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How Yiddish became a ‘foreign language’ in Israel

JL;DR SUMMARY The struggle between Yiddish and Hebrew in Israel reflects the complex dynamics of language politics in Zionist history. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

YiddishZionismDavid Ben GurionCultural AssimilationJewish ImmigrationHebrewYivo InstituteDiaspora IdentityLanguage Politics

Places mentioned

Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv District, Israel
"Vilna Ghetto fighter Rozka Korczak-Marla comes to Tel Aviv, addressing the assembled in Yiddish."
Jerusalem, Israel
"Sephardic, Ashkenazi, and Mizrahi men in Jerusalem, c. 1900."
Petah Tikva, Central District, Israel
"and the settlement of Petah Tikva in the mid-to-late-19th century."
Gaza, Palestinian Territories
"They ended up speaking Yiddish to the Israeli soldiers, many of whom still knew the language, when they entered Gaza after the victorious 1967 War."
New York City, New York, United States
"The exhibit Palestinian Yiddish: A Look at Yiddish in the Land of Israel Before 1948, curated by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City."
Cairo, Egypt
"It was one of several such letters found in the collection of Jewish manuscripts called the Cairo Geniza."

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Cairo Item ID 47140
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2025-03-21 05:31:17 UTC
Curated 2025-03-21 08:31:07 UTC