At the start of the 20th century, Yiddish was emerging as a
major Eastern European language. Its rich literature was ever more
widely published, Yiddish theater and Yiddish film were booming,
and it had even achieved status as one of the official languages of
the Belarusian SSR. Educational autonomy for Jews in several
countries (notably Poland) after World War I led to an increase in
formal Yiddish-language education, more uniform orthography, and to
the 1925 founding of the Yiddish Scientific Institute, later YIVO
Institute for Jewish Research. Yiddish emerged as the national
language of a large Jewish community in Eastern Europe that
rejected Zionism and sought to obtain Jewish cultural autonomy in
Europe. It also contended with Modern Hebrew as a literary language
among Zionists.
On the eve of World War II, there were between 11 and 13 million
Yiddish speakers (Jacobs 2005). The Holocaust, however, led to a
dramatic, sudden decline in the use of Yiddish, as the extensive
Jewish communities, both secular and religious, that used Yiddish
in their day-to-day life were largely destroyed. Although millions
of Yiddish speakers survived the war (including nearly all Yiddish
speakers in the Americas), further assimilation in countries such
as the United States, Soviet Union and the status of Modern Hebrew
as the official language of Israel led to a decline in the use of
Eastern Yiddish similar to the earlier decline in Western
Yiddish.
Ethnologue estimates that in 2005 there were 3 million speakers of
Eastern Yiddish [1]. Western Yiddish, which had "several tens of
thousands of speakers" on the eve of the Holocaust, is reported to
have had an "ethnic population" of slighty below 50,000 in 2000
[2]. Further demographic information about the recent status of
what is treated as an Eastern-Western dialect continuum is provided
in the YIVO Language and Cultural Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry
(LCAAJ).
There have been frequent episodes of debate about the extent of the
linguistic independence of Yiddish from the languages that it
absorbed. Some commentary dismisses Yiddish as a mere jargon,
although precisely that term, in Yiddish, is also used as a
colloquial designation for the language, but without pejorative
connotation. There have been periodic assertions that it is a
German dialect and, even when recognized as an autonomous language,
it has sometimes been referred to as Judeo-German. A widely-cited
statement of the situation in the 1930s was published by Max
Weinreich, quoting a remark by an auditor of one of his lectures:
àÇ ùôÌøàÇê àéæ àÇ ãéàÇìò÷è îéè àÇï àÇøîéé àåï ôÏìàÈè (a shprakh iz
a diyalekt mit an armey un flot). "A language is a dialect with an
army and navy" (facsimile excerpt at [3]; discussed in detail in a
separate article).
[edit]
Israel
The national language of Israel is Modern Hebrew. The rejection of
Yiddish as an alternative reflected the conflict between religious
and secular forces. Many in the larger, secular group wanted a new
national language to foster a cohesive identity, while
traditionally religious Jews desired that Hebrew be respected as a
holy language reserved for prayer and religious study. In the early
twentieth century, Zionist immigrants in Palestine tried to
eradicate the use of Yiddish amongst their own population, and make
its use socially unacceptable.
This conflict also reflected the opposing views among secular Jews
worldwide, one side seeing Hebrew (and Zionism) and the other
Yiddish (and Internationalism) as the means of defining emerging
Jewish nationalism. Finally, the large post-1948 influx of Jewish
refugees from Arab countries (to whom Yiddish was entirely foreign,
but who already spoke a Semitic language in daily life) effectively
made Hebrew the only practical option. But even though this social
factor would have anyway doomed any chance for Yiddish to prosper,
state authorities in the young Israel of the 1950s went to the
extent of using censorship laws inherited from British rule in
order to prohibit or extremely limit Yiddish theatre in
Israel.
Many of the older immigrants to Israel from the former USSR
(usually those above 50 years of age) speak or understand some
Yiddish.
In religious circles, it is the Ashkenazi Haredi Jews, particularly
the Hasidic Jews and the Mitnagdim of the Lithuanian yeshiva world,
who continue to teach, speak and use Yiddish, making it a language
used regularly by hundreds of thousands of Haredi Jews today. The
largest of these centers are in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem.
There is a growing revival of interest in Yiddish culture among
secular Israelis, with Yiddish theater now flourishing (usually
with simultaneous translation to Hebrew and Russian) and young
people are taking university courses in Yiddish, some achieving
considerable fluency (albeit with an accent that would seem very
strange to native speakers).
[edit]
Soviet Union
In the Soviet Union, much effort was invested in promoting the use
of Yiddish during 1920s. It was then regarded as the language of
"Jewish proletariat". At the same time, Hebrew was considered a
"bourgeois" language and its use was generally discouraged. After
the Second World War, growing anti-Semitic tendencies in Soviet
politics drove Yiddish from most spheres, and publication in
Yiddish was largely curtailed.
[edit]
Sweden
In June 1999, the Swedish Parliament enacted legislation giving
Yiddish legal status as one of the country's official minority
languages (entering into effect in April 2000). The rights thereby
conferred are not detailed, but additional legislation was enacted
in June 2006 establishing a new governmental agency, the mandate of
which instructs it to, "collect, preserve, scientifically research,
and spread material about the national minority languages", naming
them all explicitly, including Yiddish. When announcing this
action, the government made an additional statement about
"simultaneously commencing completely new initiatives for
Yiddish
[and the other minority languages]".
The Swedish government publishes documents in Yiddish, of which
recent ones detail the action leading to the establishment of the
new agency, the national action plan for human rights, and an
earlier one provides general information about national minority
language policies.
[edit]
United States
In the United States, the Yiddish language bonded Jews from many
countries. ôàøååòøèñ (forverts = The Forward) was one of seven
Yiddish daily newspapers in New York City, and other Yiddish
newspapers served as a forum for Jews of all European backgrounds.
Interest in klezmer music provided another bonding mechanism.
Thriving Yiddish theater in New York City and (to a lesser extent)
elsewhere kept the language vital. Many "Yiddishisms," like
"Italianisms" and "Spanishisms," continued to enter spoken New York
English, often used by Jews and non-Jews alike unaware of the
linguistic origin of the phrases (described extensively by Leo
Rosten in The Joys of Yiddish). However, mother-tongue Yiddish
speakers tended not to pass the language on to their children, who
assimilated and spoke English.
In 1978, the Polish-born Yiddish author Isaac Bashevis Singer, a
resident of the United States, received the Nobel Prize in
literature.
[edit]
Religious communities
The major exception to the decline of spoken Yiddish can be found
in Haredi communities all over the world. In some of the more
closely-knit such communities Yiddish is spoken as a home and
schooling language, especially in Hasidic communities such as
Brooklyn's Borough Park, Williamsburg and Crown Heights, and in
Monsey, Kiryas Joel, and New Square. (Over 88% of the population of
Kiryas Joel is reported to speak Yiddish at home [4]). Yiddish is
also widely spoken in smaller Haredi communities in such the ones
as London, Antwerp and Montreal. Among most Haredim, Hebrew is
generally reserved for prayer and religious studies, while Yiddish
is reserved as a home and business language. In Israel, however,
Haredim commonly speak Modern Hebrew, with the notable exception of
many Hasidic communities. Nevertheless, the vast majority of
Haredim who use Modern Hebrew also understand Yiddish. Members of
movements such as Satmar Hasidism, which views the commonplace use
of Hebrew as a form of Zionism, use Yiddish almost
exclusively.
Hundreds of thousands of young children have been, and are still,
taught to translate the texts of the Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, and Deuteronomy into Yiddish. This process is called
èéÇéèùï (taytshn) taytsching or "translating" . Most Ashkenazi
yeshivas' highest level lectures in Talmud and Halakha are
delivered in Yiddish by the Rosh yeshivas as well as ethical talks
of mussar. Hasidic rebbes generally use only Yiddish to converse
with their followers and to deliver their various Torah talks,
classes, and lectures. The linguistic style and vocabulary of
Yiddish have influenced the manner in which many Orthodox Jews who
attend yeshivas speak English. This usage is distinctive enough
that it has been dubbed "Yeshivish".
While Hebrew remains the language of Jewish prayer, the Hasidim
have mixed considerable Yiddish into their Hebrew, and are also
responsible for a significant secondary religious literature
written in Yiddish. For example, the tales about the Baal Shem Tov
were written largely in Yiddish.
from wiki's....
