I do not engage in "self hatred". I am Sephardi and SICK, SICK, SICK of Ashkenazi bigots! My ancestors NEVER spoke Yiddish. They spoke Ladino. How DARE you say, "the jewish soul came from Yiddish". How DARE you!! Are you saying I am NOT a Jewish soul???? Mas deguele palavradas ke malas kuchiadas!! I am NOT "threatened" by YOUR yiddish. I HAVE a Jewish neshamá.

that people are reclaiming our tradition. I am an Ashkenazi Jew. My language is yiddish not that fake language of modern hebrew. Take your disgusting falafels, sababas, and stop trying to force your made-up disgusting israeli culture down my throat. geh in drerd hebraish dreck

These things simply do not exist, there are not enough people to sustain them. Even Haredi bloggers have English or Hebrew websites.

It is a most colorful and descriptive language. It has emotion, history and character, more so than even modern Hebrew which is dry and technical. I wish I spoke Yiddish. For the life of me, I cannot fathom the antipathy some people have against it. To me, they are just crazy mishigeners.

is in fact very proud of his heritage, except for you maybe....

"north african", neither "babylonian". Let's get rid ,of all that galut stuff and we'll overcome our divisions once and for all !!! Forza Hebrew, that is our only origin and only future as an united people.

Honestly Hebrew is the international Jewish language. It is what we ALL originally spoke. It is one of the things that unites all Jews and we should be embracing it. However, many people seem to think that Yiddish somehow represents Jewish culture better because it is an Ashkenazi language and the majority of the world's Jews are Ashkenazi. By placing more of an emphasis on learning Yiddish than learning Hebrew we are embracing one of the things that divides us as Jews. With Hebrew merely a second priority we increase the odds that fewer people will speak it and that our perceived differences will increase. Honestly the Mizrahim and Sephardim seem to understand this well and have abandoned Arabic and Judeo-Arabic for the most part. If people want to ignore my advice and learn and teach Yiddish over Hebrew than what can any of us do? However, it is horribly insulting to claim that this language has more value than Hebrew (the holy tongue) and that it represents Jewish heritage more accurately. Whose heritage? Ashkenazi heritage? Let's embrace our shared Jewish culture. I say all this as an Ashkenazi fluent in both Yiddish and Hebrew. But I learned Hebrew first.

It is a feeling of 'cultural superiority' for these parents to be teaching their children to speak Yiddish as a first language. First of all, the language of the country they are living in should be their first language. Second of all, if they are interested in communicating with other Jews, Hebrew is the only possibility (I was kidding about the Ladino; it's just as impractical as Yiddish). Hebrew is the only language that connects all Jews worldwise. The majority of the Jews of France - a very important diaspora community - don't know Yiddish. They're Jews from North Africa. I married one.

If they live in this country, they should speak the country. They speak yiddish in their schools. They are holding back the entire country by grasping onto anachronistic dress, customs, and language. You don't see road signs in Yiddis. They are like an enemy within. The bible is written in Hebrew as are all of the books relevant to Jews. The arabs live here but they don't demand we change the laguage to arabic. Just like in America where the immigrants have to learn the language.

for better or for worse, as the child of two holocaust survivors, i will not speak german, not even judeo-german. for me, that period of jewish history is closed.

Best in the world. My parents spoke it thinking we kids wouldnt understand. Consequently we picked up some choice phraseology that embarassed the hell out of them when we ( pretending innocence) chose to shout out an insulting phrase or two. I still use them. A mechaya

You don't speak it , so how do you know that Yiddish is a colorfull , etc language ? But You are right , Yiddish has words and sayings no other tongue has .

as is a couscous or a wonderfull falafel .

YIDDISH IS A LANGUAGE FOR THOSE WHO HAVE LOW SELF ESTEEM, WANT TO REAMIN INSULATED AND ISOLATED. YIDDISH DOES NOT ALLOW FOR FULL SELF EXPRESSION. SAY'OY" IS TANTAMOUNT TO CUTTING OFF THE EALTHFULNESS OF A SIGH. LET IT REST, EXCEPT IN SONGS.

= Sie kennen?

I never tire of such speeches of Sephardic pride. I imagine you deal with Ashkenzai bigotry everyday and that's a shame. G-d knows the wonderful Sephardic community has never exihibited any signs of bigotry in all of your gloriouis history.

Really? Because I could have sworn your language is English. I've got news for you. All those Ashkenazi Jews in Russia don't care about Yiddish either. They speak Russian and are proud of it.

and sounds nicer than Yiddish. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judeo-Italian_languages "All the spoken varieties used a unique (among Jewish languages, although there are arguably parallels in Jewish English usage) combination of Hebrew verb stems with Italian conjugations (e.g., "axlare", to eat; "gannaviare", to steal; "dabberare", to speak; "lekhtire", to go). Similarly there are abstract nouns such as "tovezza", goodness."

Funny, when I am in Israel, the road signs seem to be in 3 languages, Ivrit, Arabic and English. Oh yes, did you happen to notice that Hebrew is not the only language of the Torah? A bissele Aramaic is there as well. The kaddish for example. In America, Spanish is slowly becoming very important ; wouldn't you admit? Many governmental issues have become bi-lingual.

Your post brought back many memories of my own childhood. Yes, my parents spoke Yiddish when they didn't us to understand. In self-defense we learned especially from the Yiddish songs and music my father enjoyed. P.S. my favorite curse began with "er soll wachsen a soi vi a tzibbelah ...." Yes, Yiddish is certainly a very colorful and descriptive language.

#38 - Exactly!! For me, Ladino is part of my heritage, but HEBREW is the Original and Unifying Jewish language. #41 - I concur!! yiddish=german which makes me cringe and shudder...... #47 - Es verdad. ¡ I munchas gracias por tus palavras me konforti!

"Israel's earliest Jewish-European settlers revived Hebrew, dormant as a spoken language for 2,000 years, and made it one of the country's official languages in 1948" You can find a lot of documents revealing that oriental, sphardic jew comunicates each other (everyday things) in hebrew much before the arrioving of askanazis to Israel.

No doubt Hebrew is THE language that all Jews should learn and know. It's in our past, in the present, and it is part of our future. Now the one thing I don't understand, is why Aramaic is not made more widely available to all Jews? Many writings and some important prayers are in this language. I think it would be interesting to try to revive it the way we did Hebrew. From the Yiddish words I hear used in English, it definitely sounds like an expressive and rich language. While it does not have the beauty of Ladino or Italian, it does have character. I am for keeping both Yddish and Ladino alive for the sake of historical preservation. Especially that many people these days did have family that spoke these languages. If these communities want to maintain it, fine. The first language though, should be Hebrew. It's home.

I love the Torah and the stories contained therein. This is our history and heritage. I love Israel, its hills and valleys, its deserts and its flora. This is our history and our heritage. The dispersion that eventually created the ghettos and enclaves of Jewish activity in Eastern Europe came about by the Roman conquest and subjugation of Judea and Samaria in 70 AD. We lost our heritage and underwent a kind of metamorphosis although we ardently clung on to our longing and hope of return. When the day came to return we were many generations away from what we were originally. one of the manifestations of this change and alienation was the dawning of what we know as the Haredim. Their behaviour and practices have zero in common with those of our ancestors and indeed with Judaism as it was known and practiced in Israel and Judea. One example would be the glorification of Rabbis to the status of a demi god. This as you probably know is strictly forbidden. Our ancestors plowed and tilled this Land with loving hands, they defended it with the utmost bravery and sacrifice and they respected the Torah. They did not live in the fashion of Polish and Russian villages, eat gefillte fish, go to heder and wear long black robes and speak a strange language. We have returned to our historical roots, to our homeland, the Land that created and nurtured us as a People. We should act as such by holding our heads high and casting off strange and ridiculous habits and customs which were gathered along the way and are completely alien to our history and heritage. I get really annoyed when some Jews refer to Eastern Europe as "der heime'. Home is here in Israel and the law is the law of the Land and must be respected by all. Have I expanded enough ? Shabbat Shalom.

For example the movie "Hester Street" it's brilliant

It's just German in an old-fashioned form, much like Amish German (Platdietsch), with a sprinkling of Russian and Hebrew words.

JESUSALEN.Out of Egypt I called my son (hosea 11:1),people don´t live only on bread,they live on every word that comes from the mouth of G-D (deuteronomy 8:3),he took on himself our weaknesses,he placed on himself our illnesses(isaiah 53:4),I will speak about things that were hidden since the world was made(psalm 78:2),I will strike the sheperd,the sheep of the flock will be scattered (zechariah 13:7)

This has what to do with the Yiddish vs. Hebrew debate??????