Located in the heart of La Jolla, Yiddishland is a small storefront that represents something much bigger. It is the physical location of the Yiddish Arts and Academics Association of North America (YAAANA), a nonprofit that holds classes and events on Jewish culture, languages, and “some aspects that people don’t talk about,” said Jana Mazurkiewicz Meisarosh, founder and president.

“Political, social aspects, all kinds of topics. Sometimes people suggest a topic to us and then we will address it. That’s basically how we grew.”

Mazurkiewicz Meisarosh is originally from Poland and has lived in San Diego for six years. She is a Ph.D. candidate in the Slavic Department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where her dissertation is on Yiddish Theater in Communist Warsaw. She opened the Yiddishland space last October.

“This place performs many functions. We’ve been around for about five years but this is our first physical location,” she said. “We chose La Jolla because it has a growing Jewish community and we feel it’s so walkable, people can easily find us, and [there are] so many art galleries. We belong here, in a sense.”

YAAANA offers classes in Yiddish, Ladino, Hebrew, Polish, Russian, and other Slavic languages, mostly online but also in-person. They are very accommodating to all sorts of language learners and have over 60 Yiddish teachers to achieve different goals and cover all dialects.

“I think what’s even more important is the events because it gives people who are not Jewish the exposure to the culture,” said Mazurkiewicz Meisarosh. “Everybody is welcome; it doesn’t matter who you are, including kids.”

Events include a Valentine’s Day concert with a performer who sings in different languages. They have a “dirty Yiddish” class, a Jewish musical cabaret, and events for holidays. The location is small but can serve many functions. They also utilize outdoor locations to be more accommodating of social distancing.

The walls are crowded with art for sale, both from Eastern Europe and local San Diego artists.

“As you see, it’s eclectic,” she said. “We have different styles represented… the more the better.”

For YAAANA, Yiddishland is only the start of a much bigger project. Mazurkiewicz Meisarosh’s ultimate goal is to have a recreation of a shtetl, a village where Jewish people lived in Eastern Europe before World War II.

“What you see now is just one of the rooms this shtetl would have and the big plan would be to build a kind of hotel that would be a museum at the same time,” she explained.
There would be a stage they could recreate weddings and other ceremonies, as well as more art and antiques. Depending on the zoning, people might be able to live there.
“But ideally, in my mind at least, we would have some rooms for the tourists and some rooms for visiting scholars and students so they could learn through immersion,” she said. “Because we don’t have shtetl here, people don’t even know what it is.”

YIDDISHLAND

Where:1128 Wall St.

Info: Yiddishland holds 50 events a year; and is currently looking for volunteers and interns. View the list events, and of available positions at yiddishlandcalifornia.org.

Contact: [email protected], 619-719-1776.