Along with the problematic assumption that Hasidim have nothing to contribute to the continuing vibrancy of modern Yiddish culture, one problem with these tropes is that they obscure a much more interesting cultural phenomenon: the way that Yiddish serves as a conduit for creating an overlapping space between the margins of both the secular and religious communities, allowing for a creative dynamism between the two. Students of Yiddish know that the more you study the Yiddish language, the more you come to apprehend the immense breadth and depth of the Jewish experience—especially its religious aspects.
This dynamic relationship speaks to the poly-lingual, multi-cultural ferment that constitutes contemporary yidishkayt. Thus, the project of Yiddish culture has always been aspirational, relying on passionate convictions more than on steady funding and durable real estate.
This intensive, immersive Hebrew language course can be taken at Ben Gurion University of the Negev for a four or six week period in either the summer or winter. In addition to a curriculum of reading, writing, and conversation skills, Hebrew is taught through media, Israeli music, newspapers, movies, radio, and field trips. For an immersive Hebrew experience like no other, Home Ulpan provides you with the chance to really experience living in Israel and get Hebrew practice naturally, while becoming acquainted with Israeli culture.
Hebrew University is a great setting to study Hebrew abroad if you want to live in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. As an international school, you will take Hebrew classes with students from all over the world. In addition to modern Hebrew, Hebrew U offers the unique chance to study Biblical Hebrew as well, at both beginner and advanced levels. Kibbutz Ulpan is the right Hebrew language program for you if you are looking for the chance to study the language for a longer period of time.
Kibbutz Ulpan is a five-month multi-level language program which combines studying Hebrew with the unique experience of becoming part of a rural Israeli community, living and working alongside locals on a Kibbutz. The program also combines tourists who are in Israel on a temporary basis, with young new immigrants to Israel, as one group.
By failing to distinguish between Hebrew and Yiddish, an entire culture and memory of a people is silenced and left untold. Inadvertently merging the two languages into one encourages the misconception that Hebrew and Yiddish are the same language. This leads to a domination of one language, Hebrew, and a lack of awareness and appreciation for the Jewish life in places such as Poland, Romania, and Russia, and the traditions created by their culture.
Both languages are important to the history of the Jewish people, and both should be appreciated. I will admit that before I took Yiddish in college, I, too, had always thought that Yiddish was simply an equal combination of Hebrew and German, leaning towards the Hebrew side.
We need to work towards eliminating the unknown about these two languages. What better way to learn these languages, to truly develop an understanding of the differences between Yiddish and Hebrew, than by experiencing them in the places they were created and heavily spoken? Yiddish is not a version of Hebrew, and Hebrew is not a version of Yiddish — they both should exist as individual, valued languages.
Spending quality time abroad immersed in these languages is a great chance to grow an appreciation for what each language means. KAHAL aims to create meaningful Jewish experiences for study abroad students, allowing them to interact with local Jewish communities and deepen their Jewish identities. Wherever students travel, KAHAL arranges chances to attend Shabbat dinners, meet Jewish students, attend holiday meals, volunteer and advocate, and provides grant funding and travel assistance.
By using our site you agree to our use of cookies. Read our Cookie Policy for details. Choose Experience. Online Programs. Interested in Language Courses? Start Your Search. Back to top. Tags Culture Diversity. To the untrained eye, there may not appear to be any difference between Yiddish and Hebrew.
What is the difference between Yiddish and Hebrew? Michael Wex , the author of the surprise bestseller Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All Its Moods , thinks a younger generation of secular Jews is seeking a connection to a culture and time they feel removed from. Yiddish rises above denominations.
Wex agrees that Yiddish possesses a sense of retro cool that may save it yet. He points to pop culture and social media as keepers—and encouragers—of Yiddish, arguing that Yinglish is a good first step in provoking the curiosity of potential Yiddish speakers, whether they are Jewish or not.
In a Tablet article surveying the scholarly disagreement over the mysterious origins of the language earlier this year, Batya Ungar-Sargon writes that part of the inherent quirky appeal of Yiddish in linguistic pop culture is its ability to provoke modern sensibilities while also being traditional:.
Yiddish, it is an understatement to say, is not simply a language. It's a culture, an identity, a past both comic and tragic—one that continues to inspire feelings as diverse as shame and pride, loathing and longing, philo-Semitism, anti-Semitism, and accusations of both.
But what will ultimately save Yiddish from becoming a "dead" language is a renewed interest in the rich arts and culture of Yiddish. Shane Baker is a non-Jewish actor—an Episopalian, in fact, who grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and is normally the only non-Jew in the theater troupes he belongs to.
Baker also moonlights as the head of the Congress for Jewish Culture , which recently had to close its physical offices due to lack of funding.
He says the setback "doesn't mean that we're not going forward. In fact, Baker has found some of Yiddish theater's most enthusiastic audiences in Ireland, where he traveled the day he closed the Congress for Jewish Culture to perform Waiting for Godot at a Samuel Beckett festival.
There is interest. These Irish festivals are proving you don't have to be Jewish. Baker is passionate about Yiddish, despite his non-Jewish status. He feels like it is a language that literally and figuratively speaks across cultures. It's that "fight" to save Yiddish that continues today and one that faces an uncertain future, particularly among youth.
Jordan Kutzik is a year-old writer for The Yiddish Daily Forward , a newspaper founded in written exclusively for Yiddish readers. The newspaper has seen its audience decline significantly in recent years.
Kutzik is also the chairman of Yugntruf Youth for Yiddish , a youth group advocating the study of Yiddish. A lifelong atheist brought up in a secular family, Kutzik thinks Yiddish's problem lies in how it is taught, even within the Jewish community. Despite having been spoken by more Jews than any other language in history Yiddish isn't taught in a single non-Hasidic Jewish day-school as a mandatory subject and very few schools have it as a subject at all.
Another problem plaguing Yiddish is its lack of modernization.
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