Speaking Yiddish with Rabbis

The Unlikely History of Yiddish in Salem County, New Jersey



SCHEDULE

Session 1 - The Old World
Where did the original settlers of Alliance, New Jersey come from and what was the world that they left behind like?
Date: Sunday, March 30, 2025
Time: 11am EST
Register online

Session 2 - Arriving in the New World
The journey to Salem County, New Jersey and what the settlers found when they arrived.
Date: Sunday, April 27, 2025
Time: 11am EST

Session 3 - Building a Farm Community
The settlers of Alliance were not farmers. How did they start an agricultural society?
Date: Sunday, May 25, 2025
Time: 11am EST

Sessions 4 - 6 will be announced soon


ACRe is hosting a series of discussions titled “Speaking Yiddish with Rabbis.” 

Our resident teacher Rabbi Lazer Mishulovin, native Yiddish speaker and translator, will lead a series of six Sunday morning discussions about the story of Jewish immigration to Salem County, New Jersey, first in 1882 and again after the Holocaust. The course will explore the Yiddish culture and lifestyles of the settlers and how they assimilated into modern America.

The meetups will take place by the newly completed Alliance Mural, a striking backdrop and dedication to the immigrant survivors.

Salem County logo

ACRe was awarded a History grant for Special Programming through the 2025 Salem County History Re-Grant program.

Read more about the History Re-Grant program.

Meet the Team

Rabbi Lazer Mishulovin

RABBI LAZER MISHULOVIN serves as a Rabbi at Sons of Jacob of Vineland, NJ. He is also a professional Yiddish translator and researcher, helping families uncover their ancestral history by deciphering old Yiddish letters, journals and memoirs. Rabbi Lazer Mishulovin was born and raised with Yiddish in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. He wrote for the Yiddish paper, The Algemeiner Journal and taught adult Yiddish classes in New York and Chicago. Rabbi Lazer currently teaches at Cheder Chabad of Philadelphia.

Malya & William Levin

MALYA & WILLIAM LEVIN founded the nonprofit organization Alliance Community Reboot in 2014, dedicated to rebuilding farm-based Jewish community in South Jersey.

As a great-great grandson of Moses Bayuk, leader of the Jewish Alliance Colony founded in 1882, and a grandchild of Holocaust survivors, William is using his historic family farmland as a setting for meaningful engagement and exploration of the rich history and culture in Salem County.

Malya is a lawyer admitted to the NY and NJ Bars, and is Assistant Director and General Counsel at the Weinberg Center for Elder Justice, the nation’s first elder abuse shelter. In 2018 Malya was named one of New York Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36.” Malya has taught courses and lectured on Jewish topics and texts.

New Jersey Historical Commission logo

This program is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the Department of State, through the Salem County Board of County Commissioners & The Salem County Cultural & Heritage Commission.