Swedishkayt: YidLife Crisis in Stockholm is a gefilte fish-out-of-water documentary from YidLife Crisis duo Jamie Elman and Eli Batalion. Miami audiences attending the world premiere are lucky in that the premiere also included a live performance.

If you have a problem with films containing scenes of Jewish culture, language, history, or joy, this film is not for you. Or bagels–none of St. Louis’s blasphemic sliced bagels make an appearance either. Viewers do not need to be Jewish but it certainly helps to better understand the time. YidLife Crisis is a celebration of the German-ish Hebrewish Ashkenazic language that is over 1000 years old.

Both Jamie and Eli started up their YidLife Crisis web series in 2014. You could say that the pair of Canadians know a thing or two about Yiddish. And like most rational-thinking people, you’d have been safe in assuming that the most popular place for speaking Yiddish would be somewhere like New York City or Jerusalem. Pre-1939, I’d have included Warsaw, Poland but the Jewish community was decimated in the Holocaust. The current Jewish population is reportedly somewhere around 20,000. Anyway, this is a documentary that will more likely than not appeal to Jewish audiences. This isn’t to say that non-Jews shouldn’t watch it but maybe they could come away learning something from watching. Case in point: the librarian featured in the film isn’t Jewish. The library is home to the oldest untouched collection of Yiddish books in Europe.

If you had told me that Stockholm, Sweden is new Mecca of Yiddish, I would never have believed you. At least, not until watching the newest YidLife Crisis documentary. I mean, here’s a country that–after much pressure ahead of a Holocaust conference–named Yiddish among the protected minority languages in January 2000. It’s absolutely astonishing, especially during a tense period for Jews living in Europe. In case you’ve been living in a cave and maybe you have (in which case, how are you even reading this?), it hasn’t been safe to be visibly Jewish in Europe for the better part of the last decade. Jewish Swedes group with a certain mentality before anti-Jewish threats became global. Moreover, things have become really tense globally for Jews during a surge in post-October 7 antisemitism. Jamie and Eli’s visit to Stockholm came weeks following antisemitic protests during Eurovision.

The Canadian Yiddish-speaking duo meet with numerous people and learn about the Jewish history of Stockholm in the lead-up to their sold-out May 30 performance. Upon leaving Germany, Aaron Isaac became the first Jew to arrive in Sweden back in 1774, under the condition that he could bring a minyan with him. More Jews would arrive later, yadda, yadda, yadda, the rest is history. Through this, audiences–Jews more likely than not, who are we kidding here–get an inside glimpse at what it’s like to be Jewish or speak Yiddish in Stockholm. How are things for the young people? Oh, we learn about that, too. You can swipe through entire Jewish Swede or Swedish-Jewish community in two minutes on the dating apps. Suffice it to say, it can certainly be a crisis.

Did you know there’s something known as the law of Jante? In any event, it’s a law that provides its challenges for, umm, North American Jews. But anyway, there’s so much packed into the 60-minute run time but it’s all worth it!

Not including those colleges and academic institutes devoted to the study of Yiddish, the following are included in the film:

• Swedish Yiddish Association
• The Yiddish Society in Stockholm
• Dos Niesele Farlag
• Jewish Museum
• Great Synagogue
• Bayit
• Adat Jeschurun (A German shul that was completely smuggled into Stockholm)
• Jewish Culture in Sweden

Swedishkayt: YidLife Crisis in Stockholm is the gefilte fish-out-of-water documentary that we didn’t know we needed. The hourlong documentary is dedicated to the memory of both George Riedel and Salomon Schulman.

DIRECTORS/SCREENWRITERS/FEATURING: Jamie Elman & Eli Batalion
FEATURING: Jamie Elman, Eli Batalion, Anne Kalmering, John Gradowski, Eva Fried, Tomas Woodski, Susanne Sznajderman, Sarah Schulman, Abbe Schulman, Majer Lemel, Katka Mazurczak, Natalie Bloch, Jan Schwarcz, Marcus Rist, Rabbi Ute Steyer, Cantor Maynard Gerber, Malin Norrby, Anna Nachman, Rabbi Mattias Amster, Lizzie Scheja, Patric Lebenswerd, Josef Rubin, Hannah Nir, Leia Rubin Polite, Maor Oz, Sarah Beg, Aaron Verständig, Daniel Feinbaum, Mitch Smolkin

Swedishkayt: YidLife Crisis in Stockholm holds its world premiere during the 2025 Miami Jewish Film Festival. Grade: 5/5

Please subscribe to Solzy on Buttondown and visit Dugout Dirt.