Anti-Yiddish sentiment#Israel
{{Short description|Discussion of the dislike of the Yiddish language}}
Anti-Yiddish sentiment is a negative attitude towards Yiddish. Opposition to Yiddish may be motivated by antisemitism. Jewish opposition to Yiddish has often come from advocates of the Haskalah, Hebraists, Zionists, and assimilationists.
Types of anti-Yiddishism
=Christian humanism=
Some of the earliest criticism of the Yiddish language dates to the early modern period. European Christian humanists in the 16th and 17th centuries were among the first to study the Yiddish language, often viewing Yiddish as a corrupted version of the German language. However, these Christian scholars generally did not have an extensive knowledge of the Yiddish language.Shandler, Jeffrey, 'Health', Yiddish: Biography of a Language (2020; online edn, Oxford Academic, 19 Nov. 2020), https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190651961.003.0008, accessed 13 May 2023.{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/yiddish-literature |title=Yiddish Literature |publisher=Jewish Virtual Library |accessdate=2023-05-13}}
=Haskalah=
{{See also|Daytshmerish}}
Advocates of the Haskalah (known as Maskilim, or Jewish Enlightenment) who favored the revival of Hebrew over the Yiddish language often held negative attitudes towards Yiddish. Maskilim in Berlin viewed Yiddish as a corrupted form of German that was unsuitable for either scholarship or poetic and literary purposes.{{cite web|url=https://ingeveb.org/articles/review-of-german-as-a-jewish-problem |title=The Place of German in the History of Jewish Nationalism: Review of German as a Jewish Problem by Marc Volovici |publisher=In geveb |accessdate=2023-05-13}}
According to the Yiddish scholar Dovid Katz, "prejudices and misconceptions" concerning Yiddish were promulgated by both antisemites and well-meaning Jewish assimilationists during the 19th century, who both regarded Yiddish as a degenerated form of German. According to Katz, critics of Yiddish often highlighted the German, Slavic, and Hebrew syncretism of Yiddish to allege that the language was impure and corrupted.{{cite web|url=https://www.dovidkatz.net/dovid/PDFLinguistics/1980-Ber%20Borokhov.pdf |title=Ber Borokhov, Pioneer of Yiddish Linguistics |publisher=Dovid Katz |accessdate=2023-05-13}}
=Zionism=
Anti-Yiddish sentiment was common within the Zionist movement in Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine. Because of Eastern European Jewish immigration, Israel had a sizeable population of Yiddish speakers. The Zionist anti-Yiddish campaign within the Yishuv entailed attacks against Yiddish speakers and the banning of Yiddish publications.{{Cite journal|last=Brumberg|first=Abraham|date=1999|title=Anniversaries in Conflict: On the Centenary of the Jewish Socialist Labor Bund|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jss.1999.0002|journal=Jewish Social Studies|volume=5|issue=3|pages=196–217|doi=10.1353/jss.1999.0002|s2cid=143856851|issn=1527-2028}} In 1930, Zionists affiliated with the Army for the Defense of the Hebrew Language stormed a cinema in Tel Aviv and disrupted a screening of Mayn Yidishe Mame (“My Jewish Mother”), an early example of Yiddish "talkie" cinema.{{cite web|url=https://www.jta.org/jewniverse/2014/the-anti-yiddish-riots-in-palestinian-tel-aviv |title=The Anti-Yiddish Riots in Israel Tel Aviv |publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |accessdate=2023-05-13}} The Jewish Labor Bund denounced the Zionist movement's anti-Yiddish campaign in Israel.{{cite web|url=http://www.aapjstudies.org/index.php?id=111 |title=On Reading the Bundist Press |publisher=The American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies |accessdate=2023-05-13}}
==Israel==
Anti-Yiddishism was once official Israeli government policy and cultural sentiment within Israeli culture discouraged the use of Yiddish. However, since the 1980s there has been a revival of Yiddish in Israel.{{cite web|url=https://yiddish-rashutleumit.co.il/he/%D7%A2%D7%9C-%D7%90%D7%95%D7%93%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%97%D7%95%D7%A7-%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA|title=חוק הרשות|date=1996|publisher=The National Authority for Yiddish Culture|access-date=July 11, 2020}}{{cite web|url=https://apnews.com/article/9d46cc421298178d834b94bc067c1821 |title=Long Suppressed, Yiddish is Making a Comeback in Israel |publisher=AP News |accessdate=2023-05-13}}
Opposition to anti-Yiddishism
According to the Yiddish linguist Nochum Shtif, the Yiddishist movement came into being as a backlash to anti-Yiddish sentiment. Shtif identified anti-Yiddishism as coming from Hebraists and Jewish assimilationists, noting that Russian Maskilim during the era of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia were some of the earliest Jewish opponents of Yiddish.{{cite web|url=https://ingeveb.org/texts-and-translations/yiddish-and-the-jews |title=Essays on Yiddishism |publisher=In geveb |accessdate=2023-05-13}}
Some Ashkenazi anti-Zionists and non-Zionists have championed the Yiddish language for religious or political reasons, in opposition to Zionist movement's support of Hebrew in Israel. Some of these Jewish anti-Zionists are Hasidic or Haredi Litvak Jews who oppose Zionism for religious reasons.{{cite journal|url=https://brill.com/view/journals/jjl/10/2/article-p169_3.xml |title=The Politics of Language Choice in Haredi Communities in Israel |date=2022 |publisher=Brill Publishers |doi=10.1163/22134638-bja10026 |accessdate=2023-05-13 |last1=Munro |first1=Heather L. |journal=Journal of Jewish Languages |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=169–199 |s2cid=252733037 |doi-access=free }}
During the late 2010s and early 2020s, young Jewish leftists in Melbourne, Australia, began to champion the Yiddish language as an alternative to Hebrew and Zionism. Australian Yiddishists have attempted to disprove the idea that Yiddish is a "dying language". These Jewish leftists were inspired by the working-class, socialist history of Yiddish speakers in Australia. Many young Yiddishists in Australia also identify as LGBTQ.{{cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/australias-young-jews-explain-why-yiddish-is-the-language-of-protest/ |title=Australia's Young Jews Explain Why Yiddish Is the Language of Protest |date=20 August 2019 |publisher=Vice Magazine |access-date=2023-05-13}}{{cite web|url=https://www.australianjewishnews.com/young-yearn-for-yiddish/ |title=Young yearn for Yiddish |publisher=Australian Jewish News |accessdate=2023-05-13}}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQHoAeTl6BA Encounters with Anti-Yiddish Attitudes in Early State of Israel], Yiddish Book Center
- [https://jewishcurrents.org/the-return-of-the-repressed-yiddish-in-israel The Return of the Repressed: Yiddish in Israel], Jewish Currents
Category:Ashkenazi Jewish culture
Category:Discrimination in Israel
Category:Jews and Judaism in Israel