Basner Yakov (1927)

Basner Yakov (1927, Riga) — teacher, lecturer, translator. In the 1930s he studied at the Jewish gymnasium of I. Berz. From July 1941 to May 1945 he was a prisoner in the ghetto and the concentration camps of Kaiserwald, Stutthof, Buchenwald, Litomerice, and Theresienstadt. After liberation he returned to Riga, completed secondary school and a telecommunications technical college, and until his emigration worked at a municipal services enterprise, studied Yiddish in the informal group of Yiddish expert A. Barmazel, and later taught Yiddish in private groups. In 1980 he emigrated to the USA. He completed a training course and received a teaching certificate from San Diego University. He teaches Yiddish at the California Institute for Yiddish Language and Culture, the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles, Workmen's Circle classes, and various groups at community centres and synagogues. He lectures on Jewish culture, literature, and language at clubs and cultural centres in California and other states, and participates in Yiddish theatrical productions. Since 2000 he has been president of the Jewish Culture Club in Seal Beach. He has taught specialist courses in Zurich, Berlin, Riga, and Israel. He has received many awards: the HIAS prize, certificates of appreciation from several California Jewish organisations and education boards, the Workmen's Circle Council award “For Loyalty to Yiddish Culture,” and a special resolution from the California Senate district.

I. Brod