Aaron Paley
Ruth grew up in a Yiddish speaking milieu of Eastern European Jews, an experience that shaped her world view and her actions throughout her life.
When Ruth changed her name from Hirschman to Seymour in 1993, she referenced her paternal great grandfather, a khasidic rabbi—Reb Simkhe of Pultysk
Her father, born in Eastern Europe and a young child immigrant to America, became a socialist and an atheist who venerated Eugene Debs and believed that property was theft. She described her parents’ “small Bronx apartment … filled with intense discussion and argument…about politics, journalism and literature.” Ruth describes how “from the time she was seven, [she] was given a remarkable education in the rich secular tradition of Yiddish cultural life.”
What she took from that upbringing was a fierce desire to make a difference in the world. This desire was rooted in her community who believed that to be Jewish was to be an active participant in the struggle to make this a better world. Tikun ólem. They were part of a massive movement of Yiddish speaking Jews, in coalition with other Americans, who led strikes to organize their fellow workers into unions, who fought for a forty-hour week, and who dreamed of a better day – not just for their own children, but for all the oppressed peoples of the world.
Ruth’s parents, Jack and Sylvia, were deeply involved in an organization that espoused all of these ideals – the Arbeter Ring, the Workmen’s Circle.
Ruth attended Arbeter Ring schools or shules which met after the regular school day was over on Wednesdays and Saturdays. In shule, she learned about Jewish history as part of the struggle that was occurring during her own childhood – a time when people fought against fascism not only in Nazi Europe, but here in the States as well with the rise of the McCarthy anti-communist era. These values were taught through history, Yiddish, song, and through a secular and progressive interpretation of the Jewish holidays where each date has a story to tell about how Jewish values and history are part of a worldwide struggle for human rights.
Ruth at Camp Kinder Ring, 1952
Like many kids in the Arbeter Ring, her parents also sent her to summer camp at Camp Kinder Ring. It’s here where Ruth first meets the acclaimed Yiddishist and scholar, Max Weinreich the co-founder of YIVO, the most important organization ever created for Yiddish. YIVO’s first offices in Vilna were in Weinreich's apartment. Weinreich managed to escape to New York by 1940 where he helped re-establish Yivo, still a thriving institution to this day, and he became professor of Yiddish at City College of New York.
And that’s where Ruth studied Yiddish as a 17 year old freshman in 1952, at CCNY with Weinreich, the most venerated Yiddishist of the 20th century. This was another guiding experience for Ruth, an experience that stayed viscerally with her always.
When I met Ruth in person in 1986 for the first time, over dinner at one of her favorite spots, Warszawa on Lincoln, she told me about her studies with Weinriech as we exchanged notes about our love for Yiddish and I was flabbergasted to learn that she had studied with this legend.
For that matter, Ruth too was legendary in my childhood home where the radio was always tuned to 90.7 KPFK and where Ruth’s exhortations to give during those early fund drives were an inspiration.
Ruth’s example and her enthusiasm and support helped me launch my own initiative for Yiddish which embodied the values that Ruth and I shared. That project, Yiddishkayt Los Angeles, was fiercely supported by her and KCRW on the air and through many conversations we had together over the years.
These elements of Ruth’s life informed and defined the woman that we honor today. The principle of making a difference in the world, something her Arbeter Ring teachers endlessly repeated was central to her being. Making a difference – a theme embedded into the progressive Jewish interpretation of Chanukah that Ruth annually celebrated on air with Philosophers, Fiddlers and Fools. Making a difference – a cornerstone of her Yiddish identity - imparted to the world through her vision and programming, that we all embrace.
