I remember my parents speaking Yiddish,as a secret language so I didn’t know what they were speaking about, They always had to throw in an English word in and for the moment ,lost the secrecy of their conversation, I’m in my 60′s now. Yiddish a language rich in culture and literature, ” The Mamaloshen” a mother tongue that served the Jews of Eastern and central Europe well for nearly 1000 years put to death by a selfish self serving generation of Jewish Parents who were more interested in the preserving the privacy of their conversation than their Culture. They are not the only ones to shoulder the blame for destroying a culture. The modern state Israel shares some blame as well. When the Jews where coming in from Europe after world war two. soldiers harassed those openly speaking Yiddish and were reminded to speak Hebrew. The Government supplied paper for newspapers and wouldn’t supply paper for Yiddish Publications, Paper for Yiddish daily s had to be bought onBlack market and was whatever color that was available,it was not unusual to see news papers with red color paper for Yiddish publications.If Israel had made Yiddish the national language ,I can only imagine how many pre wwII immigrants to America would have packed up and left America for Israel in 1949. I ‘m upset when my Yiddish pronunciation is being corrected in shul, its not right .There is a Rabbi in the Fort Lauderdale Florida area, thats says in his advertisement”I use the old fashioned Ashkenazic Pronunciation and get you out in less than an hour so you can take your wife to the mall or kid to the little league”.I like that .
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