living room of her apartment, surrounded by plants. She has lived at The Willows Lifeminded Residence for 12 years. Bottom Left: A decorated gourd hangs on Weisburg’s front door under her name. Bottom Right: Weisburg glances out the window from her chair. A wall of Indigenous artwork from her trips to Canada hangs proudly behind her.

“I’ve never really been good at learning languages … but I think it’s important to keep the [Yiddish] language and the culture alive.”

Top Left: A bowl of candies sit on the table in the corner of Weisberg’s apartment, surrounded by two clown figures. Top Right: Weisburg sits at her table and shares the stories behind her family photos in Bellingham, Wash. on May 17, 2021. Bottom: Weisburg gazes at the photos covering her fridge — from grandchildren to portraits, each photo holds a memory.

“I’m surprised that my sons and my grandkids — wherever they are, and they’re all hikers and environmentalists, but Shabbat comes and they light candles and say the Bracha, and I never did that. So it’s interesting to me that they have maintained that feeling and tradition.”

Pointing at a photo of her grandchildren, Weisburg shares that they made the Star of David frame it proudly hangs in.

“[Yiddish club is] a sort of a social group where we just talk Yiddish and exchange experiences. There used to be an older couple who lived in Brooklyn, and so often there was an exchange of memories of growing up in Brooklyn and New York and what life was like in those days.”

Left: Staff members of The Willows gather at the front desk, greeting visitors and residents in between arranging schedules in Bellingham, Wash. on May 17, 2021. Right: Weisburg’s photo hangs underneath a welcome sign at The Willows alongside her fellow residents. In her photo, Weisburg wears a raincoat and a smile.