Yiddish was spoken in jerusalem long before modern hebrew was invented. So, no, it is not a diaspora language, no more then hebrew is, jews spoke hebrew in egypt. But, I agree, it is rather inpractical and wrong when your children can't communicate to sefardi children. So, if at all, yiddish should be taught as a second language, after hebrew. So, galutnikim shoud either implement total segregation between ashkenazim and sefardim, or drop the whole idea. World has globalized, and there is hardly a pure ashkenazi community left. And that's good. Teaching your children yiddish as a first language makes it impossible for them to play with sefardi children that don't speak yiddish.

Es iz geshmak tzu reden Yiddish, ober nisht az an erster sprach. Mayne eyniklach in Eretz Yisroel reden nor Ivrit, un mayne eyniklach in Rusland reden Russish, Ivrit un English. Nur in America hot men di luxis tzo reden Yiddish. (It's nice to speak Yiddish, but not as one's primary language. My grandchildren in Israel speak only Hebrew, my grandchildren in Russia speak Russian, Hebrew and English. Only in America do they have the luxury of learning Yiddish.)

Jewish literacy requires Hebrew and Judean Aramaic. Every basic text we have is written in those languages. Even the significant works from the medieval and modern period are written in Hebrew and Aramaic. Yiddish is a modern Ashkenazi language. One can be Jewishly literate without it. I mean, really, are we going to argue you also need ladino or Judeo-Arabic to be Jewishly literate? After all, that's what the sephardim spoke in the diaspora. That's what the Rambam wrote in. What was written in Yiddish that I need to be considered literate in a Jewish sense? Is it really necessary to be able to read ashkenazi plays and news papers from the past few hundred years to be Jewishly literate? I know plenty of people who focused on yiddish and can't read the bible, let alone learn a daf gemara. But gosh, they can read The Forward. So what? Our basic texts are the key to Jewish literacy. None of them were written in Yiddish. Or Ladino. I'm not saying yiddish is a bad thing, but the assertion that being a good Yiddish speaking Jew is the definition of being a literate Jew is a bit disconcerting.

SO MOSHE RABBEINU SPOKE YIDDISH? ABRAHAM? YOSEPH IN EGYPT ? who spoke yiddish in the Torah? Rambam,Daveed Hamelech? OUR ROOTS WERE AND ARE NOT YIDDSH. flatbush brooklyn we speak hebrew and arabic. NOW THIS IS MY STARTLING OBSERVATION OF JEWRY IN AMERICA AND THE WORLD. YIDDISH is killing Judaism Its sounds old fashion and it IS old fashion. Yiddish is not attracting secular or JEWS that want to come back to THEIR ROOTS OF TORAH. OUR TORAH IS WRITTEN IN HEBREW. GO TO CHINA TURKEY AND WHERE EVER YOU GO WHERE EVER YOU OPEN A SIDDUR ITS HEBREW...GOT IT? OUR TORAH is written in hebrew. Yiddish is NOT an attractive language to GATHER US FROM THE FOUR CORNERS OF THE EARTH. Biblical hebrew will bring in JEWS that are suddenly waking up froom their slumber and started searching for their identity,their roots WE ARE NOT EUROPEAN. WE ARE ONE NATION OF JEWS THAT WAS KICKED AROUND. We may have went to Europe, We may have become great biblical schloars in the ghettos of europe, IT DOESNT MAKE YIDDISH *OUR ORIGINS. Unless you are a revisionsit like so many,rewriting our history thus giving credence to the arabs that say we never was in the middle east. My family started in the middle east and never left the middle east until coming to America. We embrace Torah the Rabbis of old and LEARN IN HEBREW. but I am willing to learn aramaic if you ask me........lol. I am JEW, not a yid. vus? nu? oy yoi yoi vers mer kugle bubala? thank you,

yeah, my dad knows some, his parents spoke it, but i don't care. if given the choice, i would much prefer hebrew.

should be buried and forgotten, erased from our memories. The whole culture that arose out of the Eastern European diaspora is a stain on our heritage, we lived in shame and it brought upon us disaster.

david from jerusalem is worng. the meam loez ( the book(s) ) was written in ladino with hebrew alphabet. meam loez is the jewish book that has more editions in english!

Tzibelleh, onion in Yiddish, is similar to cebolla, the Spanish word for the same. Interesting, no??

I notice that jews today seem "watered-down". Especially in USA. The jewish soul came from Yiddish. Iz take emes!

Hebrew is the language of the Jews, all Jews whatever colour background or how they pray. Whether Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi, Ethiopian whatever. I'm Ashkenazi-Polish background, My wife's parents are from Libya. We speak Hebrew at home. Hebrew is THE language of the Jews! Yiddish is one of the Jewish languages as is the Trebelsi arabic my in-laws speak but Hebrew is the language of all Jews!

DACON9's usual rantings are bizarre nonsense however today he is infact correct!

Israel is a secular state that happens to have a lot of Jews in it. Who cares what they speak? Most Ashkenazim have Yiddish-speaking parents or grandparents. Why let it die if it doesn't have to? It's a rich, expressive language that sustained European Jewry for nearly a thousand years. If you want to learn Hebrew first for Torah purposes or something, fine. But if you want to learn it because it's what these Israelis speak, don't pay attention to them. They're an uncivilized blight on world Jewry anyway.

It amazes me to read that any Jew denigrates Yiddish. Israelis learn English as a second language, some learn Arabic, yet up til now Yiddish was a no no except in the Mea Shearim. I wish I were fluent in Yiddish, it would make it easier to converse with my Israeli cousins who are fluent in Yiddish, Ivrit, Roumanian, and German. My Israeli grandchildren are fluent in Ivrit, English, Arabic and Spanish. Yiddish however is a foreign tongue; fortunately not to their father, a sabra of Roumanian parents. Ima speaks to them in English, 95% of the time; which gave then a big help in school with English. America is basically a single language nation, only current immigrants basically speak their original tongue. Second generations have adopted English as their primary tongue as their parents tongue slowly fades from usage. It's a shame as I see most nations have a minimum of two languages in use.

Bias comes in all shades and sizes. Just what is wrong with being fluent in Yiddish? Hebrew was revived in Israel(now Ivrit). Excellent !! Then explain why the Ultra-Orthodox speak only Yiddish as they consider Hebrew only proper for prayer. The prayer "Kaddish" is not written in Hebrew, it's Aramaic. Yet most of us remember it verbatim. Denigrating Yiddish is in my humble opinion merely another form of snobbery. Language is language; they are all excellent.

EFROIM..YOUR NAME I NOT EFROIM. ITS EFR A EEM. READ THESE TALK BACKS STOP BEING A BLIND FAITH BELIEVER. OPEN YOUR MIND ACCEPT TRUTH BY OUR ACTUAL HISTORY. AND LEMME TELL YOU EVEN MORE BLACK HATS AND SUITS ARE NOT JEWISH I WEAR A ROBE AND GO TO SHUL ON MY CAMEL. I EAT SCHWARMA, KIBBEH TABOULEH, LAHMEH NOT BAGELS AND LOX OR STRUDLE AND NOODLE AND KUGLE

In Jerusalem in the 19th century, only the Ashkenazim spoke Yiddish, but the the Sephardim and Bucharans did not. So they used Hebrew across ethnic lines. The lingua franca of the Jews in Jerusalem was Hebrew long before Eliezer ben Yehuda "invented" modern Hebrew.

As I am reading, the word for onion in German is Zwiebel or Zwiebellauch, which appears to be where the Yiddish "Tzibbelleh" comes from. The word in Spanish is cebolla, but the word in Italian is even closer - cipolla. It is possible the true origin of all these words comes from the Latin word for onion - "cepa".

The Me'am Lo'ez isn't a base text in Judaism. It's a commentary on the Tanach written in 1730 for those Ladino-speakers who could not understand the Torah in its original Hebrew. By the way, "Me'am Lo'ez" is Hebrew and it means "strange language" , as in Psalms 114: " When Israel came forth out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah became His sanctuary, Israel His dominion."

No disrespect to Yiddish intended but it hardly should be taught as a second language. Yerushalmi might not know it, but there are people who live in the real world and have to earn a living. In this global world the only way to earn a living is to know a useful second language like English, Spanish or even Chinese.

Refusing to speak the same language as someone you may disagree with, politically or religiously, is a political statement of detachment. I hope this revival movement goes no farther than heritage-preservation, because on a wide-scale this contributes to sinat chaim.

Yiddish should not be allowed to die because allthough not a biblical language it is part of jewish history but if parents are going to teach their children either hebrew or yiddish then hebrew should be the language of choice. Its the language of the Torah so necacary for prayer, its the langage used in the jewish state, some small jewish communities might use yiddish but its not a mainstream language in any country ot amongst the wider jewish community. Its worth learning but it shouldnt be considered to be more important than hebrew.

get a real name, a jewish one if indeed you are an authentic jew. is "dacon9" hebrew for "borderline insane"? lol!!

The reason certain ones here make hatefull statements only explains to us that they are so-called "self-haters". This is my theory and I stick to it. Now many doctors would have to examine why they engage in self hatred. What caused such a big booboo on your soul (Af dine Neshume)?? Please do let it out. Do you feel threatend by Yiddish? Sorry I dont have a couch for you... :)

I feel sorry for those people who find Yiddish to be the language of eastern europe and as such to be forgotten. That's like forgetting we lost 6 million in the Shoah. To those who say the one and only language for the Jew to pray in is hebrew, t'aint so. Try aramaic, it's in the Torah. BTW, as a little boy, eons ago, I was told by an eminant Rabbi right here in America that G-d hears our prayer in whatever language we happen to speak. In his own words he said it is more important to believe in G-d and act in His ways than the language you happen to speak. The Rabbi was correct then and his words are still correct today.

"If you want to learn it because it's what these Israelis speak, don't pay attention to them. They're an uncivilized blight on world Jewry anyway." Hebrew is the language of the Bible, liturgy, Jewish literature, Jewish learning, and the historical lingua franca used by Jews from different lands to communicate with one another. Jews in the United States speak English, at home and everywhere else. If you are interested in learning Yiddish out of personal interest, fine. But from your tone, perhaps you are better off learning a sister language, German.

...maybe it's just because it's not well funded. How about throwing some money at the problem? Yes we can!

Aramaic is so close to Hebrew, that when we use it in our liturgy it is sometimes easy to forget that it's a different language. In fact, they are often lumped together as "Lashon Kodesh". There is only a little Aramaic in the Tanach. Most of the Aramaic we use comes from the Talmudic era. Hebrew is our beloved perpetual Jewish language, though, and the relevant Aramaic terms have been grandfathered into Mishnaic and modern Hebrew.

not only a diaspora language, much more darling !!!

Can you expand? Why is Eastern European diaspora a stain on Jewish heritage?