Activist Spotlight: Aaron Castillo-White

To learn Yiddish is to commune with spirits. It is both a language, and for many Ashkenazi Jews, myself included, a tether to our past, to ideas, people, and worlds of which many no longer exist. 

But for the ideas and organizations that do persist, like the Workers Circle, one can see a blazing light of history with a clear-eyed vision for a future that lives up to Jewish and secular beliefs alike, beliefs rooted in: equality, human dignity, and the pursuit of a fair and more equitable society. 

I began my Yiddish journey in earnest seven years ago, partially in honor of my grandparents, and out of a desire to share the passionate ideas that animated Jewish life in Yiddish newspapers, essays, and literature.

Today, that passion has led to my work in Los Angeles through my organization Kultur Mercado, alongside a growing cohort of people eager to revitalize Yiddish language and culture. With my friend and fellow Yiddishist, Rabbi Zach Golden, founder of Der Nister, we have launched Der Zunenshtral (The Sunbeam), a monthly newsletter connecting Yiddish organizations across Southern California. 

Through our work, we are stoking interest in Yiddish through poetry salons, translating Yiddish work from around the West Coast, and bringing outside organizations and educators to California. Most recently, I launched a series on Yiddish horror, witchcraft, and the occult which has been attracting both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences to learn about niche parts of Yiddish culture as an entry point to further education.

With the growing fear and anxieties in many communities stirred by the current presidential administration, I am also starting up events at the Southern California Arbeter Ring Educational Center focused on injecting art into politics, through multilingual sign-making, letter writing and call-in campaigns, and soon, puppet-making for Yiddish political theatre.