THE YIDDISH LANGUAGE: STUDENTS FROM CONGREGATION B'NAI ISRAEL'S HEBREW SCHOOL

For nearly a thousand years, Yiddish was the primary, sometimes the only language that was spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. Yiddish, at the height of its usage was spoken by millions of Jews of different nationalities all over the globe. While the mid-twentieth century marked the end of Yiddish as a widely spoken language and of the culture this language generated, some groups continue to use Yiddish as their primary language to this very day. In addition, the language is now fully acknowledged and widely studied in the non-Jewish and academic world.

Linguists have divided the development of Yiddish into four periods. Over a millennium, it went from a Germanic dialect to a full-fledged language that incorporated elements of Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic and Romance languages. Since no decisive dates are known, its history can be charted using the following years as turning points: 1250,1500 and 1750.

In the 13th century, Jews migrated eastward to escape persecution and so Yiddish arrived in eastern Germany, Poland, and other eastern European territories for the first time. The exposure of Yiddish to the Slavic language in the East changed it from a Germanic dialect to a language in its own right. Soon a division began to develop between the eastern Yiddish of the Jews living there and the western Yiddish of the Jews remaining in France and Germany.

By the 16th century, eastern Europe, especially Poland, had become the center of world Jewry. Thus, the language of the Jews increasingly incorporated elements of the Slavic and the differences between the two main dialects of Yiddish grew. It was also in the period that Yiddish became a written language in addition to a spoken one. Yiddish was and is written using Hebrew characters.

The central role Yiddish played in Jewish life and its eventual decline is, in part, due to important events and trends in Jewish history. For example, following the First Crusade in 1096 and the persecution of the Jews that it caused, Jews increasingly isolated themselves from non-Jewish society. The fact that the Jews had a language of their own that was not understood by outsiders made it easy to separate themselves. The common language allowed them to live in same areas, trade among themselves, and maintain vast international networks among the numerous Yiddish speaking Jewish communities in Europe. At the same time, the development of Yiddish itself was affected by this new self-segregation. Without interference from non-Jews, Yiddish moved in directions of its own while maintaining many elements of medieval German no longer found in the outside world.

The decline of Yiddish in western Europe was due to contemporary historical trends. The Haskalah, which began in the late 18th century and gathered steam throughout the 19th century, promoted secular education and following the culture of the outside society. As a result, German Jews began to enter secular schools where the language of instruction was German. They worked in professions that required a knowledge of secular language in order to communicate with non-Jews. They began to look down on Yiddish as a product of the unworldly Jewish shtetl which was to be scorned and discarded as soon as possible. This attitude also led to the resurgence of the Hebrew, which was seen as a purer language.

These attitudes of the western European Jews, who were desperate to be integrated into their surroundings, were influenced by the non-Jewish attitude toward Yiddish. Because the language was incomprehensible to non-Jews and because of the general hatred of Jews throughout Europe, Yiddish had long been regarded with suspicion. In the eyes of the masses, it had come to symbolize the "moral corruption" of the Jews.

Eager to escape this stereotype, the Jews were more than happy to give up the language. However, two factors ensured that Yiddish remained central to the Jewish communities in the East. First, the Maskilim there, knowing that they were dealing with a population that was by and large less educated and worldly than their Western counterparts, were more willing to maintain Yiddish and use it as a means of convincing the Jews that the other elements of the Haskalah should be adopted. Second, Yiddish culture was so rich in the East that the language had fewer detractors and was seen as being more central to Jewish identity than it was in the West.

Beginning in the 19th century, Yiddish became more than merely a language used in everyday speech and writing. Jewish creative energy which had no outlet in the surrounding society, found expression through literature.poetry, drama, music and religious and cultural scholarship. For the first time, Yiddish became a means of expressing and describing the vibrant internal life that had developed in the ghettos and shtetls of Eastern Europe. Yiddish was the language of choice for this fledgling culture.

Yiddish literature had existed to some extent for hundreds of years in the form of folk tales, legends and religious writings. The 19th century literature differed in that novels, poetry and short stories were now being written for the first time. A more important difference, however, was the self-consciousness of the new authors, who recognized from the outset that they were creating a brand new literary culture, not merely writing stories. For example, Russian born Sholem Jacob Abramowitz, popularly known as Mendele Mocher Seforim (Mendele, the book seller) is today considered the Father of Yiddish Literature. He wrote his stories, he said, in order to "have pity for Yiddish, that rejected daughter, for it was time to do something for our people."

Other important Yiddish authors of the 19th century included Sholem Aleichem (known as the Yiddish Mark Twain) and I.L.Peretz. Yiddish drama was another important new development in this era. Numerous drama troupes traveled throughout Russia and Poland, performing in big cities and tiny shtetls to great acclaim. Their performances ranged from popular plays translated into Yiddish to specifically Jewish plays performed only in Yiddish.

The Yiddish press was perhaps the most widespread example of the language's prominence in this period. Yiddish periodicals ranged from the daily newspaper, The Forward , which is still published, to various scholarly journals dealing with political, religious and social issues. More so than literature or drama, Yiddish journalism spread to locations outside of Eastern Europe, where the majority of Yiddish speakers lived.

Prior to the Second World War, about 12 million of the world's 16 to 17 million Jews spoke Yiddish. The Holocaust, which destroyed half of the world's Yiddish speaking population, followed by Israel's adoption of Hebrew, reduced the language to less than a million speakers today. The six million European Jews who died in the Holocaust comprised the majority of the world's Yiddish speakers. Thus, in a period of six years, between 1939 and 1945, Yiddish was dealt a near mortal blow. The majority of those Jews who escaped Europe and made it to Israel or the United States soon learned the local language and made Yiddish their secondary tongue, at best. The large number of Yiddish speaking Jews who remained in the Soviet Union found Yiddish outlawed by Stalin during and after the Holocaust. The post Holocaust generations were being taught the local languages, not Yiddish. It was predicted that Yiddish would quickly become a dead tongue.

Despite these obstacles, Yiddish is today enjoying a resurgence. Several populations use it as their main language. These include the generation that lived during and immediately after the Holocaust and the ultra Orthodox populations living in New York and parts of Israel. In addition, Yiddish is today receiving recognition from the non-Jewish academic community. Many universities, worldwide, offer courses and even degree programs in Yiddish.

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, founded in 1925 in Poland, and the acknowledge authority on the Yiddish language is still continuing its fine work and offers Yiddish courses to hundreds of students. A branch is located in New York City where its excellent work continues.