I can remember as an irreligious boy being in hospital next to my Bobba after an operation, before she passed away, in her sleep saying "Oy" and "Oy vay". She was also irreligious but hearing the Yiddish gave me a tremendous feeling of Yiddishkeit , I guess building me up today as being a religious jew. Yissish is OUR language. Judiasm is OUR nation. Today many non jews are Israelis. Is benig Israeli a sign of being the chosen nation. Is that a right we have to being in Israel, being Israeli? I would appreciate other outlooks on my opinion as as of now I do not understand our special nation well enough.

were and still are the root of all our problems in this world. I do not deny that they were a part of our heritage, but a sad part, a very sad part. They belong in a book on the library shelf in the history section. Writing and speaking should be discouraged if not banned outright. I know, I am a racist, a Jew hater and all the rest. No, I am a good Jew who loves his country and his people and who has always served them well but also knows that that disgusting way of life known as the shtetl into which were born and brought up my ancestors, was our downfall and indeed almost our total eradication. We must endeavor to expunge it from our memory as did most of the Jews arriving in Israel in the first second and third Aliyot. This culture was and is a stain on our past glory, the glory of David Hamelech, of the Maccabim, of Bar Kochba and all the modern day heroes of Israel from Irgun Hashomer, Hanotrim, Hagana, Palmach and Zahal. Where would we be today if all these had adhered to Yiddish culture and language ? The answer to that question is, bekak, up to our ears.

Yiddish is not 'our' language, meaning the Jews. Yiddish is the language of a part of the Jewish People. Jews have spoken many languages, Ladino, Judeo-Greek, Aramaic, Pharsee and Arabic to name but a few. To claim Yiddish as the language of Jews is doing a disservice to what is a culturally diverse people with many backgrounds. Hebrew is the one language that binds us all. Yiddish, just like Ladino and the others, should be preserved by those who find it important to claim their heritage, but that heritage should not be put onto others who have no background in it.

"It is doubtful that Yiddish will ever be revived as a spoken language..." Yiddish is still a spoken language, as anyone who has walked through the Meah Shearim section of Jerusalem knows. Oh, I forgot, the speakers are Hareidim and they don't count.

Most definately the Mea Shaarim inhabitants do not count. Haredim yes, but not Neturei Karta, by their own definition and certainly by their behaviour.

It's not only mea Shea'rim. Go to Brooklyn, Queens and parts of New Jersey and upstate NY and find that Yiddish is the lingua franca for tens of thousands of haredi Jews.

To this writer, it is a corrupted "dialect" of division, discrimination and discord. A very ugly and not funny dialect. Where a gentile is a sheigetz/shikse (insect?) a sefardi is a "wilde chaye" and a black is a shwartze chaye? shame on the creators, the users and the proponents of this despicable non language. Let it live among it's current users and die a dishonorable death by attrition, like the disappearance by attrition of the desert generation. A literary language it never was, never a match to it's alien germanic and slavic parents.

All of our heritage languages are important. Who can diagree that history and heritage is not important.

So Hirbuna are you a shikse or just a stupid anekeiva? People like you make English look ugly. Why don't you find KKK site for your anti-Semitic diatribes. Kalba antishemit. Here is some Hebrew for you.

The English language uses the words "nigger" and "kike" so let's kill off this language too. Boy are you stupid.

Hebrew is the language of the State of Israel. Yiddish binds me to my fellow Jews. If that leaves you out, then that leaves you out. We can bind to each other in our common acceptance of Jewish law, assuming you don't reject that as well.

You believe Yiddishkeit brought about the near destruction of the Jewish people? Okay. I believe the Jews who turned away from God and assimilated caused those problems. To me, Israelis like yourself are the problem for the rest of us. You make the country secular and we lose the legitimacy of our claim. Kahane believed that and he grew up as a Yid. Get real.

The question that i want to ask all of you is, Did or does any one in your family speak Yiddish. If so i hope you feel a conection to the language. It was the only languge my great grandmother spoke. This makes Yiddish very dear to me. Mensch

Mike, Yiddish doesn't bind you to your fellow Jews, it binds you to your fellow Ashkenazim (although many spoke other languages aswell). When Mashiach comes, will he be speaking Yiddish, did Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, david, Solomon speak Yiddish. If your adherence to Yiddish leaves them out (as you say) then itleaves them out. Does this make sense?? The Jewish people are not European in origin, we are a Middle Easern people who had a remnant who were forced to live in Eastern Europe and they thus created a language based on a foreign language that they heard around them. Now we have returned to The Land these languages should be maintained as cultural heritages but there should be little glory in them. We have one language that binds Jews from the four corners of the earth, it is not a bastardized German, Spanish or arabic it is Hebrew, the language of the Hebrews.

Yiddish binds me to MY fellow Jews. Ashkenazim, as you point out. And like I said before, if you feel left out, the you feel left out. Not my problem. You speak of what we "should" do, but I do not put my faith in you as an expert on anything. No offense, but we've barely had one conversation. So that said, I will keep my Yiddish and I hope other, more fluent Yiddish speakers pay you no mind, because you have not demonstrated why anyone "should" take you seriously.

.....The English language uses the words "nigger" and "kike" so let's kill off this language too. Boy are you stupid. ..... "Some" English users, "foul" their mouth with such derogatory words. Yiddish users "seem to never use" words other than Sheigetz for gentile, and Shwartze for Black. Of course you can retort that shwartze "is" black. But the way it is used in Yiddish in the middle of an english conversation, -hush hush whisper whisper- is derogatory and used for people "in the know" only, not for black or gentile ears or comprehension. To "exclude" non-yiddish speakers . In other words, change the words shwartze und sheigetz to nigger und kike, try to pass it for hekhsher by aclu or the simon wiesenthal centre, you will never get a hekhsher. There would be screams reaching heavens. Indeed, it is despicable and reprehensible. Affecting Myopia, will not help!

Wow, talk about a chip. I never claimed to be an expert I just thought as Jews we should be more inclusive. You obviously have problems with Jews who are not of your ilk. So I take it you don't think much of the Shulchan Aruch, Mishneh Torah, Rashi and pretty much every other Jewish text as they were written by people who wouldn't have even heard of Yiddish. In fact some were written in Arabic originally. You seem to take my replies as personal attacks. I can not help it if you read things into comments that were certainly not there. You on the other hand infer that non-Askenazim are not your fellow Jews. You talk of assimilation as being a problem and then you stand up for a language that is the height of assimilation. Where do you think Yiddish came from? The Torah, Tanach, Shulchan Arch....or the Germans??? MY fellow Jews are ethiopians, russians, morroccans, and even you. You quote Kahane, but live in the US. Then you say the biggest problem for Jews is turning away from G-d and assimilation. Actually according to our tradition, Sinat Chinam is the biggest problem of the Jews and it is why the Second Temple was destroyed and the Third has not been built yet. Think about it!!!

Harbona, sweetie, have you ever read any Yiddish poetry or literature? Or did you just hear a couple words and made conclusions based on that? What other languages do you suggest we eliminate? And who are you to decide which one to let live and which one to let die? I am chosing to keep the Yiddish language and to teach it to my children BECAUSE I AM NOT ASHAMED of my shtetl ancestors. Because I do not want their language to be eliminated after so many of them have been eliminated in the pits of Babi Yar. Because a part of them lives in me. People are not dogs so that you can create a "new breed" whenever you feel like it. Everybody cannot just go back to being Middle Eastern people just because Ash said so. Ashkenazim will remain Ashkenazim, Spharadim will remain Spharadim, etc. And this will not prevent everybody from being Jews and coexisting together. If Ladino speakers chose not to preserve their language, this is their choice. Mine is - to love all my fellow Jews and still to keep the uniqueness of my group. If anybody has a problem with that.... well, can't help it.

Mike, Tamara and other. She does not deserve your replies. She is one of those lunatic lefties that hate Jews and think that they are Jewish experts because they learn couple words in Yiddish. They are ready to protect every existing Arab terrorist group till last drop of Jewish blood, cheer Iran hoping that Iran can get capable of destroying Israel. Don't waste your time. She is not swetie she is Kalba Antishemit

Obviously those of you who are against Yiddish, have never ever been touched by it in any possible way. Yiddish and its cultural and emotional weight does not only touch the ear, but also the very soul and an emotion of the hearer. To be in the presence of those who value and treasure to speek it, is to be a part of those who will "never forget". So, I ask myself, what kind of people they are, those who stand against Yiddish. Obviously a people who "will forget", people whose emotions, soul and even the ears are encircled with an unbreakable wall of ignorance and unawareness of their own heritage and culture.

I suspect, from evidence contained in Latin transliterations, that these strong r's were the norm in biblical Hebrew.

I teach yiddish. Every language is a LANGUAGE.Nobody is obliged to study something one doesn´t want to.Some people would like to study the literature of their ancestors, if it is yiddish or ladino or any other language. The problem is that we did not come from nowhere , we have a history before we started to study hebrew, that I love very much,many of us came to Israel in diferent times, some came earlear than the others.We have to learn about our past, and specially yiddish is a language with a past, poor or rich, good or bad. Jews live in a democrating country, so why not be democrating towards our languages??? Hebrew is a "fato consumado" it is the national language .Other languages can coexist in this country, be it arabic or english or yiddish, or french. Sorry about my mistakes in English.Dasha

Have you read the book titled, "Are Yentas, Kibitzers, & Tummlers Weapons of Mass Instruction? Yiddish Trivia" by Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe? To order: Malka Publications 19 Market Drive Syosset, NY 11791 $12 (plus $3 S&H) What a great holiday gift!

Good Work