7 ms·

Nah this isn't true. Among Haredi Jewish communities it's still very often the mame loshn (mother tongue), and they're growing in number. Secular Yiddish has b

by nanna 6y ago

Nah this isn't true. Among Haredi Jewish communities it's still very often the mame loshn (mother tongue), and they're growing in number. Secular Yiddish has been having a revival for a couple of decades, but to me it seems like more of an academic object of study than a living language, like it is for the Haredim.

bradleyjg 6y ago
On the secular Yiddish side, I don’t know anyone of my generation (holocaust +2) that speaks it even haltingly. Just maybe a few words and phases more than the average goyishe New Yorker. The prior generation is a mixed bag but I have no relatives that had it as a first language. I have an uncle that’s fluent enough to listen to podcasts and the like, but he’s in his mid 70s. Fluency was near universal in the generation before that (i.e. people alive during the holocaust), but from what I understand even in Europe before the war it was common by then to also know another language—-German, Russian, Polish, Etc.
- nanna 6y ago
  Don't doubt that you don't know anyone secular who does, but there is a very vibrant secular Yiddish revival scene out there where you could meet people who do. For example https://www.yivo.org/ https://www.yivo.org/ https://www.yiddishnewyork.com/ https://www.yiddishnewyork.com/ https://klezkanada.org/ https://klezkanada.org/ https://www.centre-medem.org/ https://www.centre-medem.org/ https://www.jmi.org.uk/event/otazoyonline2021/ https://www.jmi.org.uk/event/otazoyonline2021/ To name just a few.
  - bradleyjg 6y ago
    I mean there are people out there that speak Esperanto fluently. It’s a question of how many. A few people’s (very cool) hobby isn’t the same as a living language. If you had to guess, what would you say the percentage of American Jews under the age of 45 who are not and never been haredi speak Yiddish fluently?
    - nanna 6y ago
      <0% ! It's obviously collapsed (khurbn, assimilation, Zionism ). That said, for those who are part of the secular yiddish 'revival' it doesn't matter if there isn't a huge speaker base. Its still an interesting and exciting environment to be part of, and a real counterpoint to the nationalist, orthodox and assimilationist alternative ways of being a Jew today.
- compsciphd 6y ago
  there's an american "yiddish" (yinglish one might say, or "yeshivish" in certain contexts, but I'm arguing for a more generalized version) that is common amongst american jews. a mixture of english, hebrew, yiddish, aramaic that is such a part of who they are, that they have to make a conscious effort to code switch when talking to non jews and when Israelis speak english, it just sounds foreign to them. (i.e. while american jews know what the "bible" is, that is not going to be a common term used in internal communication (feels "christian") and would probably say torah or tanach depending on the context. But when an Israeli speaks english, they generally just translate into english (or perhaps speak more standard english) to the point that it sounds foreign to the american born jews' ear.

by nanna 6y ago

bradleyjg 6y ago

On the secular Yiddish side, I don’t know anyone of my generation (holocaust +2) that speaks it even haltingly. Just maybe a few words and phases more than the average goyishe New Yorker. The prior generation is a mixed bag but I have no relatives that had it as a first language. I have an uncle that’s fluent enough to listen to podcasts and the like, but he’s in his mid 70s. Fluency was near universal in the generation before that (i.e. people alive during the holocaust), but from what I understand even in Europe before the war it was common by then to also know another language—-German, Russian, Polish, Etc.

nanna 6y ago
Don't doubt that you don't know anyone secular who does, but there is a very vibrant secular Yiddish revival scene out there where you could meet people who do. For example https://www.yivo.org/ https://www.yivo.org/ https://www.yiddishnewyork.com/ https://www.yiddishnewyork.com/ https://klezkanada.org/ https://klezkanada.org/ https://www.centre-medem.org/ https://www.centre-medem.org/ https://www.jmi.org.uk/event/otazoyonline2021/ https://www.jmi.org.uk/event/otazoyonline2021/ To name just a few.
- bradleyjg 6y ago
  I mean there are people out there that speak Esperanto fluently. It’s a question of how many. A few people’s (very cool) hobby isn’t the same as a living language. If you had to guess, what would you say the percentage of American Jews under the age of 45 who are not and never been haredi speak Yiddish fluently?
  - nanna 6y ago
    <0% ! It's obviously collapsed (khurbn, assimilation, Zionism ). That said, for those who are part of the secular yiddish 'revival' it doesn't matter if there isn't a huge speaker base. Its still an interesting and exciting environment to be part of, and a real counterpoint to the nationalist, orthodox and assimilationist alternative ways of being a Jew today.
compsciphd 6y ago
there's an american "yiddish" (yinglish one might say, or "yeshivish" in certain contexts, but I'm arguing for a more generalized version) that is common amongst american jews. a mixture of english, hebrew, yiddish, aramaic that is such a part of who they are, that they have to make a conscious effort to code switch when talking to non jews and when Israelis speak english, it just sounds foreign to them. (i.e. while american jews know what the "bible" is, that is not going to be a common term used in internal communication (feels "christian") and would probably say torah or tanach depending on the context. But when an Israeli speaks english, they generally just translate into english (or perhaps speak more standard english) to the point that it sounds foreign to the american born jews' ear.