ENGLISH CORNER, CON LINDA JIMÉNEZ – This week’s trivia question: What is the biggest challenge that Yiddishland faces because of their teachers being located all over the world?

YAAANA, the  Yiddish Arts and Academics Association of North America, is dedicated to the promotion of Yiddish language and culture by offering low-cost Yiddish language classes, theater workshops, song workshops, lectures, and Jewish holiday celebrations to the broader community. Based in San Diego, California, their mission is to expand awareness of the beauty of Yiddishkeit, as well as to preserve and advance Yiddish language and culture within the United States.

Jana Mazurkiewicz is the founder and President of YAAANA and a PhD candidate in the Slavic Department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is working on her dissertation on Yiddish Theater in Communist Warsaw. Originally from Poland, Jana holds a Master of Arts degree in Polish Philology and Jewish Studies from the University of Wrocław. Jana is not only a practicing academic but also an active theater artist and critic. She is an actor, director, playwright, and producer of Yiddish theater.

This week she is speaking with us about YAAANA and their exciting new project, Yiddishland California. You can watch a short video (which is lovely) of the projected shtetl here.